Archaeologists with the University of Tennessee excavating a woodland Indian village where Allens Bridge Road crosses the Nolichucky River say that field work will take another four weeks to complete.

After spending most of the fall excavating the village on the south side of the river near the Jay and Ann Birdwell farm, UT archaeolologist Brad Cresswell said last week that the crew he directs is now working on the north side of the river (closest to Greeneville) at what is called the Neas Site.

"We anticipate at least four more weeks" of digging, Cresswell said. Once the dig is finished, artifacts and data recovered will be taken to UT archaeological labs in Knoxville for analysis and cataloging.

Work was completed on the other side of the river, at the Birdwell site, the week of Nov. 9-13. Excavations at that site now have been backfilled.

The UT crews are working under contract to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).

Alan Longmire, a TDOT archaeologist, said in a telephone interview from his office in Johnson City last week that nothing that has been found at either of the sites so far will stop construction of the new bridge.

As previously reported, Longmire noted that earlier finds of Native American remains caused TDOT to readjust the alignment of the bridge slightly.

That change slightly moved the construction timeline back, Longmire said, but nothing that has been found since then has caused any more delays.

In general, Longmire said, artifacts and findings from the north side of the river appear to be from the Pisgah phase of the Mississippian period. The site is between 500 and 5,000 years old, Longmire said.

On the south side of the river, not as many fire pits were found, but "a whole lot of stoneworking debitage," mostly flint chips, was found, which indicates that the site was used for making arrow points and spear points.

Findings on that side of the river "all seem to be from the middle and early archaic period," meaning they are between 5,000 and 8,000 years old, he said.

Archaeologists will know more after tests in the lab are done, Longmire said, but they remain convinced that the site was used as a village for an extended period, but perhaps not continually.

Typically, such a site would have been occupied for four or five years, then the Indians living there would move on. Reasons for moving would vary, he said, but might include depletion of wild game in the area, or flooding.

Eventually, perhaps 50 or 100 years later, the site would again be used as a village, he said, because of favorable topography.

Repeated occupation over a period perhaps 8,000 years long would tend to leave behind "a whole lot of stuff" for archaeologists to unearth, Longmire said.