Kevin Smith, PhD
Director, Old Town Heritage Project
Professor of Anthropology, Middle Tennessee State University
Kevin Smith completed his M.A. (1990) and Ph.D. (1992) in Anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. His main area of research is in the archaeology of the southeastern United States, with special interests in the late prehistoric chiefdoms of Middle Tennessee (ca. A.D. 900-1500), early frontier period of Tennessee (ca. A.D. 1780-1820), and African-American lifeways from slavery through reconstruction.
Major on-going current research includes the Castalian Springs Mounds Archaeological Project (2005-2015), various slave housing projects, and miscellaneous pending field projects from frontier forts to Middle Woodland mounds. Smith began teaching classes as an adjunct at MTSU in 1988 and has been a full-time faculty member since 1994.
He currently serves as:
- Vice President/Editor for the Middle Cumberland Archaeological Society
- MTSU representative and Vice Chair of the Tennessee Archaeological Advisory Council
- Archaeological expertise and Vice Chair of the Tennessee State Historic Preservation Review Board
- Tennessee Council for Professional Archaeology: Immediate Past President and Board Member (ex officio)
- Co-editor for the e-journal Tennessee Archaeology
- Director of the Old Town Heritage Project
McDonald, Byron, and Kevin E. Smith. 2018. The Yeaman Shell Gorgets from Smith County, Tennessee and a Discussion of “Hand Gorgets.” Central States Archaeological Journal 65(4): 298-301.
Sharp, Robert V. 2018. Early Female Effigy of the Middle Cumberland Region. Central States Archaeological Journal 65(4):281-294.
Smith, Kevin E. 2014. A Tennessee Chapter in the Story of John Wesley Powell. Tennessee Conservationist LXXX(2):8-11.
Smith, Kevin E. 2015. Long Before Salted Peanuts Appeared on the Ballpark Menu, Salt was Significant at Nashville’s Sulphur Dell. Tennessee Conservationist LXXXI(2):32-35.
Smith, Kevin E. 2016. “That Extraordinary Mound at Bledsoe’s Lick” in Sumner County, Tennessee. Tennessee Conservationist LXXXII(3):16-19.
Smith, Kevin E. 2017. Ancient Faces: Native American Stone Sculptures from Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area in Wilson County. Tennessee Conservationist LXXXII((2):20-25.
Smith, Kevin E. 2018. Tennessee Scalloped Triskele Gorgets. Central States Archaeological Journal 65(4):204-207.
Smith, Kevin E. 2019. Mississippian Four-Crested-Bird Marine Shell Gorgets from Tennessee and Alabama. Central States Archaeological Journal 66(3):116-119.
Smith, Kevin E. 2019. Mussel Shell Effigy Bowls, Crested Bird Spoons, and Freshwater Pearls from the Cumberland River. Central States Archaeological Journal 66(2):78-79.
Smith, Kevin E. and Robert V. Sharp. 2018. Four Mississippian Stone Statues from Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area, Wilson County, Tennessee. Central States Archaeological Journal 65(4):182-185.
Smith, Kevin E. 2016. Reflecting on ANCESTORS: Post Exhibition Discoveries and Future Research Directions. 30 Days of Tennessee Archaeology. Published 9/23/2016. https://tennesseearchaeologycouncil.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/reflecting-on-ancestors-post-exhibition-discoveries-and-future-research-directions/
Smith, Kevin E. 2016. Twenty Years of Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Week and Month. 30 Days of Tennessee Archaeology. Published 9/9/2016. https://tennesseearchaeologycouncil.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/twenty-years-of-tennessee-archaeology-awareness-week-and-month/
Smith, Kevin E. 2017. The Castalian Springs Mounds Eclipse Events – Mississippian Era and August 2017. 30 Days of Tennessee Archaeology. Published 9/14/2017. https://tennesseearchaeologycouncil.wordpress.com/2017/09/14/the-castalian-springs-mounds-eclipse-events-mississippian-era-and-august-2017/
Beahm, Emily L. and Kevin E. Smith. 2012. Mississippian Ceramics and Settlement Complexity: Insights from the Beasley Mounds (40SM43), Smith County, Tennessee. Tennessee Archaeology 6(1-2):149-163.
Beahm, Emily L. and Kevin E. Smith. 2013. Negative Painted Plates and Bowls from the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. Tennessee Archaeology 7(1):83-102.
