Dalton Mobility in the Tennessee River Valley: An Assessment of Raw Material Use and Tool Curation

Previous research in the Southeast has demonstrated that Dalton groups underwent a process of settling in to the landscape. This has been demonstrated through the identification of raw materials used for the production of Dalton hafted bifaces. A preference for locally available raw materials has been noted in previous studies, a departure from Clovis groups who routinely made use of non-local cherts. This trend has been well established outside of the Tennessee River Valley; however, little research has been done concerning the settling in of Dalton groups in this region. In order to test the hypothesis that Dalton groups in the Lower and Central Tennessee River Valley were also settling in, 187 Dalton points were analyzed for raw material type and amount of curation. All analyzed samples were originally collected by avocational archaeologists and subsequently donated to the McClung Museum of Natural and Cultural History. The collections used (Ernest J. Sims, Smeltzer, Cambron/Hulse) all possess exceptional spatial data with site-specific locational information. Results of this study are consistent with the trends previously identified, demonstrating that Dalton groups in the Lower and Central Tennessee River Valley were settling in.