Eva (archaeological site)
Encyclopedia
The Eva site is a prehistoric Native American
site in Benton County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States
. Located along an ancient channel of the Tennessee River
, the Eva site saw extensive periods of occupation during the Middle and Late Archaic period (c. 6000-1000 BC). The site's well-defined midden layers helped investigators identify three distinct Archaic cultures, the oldest of which was first identified at Eva and is still known as the "Eva culture" or the "Eva phase."
The Eva site is now submerged by Kentucky Lake
, an artificial reservoir created by the impoundment of the Tennessee River by Kentucky Dam
. In 1940, before the Tennessee River
was dam
med to form Kentucky Lake, University of Tennessee
archaeologists conducted excavations at the Eva site and managed to extract a relatively large amount of data. The data and artifacts were analyzed by University of Tennessee anthropologists Thomas Lewis and Madeline Kneburg Lewis, who presented their findings in a 1961 publication entitled Eva, an Archaic Site.
The Tennessee River enters the Benton County area from the south and proceeds northward for nearly 100 miles (160.9 km) before emptying into the Ohio River
. Kentucky Dam, located nearly 80 miles (128.7 km) downstream from the Eva site, was completed in 1944 and created a lake that spans most of the state from north-to-south. Hills that comprise the western fringe of the Highland Rim
rise as high as 300 feet (91.4 m) above the river to the east and west. The Eva site is named for the community of Eva
, which is centered approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) to the southwest.
Before inundation by Kentucky Lake, the Eva site was located on a flood plain that stretched for nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) between the river bank and the hills to the west. This floodplain was characterized by a series of swells (natural levees created by river deposits) and swales
(ancient river channels and tributary channels). The Eva site was situated on a high swell between a swale known as Three Mile Slough to the east and a swale known as the Cypress Creek Slough to the west. In Archaic times, the Tennessee River proper flowed through Three Mile Slough (roughly a mile west of its modern pre-inundation channel). As Three Mile Slough joins Cypress Creek immediately north of the Eva site, it's likely the site was situated at the ancient confluence of Cypress Creek and the Tennessee River.
Kentucky Lake is managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority
. Much of the current lakeshore above the Eva site is part of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park
. The submerged Eva site is visible from atop Pilot Knob to the north and from the Eva Beach boat ramp to the south. In 1993, the Benton County Genealogical Society erected a small monument at Eva Beach recalling the Eva site's Archaic-era importance.
The University of Tennessee and the Works Progress Administration
conducted excavations at the Eva site from September 11, 1940 through November 23, 1940. Excavators identified six soil layers, the uppermost being the plowzone and the others labeled Strata I-V, with Stratum V being the deepest. The plowzone and Stratum I contained artifacts that were predominantly associated with a Late Archaic people known as the Big Sandy culture, who occupied the Eva site roughly 2000-1000 BC (and possibly as late as 500 BC). Stratum II contained artifacts associated with a Middle Archaic people known as the Three Mile culture, who occupied Eva around 4000-2000 BC. Stratum III contained only scant cultural material, indicating that the Eva site was unoccupied for a period around 4000 BC. Stratum IV and Stratum V contained material associated with a culture first identified at Eva and thus referred to as the Eva culture. The Eva culture was operating at the Eva site by 5200 BC and probably occupied the site as early as 6000 BC.
Flint
and chert
artifacts uncovered at Eva included projectile point
s, blades, and butchering tools. Stone artifacts included atlatl
weights, gorget
s, and pestles. Bone artifacts included awls, needles, fishhooks, and a necklace composed of snake vertebrae. Antler artifacts included scrapers, projectile points, and atlatl hooks.
180 human burials were uncovered at the Eva site. These burials included 29 infants, 11 children, 7 juveniles, and 133 adults. Most of the adults were younger than 45 years old, although a few lived well into their 70s. Pathological analyses conducted on the site's human remains indicates that Eva's Archaic inhabitants were healthy compared to the region's later cultures. Along with the human burials, 18 dog burials were uncovered at the Eva site.
s and other Paleo-Indian artifacts have been found along the Tennessee River in Benton County, major occupation of the site didn't begin until around 6000 BC during the Middle Archaic period. Substantial occupation continued at Eva until at least 1000 BC and possibly as late as 500 BC. While pottery sherds dating to the Woodland period
and Mississippian period
were uncovered at Eva, they were relatively scant. The Eva site was uninhabited when Euro-American explorers and settlers arrived in the late 18th century, although the junction of two major Native American trails ("traces") occurred just south of the site.
