76 Paul W. Parmalee, Walter E. Klippel, Arthur E. Bogan 



shell assemblages from aboriginal middens that are so prevalent along 

 the Tennessee River have been undertaken. One notable exception was 

 the analysis of over 100,000 mussel valves studied by Morrison (1942) 

 from Archaic and Woodland shell middens that were located in what is 

 now the Pickwick Landing Dam reservoir in northwestern Alabama. 

 The more recent study by Warren (1975) involving analysis of 60,350 

 naiad specimens recovered from the Widows Creek site in northeastern 

 Alabama provided an effective account of the species assemblage, the 

 limnological and other habitat conditions reflected by this assemblage, 

 and the extent of use of the naiads by the Woodland inhabitants of the 

 site. Although extensive archaeological field work was carried out dur- 

 ing 1937-1939 at Hiwassee Island (Lewis and Kneberg 1946), now within 

 the Chickamauga Reservoir, and extensive shell middens were encoun- 

 tered, no study of this material was made and samples of unmodified 

 shell were not retained. 



Our interest in sampling a series of aboriginal shell middens that 

 still remain along the shores of the middle and upper Chickamauga 

 Reservoir was based on several factors: (1) no previous studies of pre- 

 historic shell middens located in this section of the Tennessee River had 

 been undertaken to assess the naiad species formerly present and their 

 relative abundance at these sites; (2) since impoundment, much of this 

 nonrenewable archaeological resource has been inundated and that 

 which remains is subject to continual destruction through wave action, 

 erosion, digging activities of artifact collectors, and general weathering; 

 (3) these shell middens provided an opportunity to evaluate similarities 

 and dissimilarities among cultural groups who once lived along this sec- 

 tion of the river as to how extensively they exploited this food resource; 

 and (4) recent surveys of naiad populations in the Chickamauga Reser- 

 voir, compared with shell samples collected from aboriginal middens, 

 could provide significant data relative to changes in species assemblages 

 during the last 2000 years. 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



A total of 28 shell middens located along an approximately 50 km 

 stretch of the middle and upper Chickamauga Reservoir (TRM 495-528) 

 was sampled over a 2 x /i year period from December 1976 to March 

 1979. Some middens were extensive (Fig. 1), and shell that had eroded 

 from the banks covered the beach (observable only during winter low 

 water levels) for a distance of 300 m or more at certain sites. Most of 

 the middens reflect an occupation by Late Woodland (ca. AD 600-1000) 

 cultural groups; however, at least one single component Middle Wood- 

 land (ca. AD 1-600) site and two Mississippian component sites (ca. AD 

 1000-1600) were encountered. Lithic and ceramic samples were collected 



