woodland period moundbuilders of the bluegrass - Kentucky ...

during ceremonies, and then scattered by shamans across the moundas offerings. They might represent the remains of food eaten duringgraveside feasting rituals. Vessel fragments could represent sectionsof jars used to bring cremated human remains to the mound. Materialscleaned out of other ritual areas could have found their way into themound fill.Alternatively, these objects could have been left behind during moundmaintenance activities carried out between interments and constructionphases. During visits to the mound, relatives could have left objects tomemorialize the dead.Archaeologists think it likely that Adena peoples carried out some oftheir rituals away from, but within sight of, their mounds. Not far froman Adena mound in Montgomery County, researchers have investigatedjust such an activity area.In the center of this site, they documented two posts, an ash pile,and a rock-filled pit containing a small amount of burned bone.Several individuals may have been cremated here. Also near the sitecenter, they found small pits containing charred plant food remains.Plants represented were squash, acorn, goosefoot, maygrass, purslane,sunflower, persimmon, and strawberry. Mourners may have used thesepits for food storage before feasting, or for trash disposal afterwards.Other pits contained a special clay brought to the site and fragmentsof worked barite and mica. Ritual participants may have used the clayto make graves or platforms inside the mound, or perhaps to build themound itself. The barite and mica fragments suggest that Adena peoplemay have made burial offerings or ritual objects at this site.Geometric EarthworksAdena people commonly built their earthworks near other Adenaearthworks and burial mounds. Most are circular, varying in diameterfrom 125 to 300 feet. They consist of an interior space, perhaps aramp extending to the center, a ditch, and a surrounding embankment.However, archaeologists have documented single examples of square andpossibly hexagonal Adena earthworks of similar size in the Bluegrass.Adena moundbuilders moved considerable amounts of earth duringthe construction of these earthworks. They did it all using only diggingsticks to loosen the soil; baskets to transport it; and human muscle.First, they traced a nearly perfect circle on the ground as a template.Then they dug a C- or O-shaped ditch, and threw the soil outward tocreate the embankment. The ditch could measure 45 feet wide and28