Coats–Hines site
The site was formerly believed to be archaeological, and identified as one of only a very few locations in Eastern North America containing evidence of Paleoindian hunting of late Pleistocene proboscideans.
[6] In 1994, construction of a subdivision just west of the golf course by the company Hines Interest LP resulted in identification of a well-preserved bone bed of Pleistocene-aged faunal material.
That year, limited excavations were performed to recover several heavily fragmented bones eroding from the bank line at the location of mastodon C. Poor preservation of the material prevented conclusive identification of the animal’s species, sex, or age.
[3] Additional site inspections of the stream channel that same year resulted in the recovery of a bifacial stone tool and a highly mineralized fragment of deer antler.
However, staff from the East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum concluded the antler fragment exhibited an extreme level of mineralization, suggesting at least a late Pleistocene origin.
[3] A total of 1,582 faunal remains, including both whole and fragmentary elements from turtle, rodent, deer, large Pleistocene vertebrate, small amounts of ivory, and a possible fragment of Mastodon tooth were recovered during the 2010 investigations.
Based on the presence and significance of intact archaeological or paleontological deposits, the site was nominated eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D of 36 CFR 60.4.
Based on the profile and character of these marks, and their location along the thoracic spinous process, it was proposed that they resulted from butchering, and specifically, efforts to remove dorsal muscles along the backbone.
[7] Subsequent reexaminations of lithic materials from the site by Tune et al.[4][7] revealed that all flake fragments recovered from within the bone bed lacked distinctive physical traits which would conclusively demonstrate that they resulted from human manufacture rather than natural processes.
