Organization of Technology and Lithic Analysis: Prehistoric Occupation of the Hayes Site (40ML139)

The Hayes Site (40ML139) is located in the central Duck River Basin of Middle Tennessee. Excavations at the site revealed Middle Archaic, late Middle Archaic, and Late Archaic components. An examination of the lithic assemblage from the Hayes Site aids in assessing and building models of hunter-gatherer organization for the central Duck River Basin. An organizational perspective on technology, results from published flintknapping experiments, and a lithic resource survey provide the means of constructing and employing an interpretive framework for understanding prehistoric occupation of the Hayes Site. It was found that materials from the Middle Archaic components represent forager residences and the Late Archaic component represents both forager and collector residences. These findings support the model of hunter-gatherer organization formulated by Amick (1984) for the central Duck River Basin.