Moore, Michael C., Emanuel Breitburg, Kevin E. Smith, and Mary Beth Trubitt. 2006. One Hundred Years of Archaeology at Gordontown: A Fortified Mississippian Town in Davidson County, Tennessee”. Southeastern Archaeology 25(1):89-109.
Moore, Michael C., Kevin E. Smith, Aaron Deter-Wolf, and Emily L. Beahm. 2014. Distribution and Context of Worked Crystalline Artifacts from the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. Southeastern Archaeology 33(1):25-41.
Moore, Michael C., Kevin E. Smith, and Stephen T. Rogers. 2010. Tennessee Archaeology and the Enigma of George Woods. Tennessee Historical Quarterly LXIX(4):320-329.
Smith, Kevin E. 1993. Archaeology at Old Town [40Wm2]: A Mississippian Mound-Village Center in Williamson County, Tennessee. Tennessee Anthropologist XVIII(1):27-44.
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/archaeology/documents/staffpubs/arch_Smith%201993.pdf
Smith, Kevin E. 1994. Potash from Pyramids: Reconstructing DeGraffenreid [40Wm4]: A Mississippian Mound-Village Center in Williamson County, Tennessee. Tennessee Anthropologist XIX(2).
Smith, Kevin E. 2002. Selected Contents of the Tennessee Anthropological Association Newsletter (1976-1999). Tennessee Anthropologist 25(1-2):84-92.
Smith, Kevin E. 2002. Tennessee Radiocarbon Dates (List Version 1.00). Tennessee Anthropologist 24(1-2):1-45.
Smith, Kevin E. 2012. Discovery and Early Investigations of the Dover Quarries by Parmenio E. Cox and Warren K. Moorehead, 1926-1932.Tennessee Archaeology 6(1-2):164-174.
Smith, Kevin E. 2013. Tennessee’s Ancient Pygmy Graveyards: The “Wonder of the Western Country.” Tennessee Archaeology 7(1):42-75.
Smith, Kevin E. and Emily L. Beahm. 2009. Corrected Provenance for the Long Nosed God Mask from a “Cave Near Rogana, Tennessee.” Southeastern Archaeology 28(1):117-121.
Smith, Kevin E., Dan Brock, and Chris Hogan. 2004. Interior Incised Bowls and Deep-Rimmed Plates from the Nashville Basin of Tennessee.Tennessee Archaeology 1(1):49-57.
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 1994. Excavation of a Mississippian Farmstead at the Brandywine Pointe Site (40Dv247), Cumberland River Valley, Tennessee. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Volume 19(2):198-222.
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 1995. Borrow Pits and Archaeological Sites: Case Studies and A Report on the Armes Site (40Dv444). Tennessee Anthropologist XX(1):1-17.
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 1996. Mississippian Settlement and Community Patterns on the Cumberland River, Tennessee: Recent Investigations of Small Mississippian Settlements. In Proceedings of the 14th Annual Mid-South Archaeological Conference, edited by Richard Walling, Camille Wharey and Camille Stanley. Panamerican Consultants, Inc., Special Publications 1, Memphis.
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 2012. Changing Interpretations of Sandbar Village (40DV36): Mississippian Hamlet, Village, or Mound Center? Tennessee Archaeology 6(1-2):105-138.
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 2018. Middle Cumberland Mississippian Archaeology: Past, Present, and Future Directions.Tennessee Archaeology 9(2):170-200.
Smith, Kevin E., C. Parris Stripling, and Michael C. Moore. 1993. The Brick Church Business Park Site (40Dv301): Salvage Excavations at a Mississippian Hamlet. Tennessee Anthropologist XVIII(2):94-116.
Spears, W. Steven, Michael C. Moore, and Kevin E. Smith. 2008. Evidence for Early Mississippian Settlement of the Nashville Basin: Archaeological Explorations at the Spencer Site (40DV191). Tennessee Archaeology 3(1):3-24.
Moore, Michael C., David H. Dye, and Kevin E. Smith. 2016. WPA Excavations at the Mound Bottom and Pack Sites in Middle Tennessee, 1936-1940. In New Deal Archaeology in Tennessee: Intellectual, Methodological, and Theoretical Contributions, edited By David H. Dye, pp. 116-137. University Of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Smith, Kevin E. 1991. Mississippian Figurines and Symbolic Systems of the Southeastern United States. In The New World Figurine Project Volume 1, edited by Terry Stocker. Research Press, Provo.
