The F.L. Brinkley Midden (22Ts729) Archaeological Investigations in the Yellow Creek Watershed, Tishomingo County, Mississippi

Excavations at the F.L. Brinkley Midden (22Ts729), in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, were conducted by the Office of Archaeological Research, University of Alabama. Excavations were carried out to mitigate the destruction of the site by the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway project. The F.L. Brinkley Midden is a stratified accretional midden dating from the Early Archaic through the Middle Woodland period. At the beginning of investigations, the site had seen extensive damage. Nevertheless much of the site, especially the lower levels, remained undisturbed, and an excavated sample of the site was obtained by hand excavation, gradder transects, and backhoe trenches. Artifactual analysis indicates a close correspondence between physical stratigraphy and cultural stratigraphy. A large number of pit features were recorded from all levels of the site, including ten problematical large basin shaped features. These large basin shaped features, which date to the Late Archaic period, are interpreted as the remains of earth covered semisubterranean structures.