View looking out of the Russell Cave Shelter at Russell Cave National Monument

Russell Cave National Monument is an excellent example of a cave dwelling that saw intermittent human habitation from around 8000 BC to 1500 AD. Artifacts from four time periods have been found inside the cave: the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. These anthropological era names are used for describing the southeastern United States, not the world in general, and designate time periods that are distinguished by advances in civilization, such as the use of advanced weapons, basket weaving, pottery, etc. Even modern eras are assigned anthropological names, as we have the Renaissance, the Industrial Age, and the Computer Age, though since advances come so quickly these days, anthropological time periods are now only decades long, not centuries long. And like today, not all people “live” in a designated time period. The United States sends men to the moon while in many parts of the world tribes of nomads still run around barefoot and hunt with spears. While the people of Russell Cave were living in a cave, the Egyptians were building pyramids.

The first excavation of the cave was done in 1953 by the Tennessee Archaeological Society. The excavation dug down six feet into the cave floor, unearthing pottery, bone tools, and jewelry. Pottery was the hallmark of the Woodland period that spanned from 500 BC to 1000 AD.

The National Geographic Society dug down to 32 feet during an excavation from 1956 to 1958. At this depth, the oldest artifacts were found. Carbon dating of charcoal remnants from old camp fires was used to determine the date for all artifacts found at the same depth as the charcoal.

Information panel on the excavations of the 1950s

The Paleo period describes the era before the last ice age, running from 10,000 BC to 7000 BC. People of this time were nomadic hunters, moving from place to place as they followed big game such as mammoths. Spear tips from the tail end of this period have been found at Russell Cave. However, people lived in the area long before they started living in the cave shelter, for until the end of the Paleo era, the cave was flooded. It took the collapse of cave’s roof, which raised its floor higher than the water, before people could live in it.

Most habitation of the cave came during the Archaic Period, from 7000 BC to 500 BC. Basket weaving is one advance that came about during this period. It’s odd to think that something you can pick up at Walmart for a few bucks drastically changed the way people lived, but with baskets, people could not only hunt, but they could also gather and store nuts, berries, and other vegetables that grew wild. The practice of agriculture was gathering steam during this time, making the nomadic life less necessary. Baskets, mortar and grinders, fishhooks, drills, arrow heads, and bone tools from this time period have been found in the cave. Furthermore, the people of Russell Cave tended to remain stuck in this time period, even in later centuries when other people in the area had technological advances attributed to the Woodland and Mississippian ages.

The Woodland Period ran from 500 BC to 1000 AD. Pottery and the bow and arrow are significant technological advances of the era, and artifacts of this nature have been found in the cave. Agriculture and trade with others was also common. People were most likely to have lived in Russell Cave during the early part of the Woodland period, for towards the end, villages were forming on the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers and many people preferred to live there, at least in the winter months.

By the time the Mississippian Era rolled around, from 1000 to 1600 AD, large towns in the Tennessee and Mississippi River valleys were becoming the way of life, and thus Russell Cave was used mainly as a stopover or camp during hunting trips. The nomadic way of life was dying as agriculture and the domestication of livestock took over. Anyone choosing to live permanently at Russell Cave during this era did so simply because they preferred the old ways. By the end of this time period, evidence of human occupation in the cave ceases to exist.

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