The Green River Shell Middens Archeological District is a historic district composed of archaeological sites in the U.S. state of Kentucky. All of the district's sites are shell middens along the banks of the Green River that date from the later portion of the Archaic period.[2] Studies of this assemblage of sites were critical in the development of knowledge of the Archaic period in the eastern United States.
Green River Shell Middens Archeological District | |
| Location | Along the Green River |
|---|---|
| NRHP reference No. | 85003182 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 5, 1994[1] |
| Designated NHLD | May 5, 1994[1] |
Kentucky's Green River runs through a broad alluvial plain, from which outcroppings of bedrock project. The plain is an area that was inundated during the Pleistocene by a water body dubbed Lake Green, which resulted in the deposition of large amounts of silt. The middens of this district are typically located along the prehistoric routes of waterways that were established after Lake Green was drained. Archaic period Native Americans were drawn to these waterways by an abundance of mussels.[3]
The district was established and named a National Historic Landmark on May 5, 1994.[2] Each of the district's twenty-three contributing properties had previously been listed on the National Register of Historic Places by itself. The sites are distributed among five counties: Butler County (BT), Henderson County (HE), McLean County (McL), Muhlenberg County (MU), and Ohio County (OH).[4]
Contributing properties edit
The district comprises the following sites, listed by their Smithsonian trinomials; names are provided for named sites.
See also edit
- Indian Knoll, another shell midden in the region not included in the district
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Kentucky
References edit
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b "National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL)". National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 3, 2010. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
- ^ "Green River Shell Middens of Kentucky TR". National Park Service. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b National Historic Landmark Nomination: Green River Shell Middens. National Park Service: 1994-05-05.
- ^ a b c Funkhouser, W.D., and W.S. Webb. "Archaeological Survey of Kentucky: Butler County". University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology 7.5 (1950).
- ^ Milner, George R., and Richard W. Jefferies. "The Read Archaic Shell Midden in Kentucky". Southeastern Archaeology 17.2 (1998): 119-132.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Claassen, Cheryl. Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2010.
- ^ a b Moore, Clarence B. "Some Aboriginal Sites on Green River, Kentucky". Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 16 (1916): 431-487.
- ^ a b c d e Webb, William S., and William G. Haag. "Archaic Sites in McLean County, Kentucky". University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology 7.1 (1947): 1-46.
- ^ a b Moore, Christopher R. Production, Exchange, and Social Interaction in the Green River Region of Western Kentucky: A Multiscalar Approach to the Analysis of Two Shell Midden Sites. Diss. University of Kentucky, 2011, 163.
- ^ Emerson, Thomas E. Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent. Albany: SUNY Press, 2009, 655.
External links edit