Cultural materials and features uncovered from Stratum IV and Stratum V (which correlate to the Eva culture) include mussel shells, fire-cracked rocks, flint chips, antler tools, projectile points, and animal bones (mostly deer). Using radiocarbon testing
, an antler section uncovered from Stratum IV was dated to roughly 5200 BC. A pile of chert projectile point blanks and the relatively large number of tools might indicate the location of a workshop.
Very little cultural material was uncovered from Stratum III, indicating a significant gap between the Eva occupation and the Three Mile occupation. Materials and features uncovered in Stratum II (which correlates to the site's Three Mile phase) include fire-cracked rocks, mussel shells and a curious mussel shell arrangement, ash content, and animal bones. While deer bones still comprised the majority of the animal bones, the percentage was significantly lower than that of the Eva phase, indicating a greater reliance upon fish and bird meat.
Cultural materials uncovered from Stratum I and the plowzone (which correlate to the site's Big Sandy phase) include burned clay, a hearth, a mortar, hammerstone
s, and bone needles. Deer still comprised the greatest percentage of animal bones, but, as with the site's Three Mile phase, birds and fish were providing major supplements. Unlike previous phases, however, very few mussel shells were uncovered in Stratum I. Lewis and Lewis hypothesized that the lack of mussel shells indicates higher river levels in the Late Archaic period.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
site in Benton County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Located along an ancient channel of the Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
, the Eva site saw extensive periods of occupation during the Middle and Late Archaic period (c. 6000-1000 BC). The site's well-defined midden layers helped investigators identify three distinct Archaic cultures, the oldest of which was first identified at Eva and is still known as the "Eva culture" or the "Eva phase."
The Eva site is now submerged by Kentucky Lake
Kentucky Lake
Kentucky Lake is a major navigable reservoir along the Tennessee River in Kentucky and Tennessee. Created in 1944 by the Tennessee Valley Authority's impounding of the Tennessee River by Kentucky Dam, the lake is the largest artificial lake by surface area in the United States east of the...
, an artificial reservoir created by the impoundment of the Tennessee River by Kentucky Dam
Kentucky Dam
Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston County and Marshall County in the U.S. state of Kentucky...
. In 1940, before the Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
was dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
med to form Kentucky Lake, University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
archaeologists conducted excavations at the Eva site and managed to extract a relatively large amount of data. The data and artifacts were analyzed by University of Tennessee anthropologists Thomas Lewis and Madeline Kneburg Lewis, who presented their findings in a 1961 publication entitled Eva, an Archaic Site.
Geographical setting
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. Kentucky Dam, located nearly 80 miles (128.7 km) downstream from the Eva site, was completed in 1944 and created a lake that spans most of the state from north-to-south. Hills that comprise the western fringe of the Highland Rim
Highland Rim
The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee surrounding the Central Basin. Nashville is largely surrounded by higher terrain in all directions....
rise as high as 300 feet (91.4 m) above the river to the east and west. The Eva site is named for the community of Eva
Eva, Tennessee
Eva is an unincorporated community in Benton County, Tennessee, United States, on the western shore of the Kentucky Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River. It is the site of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park. Although not a census-designated place, the ZIP Code Tabulation Area for the ZIP code ...
, which is centered approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) to the southwest.
Before inundation by Kentucky Lake, the Eva site was located on a flood plain that stretched for nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) between the river bank and the hills to the west. This floodplain was characterized by a series of swells (natural levees created by river deposits) and swales
Swale (geographical feature)
A swale is a low tract of land, especially one that is moist or marshy. The term can refer to a natural landscape feature or a human-created one...
(ancient river channels and tributary channels). The Eva site was situated on a high swell between a swale known as Three Mile Slough to the east and a swale known as the Cypress Creek Slough to the west. In Archaic times, the Tennessee River proper flowed through Three Mile Slough (roughly a mile west of its modern pre-inundation channel). As Three Mile Slough joins Cypress Creek immediately north of the Eva site, it's likely the site was situated at the ancient confluence of Cypress Creek and the Tennessee River.
Kentucky Lake is managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
. Much of the current lakeshore above the Eva site is part of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park
Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park
Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park is a state park in Benton County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park is situated on the western shore of the Kentucky Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River, just north of the community of Eva...
