The Potential for Intact Paleoindian Deposits in the Middle Tennessee Valley: A Review of the Literature with Recent Data from Redstone Arsenal

Abstract

ABSTRACT While renowned for its dense concentration of Paleoindian sites, the Middle Tennessee Valley has largely been disregarded as being too deflated to contain significant intact deposits. Recent geomorphological data from northern Alabama are helping to winnow down the depositional haystack to zero-in on portions of landforms that are most likely to harbor intact strata from the end of the Pleistocene. A new look at old landforms suggests that the karst landscape of the Middle Tennessee Valley may yet hold some surprises, and that intact early cultural deposits can show up in some unexpected places, including heavily cultivated uplands.