White-Tailed Deer Crown Height Measurements and Mortality Profiles from the Hayes Site, Middle Tennessee

Previous research at the Hays Site (40ML139) prompted an investigation of white-tailed deer remains from the site. An evaluation of aging techniques revealed that the dental crown height measurement technique is the best method for aging white-tailed deer. A regression formula was developed with a known-age sample of Mississippi white-tailed deer. An investigation of mortality profile interpretations defines attritional, living structure, and prime-dominated mortality profiles. The mortality profile interpretations are used to define seasonality and hunting intensity for the white-tailed deer from the Hayes site. A modified iterated age length key is used to derive mortality profiles. Results for hunting intensity indicate the mortality profiles consisted primarily of sub-adults, with no differences between early Middle, late Middle and Late Archaic period occupations. Results for seasonality indicated sub-adult deer were killed primarily in the Fall and Winter for the late Middle and Late Archaic, and in the Fall for the early Middle Archaic period. These results suggest seasonal culling of deer, with special selection of sub-adult white-tailed deer, was the hunting adaptation utilized at the Hayes site.