. The submerged Eva site is visible from atop Pilot Knob to the north and from the Eva Beach boat ramp to the south. In 1993, the Benton County Genealogical Society erected a small monument at Eva Beach recalling the Eva site's Archaic-era importance.
Archaeological findings
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
conducted excavations at the Eva site from September 11, 1940 through November 23, 1940. Excavators identified six soil layers, the uppermost being the plowzone and the others labeled Strata I-V, with Stratum V being the deepest. The plowzone and Stratum I contained artifacts that were predominantly associated with a Late Archaic people known as the Big Sandy culture, who occupied the Eva site roughly 2000-1000 BC (and possibly as late as 500 BC). Stratum II contained artifacts associated with a Middle Archaic people known as the Three Mile culture, who occupied Eva around 4000-2000 BC. Stratum III contained only scant cultural material, indicating that the Eva site was unoccupied for a period around 4000 BC. Stratum IV and Stratum V contained material associated with a culture first identified at Eva and thus referred to as the Eva culture. The Eva culture was operating at the Eva site by 5200 BC and probably occupied the site as early as 6000 BC.
Flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
and chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
artifacts uncovered at Eva included projectile point
Projectile point
In archaeological terms, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a projectile, such as a spear, dart, or arrow, or perhaps used as a knife....
s, blades, and butchering tools. Stone artifacts included atlatl
Atlatl
An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing.It consists of a shaft with a cup or a spur at the end that supports and propels the butt of the dart. The atlatl is held in one hand, gripped near the end farthest from the cup...
weights, gorget
Gorget
A gorget originally was a steel or leather collar designed to protect the throat. It was a feature of older types of armour and intended to protect against swords and other non-projectile weapons...
s, and pestles. Bone artifacts included awls, needles, fishhooks, and a necklace composed of snake vertebrae. Antler artifacts included scrapers, projectile points, and atlatl hooks.
180 human burials were uncovered at the Eva site. These burials included 29 infants, 11 children, 7 juveniles, and 133 adults. Most of the adults were younger than 45 years old, although a few lived well into their 70s. Pathological analyses conducted on the site's human remains indicates that Eva's Archaic inhabitants were healthy compared to the region's later cultures. Along with the human burials, 18 dog burials were uncovered at the Eva site.
The Eva site's inhabitants
While Clovis pointClovis point
Clovis points are the characteristically-fluted projectile points associated with the North American Clovis culture. They date to the Paleoindian period around 13,500 years ago. Clovis fluted points are named after the city of Clovis, New Mexico, where examples were first found in 1929.At the right...
s and other Paleo-Indian artifacts have been found along the Tennessee River in Benton County, major occupation of the site didn't begin until around 6000 BC during the Middle Archaic period. Substantial occupation continued at Eva until at least 1000 BC and possibly as late as 500 BC. While pottery sherds dating to the Woodland period
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
and Mississippian period
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
were uncovered at Eva, they were relatively scant. The Eva site was uninhabited when Euro-American explorers and settlers arrived in the late 18th century, although the junction of two major Native American trails ("traces") occurred just south of the site.
Cultural materials and features uncovered from Stratum IV and Stratum V (which correlate to the Eva culture) include mussel shells, fire-cracked rocks, flint chips, antler tools, projectile points, and animal bones (mostly deer). Using radiocarbon testing
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
, an antler section uncovered from Stratum IV was dated to roughly 5200 BC. A pile of chert projectile point blanks and the relatively large number of tools might indicate the location of a workshop.
Very little cultural material was uncovered from Stratum III, indicating a significant gap between the Eva occupation and the Three Mile occupation. Materials and features uncovered in Stratum II (which correlates to the site's Three Mile phase) include fire-cracked rocks, mussel shells and a curious mussel shell arrangement, ash content, and animal bones. While deer bones still comprised the majority of the animal bones, the percentage was significantly lower than that of the Eva phase, indicating a greater reliance upon fish and bird meat.
Cultural materials uncovered from Stratum I and the plowzone (which correlate to the site's Big Sandy phase) include burned clay, a hearth, a mortar, hammerstone
Hammerstone
In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the world including Europe, India and North America...
s, and bone needles. Deer still comprised the greatest percentage of animal bones, but, as with the site's Three Mile phase, birds and fish were providing major supplements. Unlike previous phases, however, very few mussel shells were uncovered in Stratum I. Lewis and Lewis hypothesized that the lack of mussel shells indicates higher river levels in the Late Archaic period.
External links
- Eva image archive — Tennessee Valley Authority and Works Progress Administration collections