DATED EARLY PALEOINDIAN SITES IN TENNESSEE: AN UPDATE ON WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW John B. Broster, Emanuel Breitburg, Gary Barker, and Mark R. Norton Abstract: We have been fortunate to obtain dates on two early Paleoindian sites in Middle Tennessee. This work was done as part of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology's Paleoindian Studies Project. Previous to this research, no dates existed for the Paleoindian cultures of Tennessee. The first site was investigated between 1990 and 1994 on the Cumberland River. The Johnson site (40Dv400) was a multicomponent series of occupations dating from Clovis to Early Archaic times. Good radiocarbon dates were obtained from all levels, but the two from the Clovis level will be discussed in this paper. A date of 11,700 +/- 980 B.P. (TX-7000) came from next to a Clovis preform base embedded in the lowest occupation level. A second date of 11,980+/-110B.P. (TX-7454) was associated with a small basin shaped pit from the Clovis level. The second site to be investigated was the Coats-Hines Mastodon site (40wm31), excavated from 1994 to 1995. This was a mastodon butchering site with associated uniface tools, one biface, one bone projectile point tip, and several bifacial resharpening flakes. Dates were obtained for the bone deposit ranging from 12,030+/-4-B.P.(Beta-125350) and 14,750 +/-220 B.P.(Beta-125352). A third date was run on the deposit just above the bones and was 10,260+/-240(Beta-125351). The site consists of three distinct mastodon skeletons resting on the margins of an old Pleistocene pond. Two of the three animals were associated with human activity. The third appears to represent a natural death near or in the pond. John B. Broster John B. Broster is a 34 year veteran of Paleoindian studies. He did his graduate work at the University of New Mexico and has conducted fieldwork in the Southwest, Southern Plains, Southeast, Southern and Northern Mexico, and Holland. He has published over 30 journal articles and book chapters concerning the Paleoindian period and several more concerning the rest of the prehistoric of the Southeast and the Southwest.