woodland period moundbuilders of the bluegrass - Kentucky ...

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During excavation,Depression-eraarchaeologists easilyrecognized the outlinesof individual basketloads.By mounding-up soil over an enclosure, Adena social groups turneda ritual activity space into a cemetery space. This single, significant actchanged the kinds of future ceremonies and ritual activities they wouldcarry out at the site.Burial MoundsRitual activities did not have to begin with the construction of apaired-post enclosure. Adena groups could decide to cremate or buryone or more people at a special spot. They laid the bodies or crematedremains on the ground surface or placed them in simple pits. Thenthey built mounds over these graves. Just as previously described, theyscraped-up soil from around the burial area.The first burial mounds built at any ritual site stood only a few feettall and measured 70 feet or less in diameter. If they buried no oneelse within a mound, it remained a small, low, conical feature on thelandscape. Undoubtedly, thousands of small Adena mounds once werescattered across the Bluegrass. Most have been lost to historic plowingand farming, and the construction of towns and cities.However, at some mound sites, Adena social groups continued tobury people, covering each with soil. With every addition, these moundsbecame larger and taller. Periodically, they capped the whole mound witha layer of soil. Over time, these mounds became vertical cemeteries thatgrew through several stages. One of the largest Adena mounds in theBluegrass stood 31 feet tall and measured 180 feet in diameter.Adena moundbuilders apparently did not decide beforehand howlarge a mound would become. Instead, a mound’s size and shape appearto reflect the activities that took place during its history of use. Size also26
does not accurately reflect the number of people buried within a mound.The two largest Bluegrass examples were of similar size: one containedone hundred people; the other, only 21 individuals.The fill used for later mound stages was often different from the loosetopsoil used to cover the first burials. It was a very tough, pure, denseclay that ranged in color from deep red to light yellow. Like the soil theyused initially, they found this clay in places not too far from the mound.They used simple tools, like digging sticks, to break up the clay. Thenthey filled-up baskets and carried these 30-pound loads to the mound.Archaeologists do not know how long Adena people buried their deadin the larger mounds before they capped the mounds with clean soiland no longer used them as cemeteries. Perhaps burial stopped when itbecame too difficult to add individuals and still maintain the mound’sconical or loaf shape.Mounds may have been the most visible Adena ritual sites. Yet, likethe enclosures, they were not always self-contained. For certain people,a mound could be their final resting place. For others, it could have beenjust a stopover on their journey to the afterlife. Bodies might be crematedor defleshed at a mound, but buried at an enclosure. Alternatively, bodiescould be prepared elsewhere and then brought to a mound for burial.Besides graves, archaeologists have documented fired areas, layersor piles of stone or rock, pits, and artifact caches within some mounds.During one Montgomery County mound’s history, groups completelycovered its surface with logs laid out radially around its summit.Some items found within the mound fill were not associated with agrave, fired area, rock pile, pit, or cache. Examples include bits of animalbone, charred plant remains, chert chips and broken tools, and fragmentsof ceramic containers. These may have been accidentally mixed into thefill.Archaeologists think that other items, however, particularly thoseassociated with later mound stages, may have been purposefullyleft at or on the mound. These objects may have been used duringmortuary events, then buried. They also could have been brokenLarger mounds could contain fourto eight stages. This Boone Countymound grew through four.
Page 5 and 6: Over time, these people will return
Page 7 and 8: However, Adena people kept no writt
Page 9 and 10: As people debated the Moundbuilders
Page 11 and 12: archaeologists supervised the excav
Page 13 and 14: DAILY LIFEAdena lifeways were firml
Page 15 and 16: Adena peoples were mobile hunter-ga
Page 17 and 18: Preparing a garden space took sever
Page 19 and 20: Focus On Adena GardeningAdena peopl
Page 21 and 22: Focus On Adena FabricsThere is no q
Page 23 and 24: Health and DiseaseAlthough Depressi
Page 25 and 26: a cone-shaped MontgomeryCounty moun
Page 27: Based on the materials found inside
Page 31 and 32: extend nearly 8 feet below thegroun
Page 33 and 34: Adena groups probablyworked-out mor
Page 35 and 36: What we do know of Adena burial pra
Page 37 and 38: separate, or mixed with the remains
Page 39 and 40: a necklace of disk-shaped shell bea
Page 41 and 42: The keys to that discovery are vari
Page 43 and 44: Focus On Adena Engraved TabletsAden
Page 45 and 46: Focus On An Adena ShamanIn 1950, be
Page 47 and 48: county, or state law enforcement of
Page 49 and 50: The KENTUCKY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY

woodland period moundbuilders of the bluegrass - Kentucky ...

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