Center For Transportation Research

State Route 155 Briley Parkway


The Briley Parkway project offered archaeologists an exciting opportunity to intensively examine a wide variety of culture history. Nashville has a very rich history. All of Middle Tennessee was heavilly occupied by Native Americans. The Cumberland River, flowing through Nashville was a very important resource. Many of the same things that were valuable to Native Americans were also important to early pioneers coming into this area.

Click here to see a map of the project area.

Click here to see a plan view map of the site.

From September 19, 1994 to January 19, 1995 and August 19 to October 17, 1995, archaeologists from the Transportation Center at The University of Tennessee-Knoxville conducted Phase III data recovery of cultural resources on two sites in the proposed extension of State Route 155 (Briley Parkway) from Brick Church Pike to Ellington Parkway, Davidson County, Tennessee (Figure 1). The Dorsey Site (40DV446) and the Drennon Site (40DV447) were investigated. Additional Phase II testing was also conducted on a portion of the Drennon Site which had not been previously investigated. This work was undertaken for IDE Associates, Inc. and the Tennessee Department of Transportation (IDE Project Number 15.0487.10, Tennessee Department of Transportation Project Number. 19074-1233-04, and Tennessee Division of Archaeology Permit Numbers. 000145 and 000145R. Charles Bentz served as Archaeologist-in-General Charge; Richard Alvey was Archaeologist-in-Direct Charge; Brad Cresswell, Yong Kim, Jennifer Matternes and Jan Wilson were crew chiefs; and the field and laboratory crew consisted of up to eight technicians including Rachel Black, Richard Blatchley, John Hall, Howard Haygood, Harley Lanham, C. Alan Longmire, Janelle Prescott, Jeffrey Stewart, Gina Understahl, Hakon Vigander, Charles Walker, and Jan Wilson.

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This page was last updated on 20 Jan 2002.

For comments please send email to cbentz@utk.edu