This book is an updated edition of Jefferson Chapman's 1985 account of one of the most productive and significant research efforts in the eastern United States. For fourteen years (1967-1981), archaeologists from the University of Tennessee conducted excavations and surveys in the Little Tennessee River Valley, which was being inundated by the TVA's creation of the Tellico Reservoir. The project produced a wealth of new information about more than 12,000 years of Native American history in the region.
This revision retains the full text and illustrations of the original edition, with its compelling descriptions of ancient ways of life and the archaeological detective work that was done to obtain that knowledge. The new material, contained in a postscript, summarizes the discoveries, research methods, and other developments that have, over the past ten years, further enhanced our knowledge of the Native Americans who occupied the area. Included, for example, are details about some fascinating new techniques for dating human remains, as well as discussions of burial practices, native crops, new archaeological laws, and the "Bat Creek Stone," a controversial artifact that, according to some claims, gives evidence of migrations of Mediterranean peoples to the New World during Roman times.
Jefferson Chapman is director of the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a research associate professor in the department of anthropology.