Through the Shadow: The Archaeology of Western Appalachian Caves and Rockshelters.

Archaeologists have been working in caves for as long as there have been archaeologists. It's hard to pick a starting point, so I decided to just talk about the stuff that comes to mind first.

Related content:

Demographic changes in the Middle Archaic:    • The Abandonment and Re Settlement of ...  
The scientific contributions of Patty Jo Watson:    • The Patron Saint of Cave Archaeologis...  
Rites of Passage at Salts Cave:    • Archaeology and Rites of Passage at M...  
Mast resources and Women in prehistory:    • The Power of Pecans (and other nuts) ...  

further reading:

Boyd, C. Clifford , Jr. and Donna C. Boyd
1997 Osteological Comparison of Prehistoric Native Americans from Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee Mortuary Caves. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 59(3): 160-165.

Claassen, Cheryl
2011 Rock Shelters as Women’s Retreats: Understanding Newt Kash. American Antiquity 78:628-641.

Crothers, George M.
1987 An Archaeological Survey of Big Bone Cave, Tennessee and Diachronic Patterns of Cave Utilization in the Eastern Woodlands. Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
2012 Early Woodland Ritual Use of Caves in Eastern North America. American Antiquity 77:524-541.

Griffin, James W.
1974 Investigations in Russell Cave. U.S. Government Printing Office, National Park Service Publications in Archaeology, No. 13, Washington DC

Homsey-Messer, Lara K.
2015 Revisiting the Role of Caves and Rockshelters in the Hunter-Gatherer Taskscape of the Archaic Midsouth. American Antiquity 80:332-352.

Jackson, Thomas L.
1991 Pounding Acorn: Women's Production as Social and Economic Focus. In Engendering Archaeology, edited by Joan M. Gerow and Margaret W. Conkey, pp. 301-325. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

Simek, Jan F. Sarah A. Blankenship, Alan Cressler, Joseph C. Douglas, Amy Wallace, Daniel Weinand, and Heather Welborn
2012 The prehistoric cave art and archaeology of Dunbar Cave, Montgomery County, Tennessee. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, 74(1):19–32.

Simek, Jan F., Jay D. Franklin and Sarah C. Sherwood
1998 The Context of Early Southeastern Prehistoric Cave Art: A Report on the Archaeology of 3rd Unnamed Cave. American Antiquity 63:663-677.

Watson, Patty Jo
1969 The Prehistory of Salts Cave, Kentucky. Reports of Investigations No. 16. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

1974 Archeology of the Mammoth Cave Area. Academic Press, New York and London.

Webb, William S., and William n Funkhouser
1936 Rock Shelters in Menifee County, Kentucky. Reports in Anthropology and Archaeology 3: 105-67. University of Kentucky, Lexington.