Normandy Archaeological Project

The Normandy Archaeological Project was a rescue excavation designed to preserve the archaeological history of the area before it became submerged by the construction of the Normandy Reservoir Dam through funding from the Tennessee Valley Authority. After the construction of the dam, historic information about that area could not be accessed, so prior to the construction of the dam, as much research as possible had to be done on the area. This salvage effort was conducted in the Duck River Valley area, of middle Tennessee from March 1971 until the summer of 1975, prior to the completion of the dam in 1976. The fieldwork was done mainly by researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, under contract to the Tennessee Valley Authority Contract and National Park. The dam creating the Normandy Reservoir was built on the Duck River at mile marker 248.6 in Coffee and Bedford County, Tennessee, named after the town of Normandy, Tennessee. The two nearest cities are Manchester and Tullahoma.Large excavation projects need time for full evaluation of the project area in order to determine the relationship of the findings and obtain usable information through focusing on the hypothesis. In this way a wide view of the area and the time space within it was obtained. This large project also allowed a rare opportunity for young archaeologists to receive field training on a site soon to become forever inaccessible. The fieldwork on the Normandy project began with an investigation of surface collections to ascertain the intensity of prehistoric occupation in this portion of the valley. The sites were then mapped, with assistance from local collectors and the Coffee-Franklin County Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society. Eighty three archaeological sites were found in the general project area twenty eight of which were determined to be out of the range of the maximum pool stage of the reservoir although still in danger of damage from development. Sixty-nine of the sites had previously been discovered prior to the excavations in the reservoir. Thirty of these sites were found by members of the Coffee-Franklin County Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society. Although previous sites had been surveyed, the surrounding uplands were most often not included. Those typological areas are included in this project in an attempt to gain a better analysis of the patterns of culture and history of the ancient peoples of the Duck Valley.