Green River Shell Middens Archeological District

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
LocationAlong the Green River
NRHP reference No.85003182
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 5, 1994[1]
Designated NHLDMay 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

The district comprises the following sites, listed by their Smithsonian trinomials; names are provided for named sites.

Number[5] Name[5] Location City Photo Comments
15BT5 Carlston Annis Eastern side of the Green River off Kentucky Route 403
37°16′28″N 86°48′19″W[6]: 56 		 Schulztown
15BT6 DeWeese Eastern bank of the Green River in Horseshoe Bend, west of Taylor Lake
37°18′26″N 86°49′4″W[6]: 358 		 Highview
15BT10 Read Northern side of the Green River, west of Morgantown
37°14′33″N 86°47′27″W[7]: 120 		 Monticello
15BT11 Russell Eastern bank of the Green River in Horseshoe Bend
37°16′16″N 86°48′1″W[6]: 358 		 Logansport
15BT41 Rayburn Johnson Eastern bank of the Green River in Horseshoe Bend, northwest of Taylor Lake
37°19′28″N 86°49′4″W[8]: 41 		 Prentiss
15BT67 Woodbury Left bank of the Green River immediately above Woodbury
37°10′51″N 86°37′39″W[8]: 41 		 Woodbury
15HE160 Bluff City 0.5 miles (0.80 km) above Bluff City on a Green River bluff
37°47′58″N 87°22′20″W[9]: 440 		 Hebbardsville
15HE580 None Right bank of the Green River, 1 mile (1.6 km) above Bluff City
37°48′25″N 87°21′56″W[8]: 40 		 Hebbardsville
15HE589 James Giles Left bank of the Green River, east of Bluff City
37°48′20″N 87°19′31″W[8]: 40 		 Rumsey
15HE635 None In the lawn of a house on Reed Bluff City Rd., northeast of Bluff City
37°48′54″N 87°22′12″W[8]: 40 		 Hebbardsville
15McL2 R.D. Ford Along the Green River off Kentucky Route 256, west of Calhoun
37°33′36″N 87°22′0″W[10]: 4 		 Ashbyburg
15McL7 Butterfield Southern bank of the Green River across from the mouth of the Rough River
37°28′57″N 87°8′3″W[10]: 31 		 Livermore
15McL15 Austin Left bank of the Green River, 4 miles (6.4 km) below Calhoun
37°32′36″N 87°18′21″W[10]: 4 		 Rumsey
15McL16 None Left bank of the Green River immediately above Rumsey
37°31′48″N 87°15′5″W[10]: 4 		 Rumsey
15McL17 None Above the right bank of the Rough River, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Livermore
37°29′3″N 87°6′21″W[10]: 4 		 Livermore
15McL109 Crowe Left bank of the Green River, 1 mile (1.6 km) above Livermore
37°28′26″N 87°7′27″W[8]: 41 		 Kirtley
15MU12 Baker Left bank of the Green River, 3 miles (4.8 km) above the Paradise Fossil Plant
37°14′18″N 86°56′47″W[11]		 Skilesville
15OH1 Chiggerville Right bank of the Green River, 3 miles (4.8 km) above the Paradise Fossil Plant
37°14′24″N 86°56′29″W[11]		 Knightsburg
15OH10 Smallhous Right bank of the Green River at Smallhous
37°22′49″N 87°5′33″W[9]: 443 		 Smallhous
15OH13 Bowles Northern side of the Green River opposite Rochester
37°12′51″N 86°53′52″W[12]		 Rochester
15OH19 Jimtown Jimtown Hill, 2 miles (3.2 km) above Livermore
37°28′0″N 87°6′32″W[8]: 41 		 Kirtley
15OH95 J.T. Barnard Across the Green River from South Carrollton
37°20′12″N 87°7′48″W[8]: 41 		 Central City
15OH97 None Foot of Kirtley-River Rd. at the Green River above Livermore
37°26′12″N 87°6′8″W[8]: 41 		 Kirtley

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL)". National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 3, 2010. Retrieved July 15, 2008.
  3. "Green River Shell Middens of Kentucky TR". National Park Service. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  4. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  5. National Historic Landmark Nomination: Green River Shell Middens. National Park Service: 1994-05-05.
  6. Funkhouser, W.D., and W.S. Webb. "Archaeological Survey of Kentucky: Butler County". University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology 7.5 (1950).
  7. Milner, George R., and Richard W. Jefferies. "The Read Archaic Shell Midden in Kentucky". Southeastern Archaeology 17.2 (1998): 119-132.
  8. Claassen, Cheryl. Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2010.
  9. Moore, Clarence B. "Some Aboriginal Sites on Green River, Kentucky". Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 16 (1916): 431-487.
  10. Webb, William S., and William G. Haag. "Archaic Sites in McLean County, Kentucky". University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology 7.1 (1947): 1-46.
  11. 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.
  12. Emerson, Thomas E. Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent. Albany: SUNY Press, 2009, 655.
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