Human Response to Late Holocene Climate Change at the Patrick Site (40MR40) in East Tennessee

Current archaeological research links Late Holocene climate variability to patterns of dispersal and reorganization during the Archaic-Woodland transition in the Southeast (3200-2400 cal BP). This study uses geomorphic and archaeological proxy data from curated soil monoliths collected at the Patrick site (40MR40), located in Monroe County along the Little Tennessee River in Tennessee, to the assess the impact of Late Holocene climate change on the Late Archaic and Early Woodland groups that utilized the river valley. The results of these analyses indicate that the progressive downcutting of the river, apparent in sediments dating between 5700-3600 cal BP, had an ameliorating effect on the floodplain landscape that preceded the intensified use of first river terrace during the Terminal Late Archaic Iddins phase and Early Woodland Watts Bar phase.Decreases in coarse grain sediments associated with high-energy flooding and subsequent increases in cumulic soil formation at the Patrick site demonstrate that the floodplain environment had begun to stabilized during the Late Archaic period at approximately 3600 cal BP. This pattern is followed by dense midden accumulation, increases in the occurrence of cultivated plant foods, and a precipitous increase in pottery associated with Early Woodland Watts Bar and Patrick phase occupations at the site; suggesting that local populations took advantage the increasingly inhabitable floodplain environment. This study posits that the relatively cooler and wetter climate conditions of the Late Holocene Subboreal climate period (5000-2400 cal BP) may not have had a disruptive effect on prehistoric populations in the lower Little Tennessee River valley, contrasting what has been observed elsewhere in the Southeast during the Archaic-Woodland transition.