woodland period moundbuilders of the bluegrass - Kentucky ...

Since the Depression era, the pace of Adena mound research in theBluegrass has slowed, but it has not stopped. Archaeologists are stillrecording and describing new mounds. They excavate them only rarely,for example, when modern construction projects cannot avoid them. In2006, archaeologists got their first glimpse of an Adena off-mound ritualarea. It was near a Montgomery County burial mound that archaeologistshad recorded in 1932.Although research today builds on the work of Webb and hiscolleagues, archaeologists have moved beyond simply describing whatthey find. Their goals are to interpret and understand all aspects ofAdena life. For the past thirty years, native son Dr. R. Berle Clay hasresearched Adena burial ritual. He has drawn on the findings of his ownexcavations, but has relied equally on Depression-era materials. His workhas shown how complex and diverse Adena burial practices were. Otherinvestigators have begun to study how Adena people gotcopper from distant places, research that also depends onmaterials curated at the William S. Webb Museum.Archaeologists now recognize that a fullunderstanding of Adena culture will depend onknowing more about peoples’ day-to-day lives.Thus, some have begun to research the placesAdena people once lived. They are using newtechniques to collect new kinds of information.For example, a technique developed in the1970s, called flotation, recovers charred foodremains from soil using water separation. Nowarchaeologists study the kinds of plants Adenapeoples grew, ate, and used at home and intheir ceremonies. We really have only begunto learn about Adena people: their domesticlife, their foodways, their biology anddiseases, where they lived and why, and ofcourse, their fascinating ritual lives.an Adena spearpoint with a rounded stem10