Smith, Kevin E. 2001. Human Figurines as Messengers: Communicating with Past, Present and Future Cultures. Concluding chapter and discussion in The New World Figurine Project, Volume 2, edited by Terry Stocker and Cynthia Otis Charlton. Research Press, Provo.
Smith, Kevin E. 2004. Prehistoric Art and Artisans of Tennessee. Invited chapter in A History of Tennessee Arts: Creating Traditions, Expanding Horizons, edited by C. Van West and M. D. Binnicker. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Smith, Kevin E. 2016. The Tennessee Archaeological Society from 1944 to 1985: Legacy and Consequences of the New Deal in Tennessee. In New Deal Archaeology in Tennessee: Intellectual, Methodological, and Theoretical Contributions, pp. 189-205, edited by D.H. Dye. University of Alabama Press.
Beahm, Emily L. 2013. Mississippian Polities in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens.
https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/beahm_emily_l_201312_phd.pdf
Moore, Michael C. and Kevin E. Smith. 1993. A Report of the 1992 Archaeological Investigations at the Brandywine Pointe Site (40Dv247), Davidson County, Tennessee. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Department of Environment and Conservation, Report of Investigations No. 9. Nashville. Revised electronic edition, 2018:
Moore, Michael C. and Kevin E. Smith. 2001. Archaeological Excavations at the Rutherford-Kizer Site: A Mississippian Mound Center in Sumner County, Tennessee. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Department of Environment and Conservation, Report of Investigations 13. Nashville. 396 pp. 103 figs, 33 tables, 8 appendices. Revised electronic edition, 2016:
Moore, Michael C. and Kevin E. Smith. 2009. Archaeological Expeditions of the Peabody Museum in Middle Tennessee, 1877-1884. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Department of Environment and Conservation, Report of Investigations No. 16. Nashville. 395 pp., 281 figures, 32 tables, 10 appendices. Revised electronic edition, 2012:
Moore, Michael C. 2005. The Brentwood Library Site: A Mississippian Town on the Little Harpeth River, Williamson County, Tennessee. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Department of Environment and Conservation, Research Series No.15. Revised electronic edition, 2012:
Moore, Michael C., and Emanuel Breitburg. 1998. Gordontown: Salvage Archaeology at a Mississippian Town in Davidson County, Tennessee. Research Series No. 11. Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Archaeology, Nashville.
Norton, Mark R. and Kevin E. Smith. 2015. The Special Needs Prison Project: Archaeological Investigations at Four Sites in Cockrill Bend, Davidson County, Tennessee. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Department of Environment and Conservation, Report of Investigations 17. Nashville.
Smith, Kevin E. 1992. The Middle Cumberland Region: Mississippian Archaeology in North Central Tennessee. Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University. Nashville.
Smith, Kevin E. and Emily L. Beahm. 2008. Archaeological Investigations at the Beasley Mounds (40SM43): Preliminary Results of the March 2008 Field Project. 34 pp., 21 figs. Report on file, Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Nashville.
Smith, Kevin E. and Emily L. Beahm. 2008. Preliminary Report of the 2005 Archaeological Field Season at the Castalian Springs Mounds (40SU14). Report of Archaeological Investigations Number 3., Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro. 48 pp., 37 figs., 4 tables.
Smith, Kevin E. and Christopher Hogan. 2004. Archaeological Testing at Primm Park, Brentwood, Williamson County, Tennessee: Technical Report. Report of Archaeological Investigations No. 1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro. 54 pp. 48 figs. 14 tables.
Smith, Kevin E. and J.V. Miller. 2009. Speaking with the Ancestors: Mississippian Stone Statuary of the Tennessee-Cumberland Style. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 1996. The Hooper Site (40Dv234): A Mississippian Village in Davidson County, Tennessee. Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Department of Environment and Conservation, Miscellaneous Publications No. 3.
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/archaeology/documents/arch_MiscPublNo3_1996.pdf
Smith, Kevin E. and Michael C. Moore. 1999. Through Many Mississippian Hands: A Preliminary View of Mississippian Exchange Networks in the Cumberland Valley of Tennessee. In Proceedings of the 16th Annual Mid-South Archaeological Conference, edited by Evan Peacock and Sam Brookes. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi.