ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A MULTICOMPONENTSHELL-BEARING SITE IN DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE

Site 40DV7 is one of several large shell-bearing sites located along the Cumberland River near Nashville which were heavily impacted by catastrophic flooding and looting activity during the spring of 2010. Emergency sampling and ongoing monitoring at 40DV7 since that time have identified deeply-stratified deposits spanning the Archaic through Mississippian periods. These deposits, and particularly the temporally-distinct shell midden components, may help inform our understanding of human occupation, species interdependence, and environmental change along the Cumberland River over a period of more than 5000 years.