60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
Expedition which had been started in 1956 at Russell Cave in Ala- 
bama. This third season of work continued through September 29 
and brought to completion the investigations at that site. Russell 
Cave has contributed extensive information pertaining to Indian 
peoples who inhabited that area over a considerable period of time. 
Several cultural horizons are represented, the earliest of which is 
some 9,020-+350 years old on the basis of carbon-14 dating of charcoal 
from a hearth at that level. The first peoples apparently had a com- 
pletely hunting-fishing economy and from that progressed through 
what is called the Archaic period to a more sedentary mode of life 
and became makers of pottery. The latter handicraft appeared at 
about 3500 B.C. The culture subsequently developed into what is 
known as the Early Woodland and continued through stages known 
as Middle and Late Woodland. It was during these three stages that 
agriculture became a part of their economy. The latest occupation 
seems to have been by Chickamauga Cherokee Indians in the early 
1600’s. During the 1958 season Mr. Miller reached the original and 
lowest floor in the cave, some 43 feet below the present floor. How- 
ever, no evidence of occupation was found below the 37-foot level. 
During the course of the digging he found a fifth burial which helped 
to throw additional light on the mortuary customs of the people who 
inhabited the cave. 
While in northern Alabama, Mr. Miller visited several other caves, 
also Indian sites in the open, and studied many local collections in 
order to correlate the cultural remains from Russel] Cave with those 
of the surrounding areas, particularly those attributable to Early 
Man phases. Mr. Miller also spoke before different groups of people 
in Bridgeport and Huntsville, Ala., and in South Pittsburg, Richard 
City, and Tullahoma, Tenn. Following his return to Washington on 
October 4, Mr. Miller devoted his time to the preparation of reports. 
In November and December he attended meetings of the American 
Indian Ethnohistoric Conference and the American Anthropological 
Association in Washington, D.C., and was one of the speakers at the 
Southeastern Archeological Conference in Chapel Hill, N.C. Mr. 
Miller returned to duty on the River Basin Surveys staff December 
14, 1958. 
RIVER BASIN SURVEYS 
The River Basin Surveys continued its program for salvage arche- 
ology in areas to be flooded or otherwise destroyed by the construction 
of large dams. These investigations were carried on in cooperation 
with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation of 
the Department of the Interior, the Corps of Engineers of the De- 
partment of the Army, and several State and local institutions. Dur- 
