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.
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]
^
abcdefghiClaassen, Cheryl. Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals.
Knoxville:
U of Tennessee P, 2010.
^
abMoore, Clarence B. "Some Aboriginal Sites on Green River, Kentucky". Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 16 (1916): 431-487.
^
abcdeWebb, William S., and William G. Haag. "Archaic Sites in McLean County, Kentucky". University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology 7.1 (1947): 1-46.
^
abMoore, 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.
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.
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]
^
abcdefghiClaassen, Cheryl. Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals.
Knoxville:
U of Tennessee P, 2010.
^
abMoore, Clarence B. "Some Aboriginal Sites on Green River, Kentucky". Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 16 (1916): 431-487.
^
abcdeWebb, William S., and William G. Haag. "Archaic Sites in McLean County, Kentucky". University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology 7.1 (1947): 1-46.
^
abMoore, 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.