This book honors the career of Jefferson “Jeff” Chapman, a key figure in the archaeology of Tennessee and the southeastern United States for more than 50 years. Chapman was an archaeologist and principal investigator for the Tellico Project, conducted under the auspices of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) in the 1970s and early 1980s, and he was director of UTK’s Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture from 1990 until his retirement in 2019. During those years he also taught and mentored numerous graduate students, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in academia and CRM.
The chapters here were compiled and edited by Thomas R. Whyte and the late C. Clifford Boyd Jr., veterans of the Tellico Project and former students of Chapman. The book begins with a review of Chapman’s career by Whyte and Boyd, reflecting on his work in archaeology and museums. It is followed by an overview of the book’s contents by Gerald F. Schroedl, who worked closely with Chapman at Tellico and UTK.
Chapman’s early 1970s excavations of buried Early and Middle Archaic period components at Icehouse Bottom, Rose Island, and other sites along the Little Tennessee River changed the course of Archaic period research in the Southeast; four chapters focus on this period (8000–3000 BC). Andrew Bradbury and Philip J. Carr revisit Early Archaic (Dalton) artifacts excavated from the St. Albans site in West Virginia in the 1960s, applying statistical methods to identify the diversity of tool kits. Alexander Craib analyzes lithic assemblages from McClung Museum collections to reconstruct patterns of stone procurement and “settling-in” in Tennessee and Kentucky. D. Shane Miller, Stephen B. Carmody, and Katherine M. Barry consider Kirk stemmed projectile points recovered by Chapman and others in 1962 to reflect on how knowledge of Archaic period lifeways has developed over the past 60 years. Thaddeus Bissett revisits collections and records from the 1940 excavations by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) at the Big Sandy site in Kentucky, presents newly acquired radiocarbon dates on samples from the site, and argues that the site was a persistent place occupied in at least three distinct stages during the Middle Archaic period.
Other chapters focus on the Late Archaic and Woodland periods, the latter dating roughly from 1000 BC to AD 1000. Whyte considers ideas about stone tool recycling, its effects on the range of tool types found in assemblages, and its relationship to settlement patterns and exchange; he argues that recycling was especially common during the Woodland period in western North Carolina, resulting in the underrepresentation of earlier artifacts and providing misleading indications of the extent of access to high-quality lithic raw material sources during some periods. Larry Kimball, Alice P. Wright, Timothy J. Horsley, Gary D. Crites, John Wolf, Andrew P. Bradbury, Cala Castleberry, and M. Scott Shumate provide a welcome overview of geophysical survey and excavation data from the Biltmore Mound and Village site, a Middle Woodland site and persistent place near Asheville, North Carolina, with Hopewell associations. Kandace R. Hollenbach considers evidence of native cultigens, arguing that the transition to farming in eastern Tennessee took place at about 2800 BC and was accompanied by changes in social dynamics and in relationships between people and the landscape.
Several chapters focus on the archaeology of Indigenous groups during episodes of European contact and colonialism. Cliff and Donna Boyd discuss effects of indirect contact with Europeans on Indigenous groups of southwestern Virginia beginning in the seventeenth century: they emphasize both continuity and strategic adaptation to conditions in the postcontact world. Gabrielle Purcell considers documentary sources and scanning electron microscopy of plant remains in museum collections from Cherokee sites in eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia to illustrate the role of sweet potatoes in Cherokee cuisines of the late 1700s and early 1800s. Brett H. Riggs revisits the Bell Rattle Cabin site, dating to the decades before Cherokee Removal in the 1830s; he reconsiders his earlier argument that Cherokee adoption of European goods led to the replacement of Cherokee values and argues instead that adoption of new goods and new foods did not necessitate changes in Cherokee social dynamics and identity. Lance K. Greene argues that zooarchaeological data from four pre- and post-Removal Cherokee sites in western North Carolina indicate that hunting practices changed alongside the upheavals of Removal.
Two chapters focus on museums and the significance of the McClung Museum in particular. Maria Ostendorf Smith and Tracy K. Betsinger discuss human remains formerly or presently housed at the McClung, most of which derive from TVA excavations from the 1930s through the 1970s. They discuss changes in the curation and treatment of those individuals, the contributions of dozens of theses and dissertations focused on data from these collections, the potential for further research, and current considerations related to NAGPRA and consultations with Tribal nations. Lynne P. Sullivan reviews knowledge about Mississippian societies in eastern Tennessee generated by investigations from the 1880s through the early 2020s; she emphasizes the roles of Chapman and the McClung and the importance of museum collections for archaeological research. Sullivan also refers to the McClung’s long-standing interactions with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), particularly EBCI’s involvement in reinterments of some skeletal material at the end of the Tellico Project, as well as in the design and installation of the McClung’s former “Native Peoples and Archaeology” exhibit, which has been removed in association with administrative changes at UTK in recent years.
This book stands as a strong tribute to the career of Jeff Chapman and the research he conducted and fostered in southern Appalachian archaeology. More than 40 years after the Tellico Project officially ended, work by Chapman, other project alumni, and their scholarly descendants continues to provide new insights into regional archaeology. To one who has worked primarily in western North Carolina, less than 100 miles but sometimes a world away from Knoxville and UTK, Archaeology of the Southern Appalachians and Adjacent Watersheds provides an impressive reminder of the high-quality research conducted there, as well as the interconnectedness among these and other regions.
In conclusion, the relationships between archaeological institutions and Native American tribes have changed dramatically in recent years, especially in relation to the excavation and treatment of human remains and funerary objects, as well as the exhibition of cultural items from museum collections. Many practices that once seemed standard have been changed or are changing. Yet, museum collections deserve careful consideration, in collaboration with descendant communities and other stakeholders. The careers and contributions of Jeff Chapman and the chapter authors give us examples of how archaeology and museums have flourished in the past and can do so in the future.
