RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE FLUVIAL GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE UPPER TENNESSEE RIVER VALLEY: IMPLICATIONS FOR BURIAL AND DISTRIBUTION OF ARCHAEOLOGY SITES

Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial landforms are reconstructed with data from five archaeology sites. A high sediment load and low discharge deposited alluvial fans along tributary streams and filled the valley with alluvium during the Last Glacial Maximum. The T2 terrace has a ridge and swale topography formed through lateral accretion of ridges during subsequent glacial periods. The sedimentation rate on the youngest ridge was 22 cm/ka between ~16 and 19 kaBP. This terrace was abandoned ~12 kaBP when the river incised into its present channel.

Buried A-horizons in the T1 terrace represent distinct periods of landscape stability between episodes of vertical accretion. The lower paleosol formed between 10 and 7 kaBP on an early Holocene surface. Sedimentation rates on the T1 terrace averaged 33-36cm/ka after ~7.5 kaBP. The upper paleosol is a thick cumulative A-horizon over a cambic horizon formed during the mid to Late Holocene.

Application of this landscape model can be used predict the distribution of archaeology sites within the upper Tennessee River basin. Sedimentation on the youngest ridge of the T2 terrace could have buried cultural horizons older than ~12 kaBP. Younger sites occur on the T2 terrace surface. Early Archaic sites (Kirk) are buried in a paleosol deep in the T1 terrace. Middle Archaic sites occur in the cambic horizon of the upper paleosol. Late Archaic and Woodland occupations can be recorded in stratigraphic context in the thick A-horizon of the upper paleosol.