Aboriginal and Modern Freshwater Mussel 



Assemblages (Pelecypoda: Unionidae) 

 from the Chickamauga Reservoir, Tennessee 



Paul W. Parmalee and Walter E. Klippel 



Department of Anthropology, 



University of Tennessee, 



Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 



AND 



Arthur E. Bogan 



Department of Malacology, 



Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 



ABSTRACT.— From December 1976 through March 1979, ca. 40,500 

 mussel valves were collected from 28 aboriginal shell middens in the 

 Chickamauga Reservoir (TRM 495-528), Rhea and Meigs counties, 

 Tennessee. Approximately 46 species were identified in 27,875 speci- 

 mens from 14 of these Middle Woodland through Mississippian com- 

 ponent sites. Valves of Pleurobema spp., Elliptio spp., Actinonaias 

 ligamentina, and Dromus dromas comprised 75% of the total. About 

 28 species represented in the shell middens are now either extinct, or 

 are extirpated from the reservoir. Five species have invaded and 

 become established in the reservoir, and four others, rare in prehistoric 

 times, have greatly increased their range and abundance since 

 impoundment. 



INTRODUCTION 



Accumulations, often huge, of freshwater mussel valves and snail 

 shells along the banks of the Tennessee and other major rivers in south- 

 eastern United States attest to the degree aboriginal man used this easily 

 accessible food resource. Although Parmalee and Klippel (1974) showed 

 that this subsistence resource is relatively low in food energy compared 

 with most other meat animals, and that it was exploited as a supplement 

 rather than a staple, mollusks were nevertheless taken in great quantities 

 and did provide an abundant food supplement. The prehistoric naiad 

 (freshwater mussel) fauna of the Tennessee and Cumberland River sys- 

 tems was one of the richest in the world and consisted of at least 90 

 species. Although the Indian harvested vast quantities of mussels over a 

 period of thousands of years, there is no evidence to suggest that this 

 activity brought about the extinction of even one species or was detri- 

 mental to naiad populations in general. However, the effect of dam con- 

 struction, impoundment, siltation, and overharvesting by commercial 

 shellers over the last 75 years is a different matter (Isom 1969). 



Relatively few detailed ecological and taxonomic studies involving 



Brimleyana No. 8:75-90. December 1982 75 



