Hardin Village Site facts for kids
 Location in Kentucky
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| Location | South Shore, Kentucky, Greenup County, Kentucky,  USA |
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| Region | Greenup County, Kentucky |
| Coordinates | 38°44′30.95″N 82°54′53.60″W / 38.7419306°N 82.9148889°W |
| History | |
| Founded | Early AD 1550s |
| Abandoned | AD 1625 |
| Periods | Montour Phase (AD 1550 to 1750) |
| Cultures | Fort Ancient culture |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1930s |
The Hardin Village Site (15GP22) is an old archaeological site from the Fort Ancient culture. It is found on a flat area next to the Ohio River in Greenup County, Kentucky. This village was home to people from the Montour Phase of the Fort Ancient culture.
People lived here from the early 1500s until about 1625. This time was known as the protohistory period. It was when Europeans first arrived in North America. However, by the time European explorers reached this specific area, the Hardin Village had already been empty for a long time.
Contents
Exploring the Hardin Village Site
The Hardin Village site is on a wide, flat area (about 1.2 miles across) near the Ohio River. It is a few miles from today's South Shore, Kentucky. People lived here from the early 1500s to around 1625. This time is part of the Montour Phase of the Fort Ancient timeline.
Village Layout and Homes
The village covered about 11 acres. It measured about 525 feet from east to west and 985 feet from north to south. Like other Fort Ancient villages, it had a strong wooden fence called a palisade around it for protection.
However, unlike many other Fort Ancient towns, Hardin Village did not have a central open space (a plaza). In most villages, houses faced inward toward this plaza. At Hardin, houses seemed to be grouped together. This might be because new houses were often built where old ones used to be.
The homes were built by setting each wooden post into its own hole. These rectangular buildings were then covered with bark, thatch, or animal skins. They probably looked like the longhouses of the Iroquois people. Inside, posts helped hold up the roof. Storage pits were dug along the inner walls to keep food and supplies. Thin walls divided the large homes into spaces for several families. The doorways were usually on the side facing the river, between two larger posts. Some houses were quite big, up to 30 feet by 70 feet. But on average, they were about 1,430 square feet.
Tools and Daily Life
The people of Hardin Village used materials from nature for their tools and jewelry. They used mussel shells from local streams to make tools and ornaments. Animal bones and shells were attached to tree branches to create hoes for gardening.
Animal bones were also shaped into many useful items. These included pointed tools called awls, punches, and fish hooks. They also made bone needles and scrapers for preparing animal hides. For jewelry, they crafted beads, hair pins, pendants, and tinklers. They also made beautiful shell gorgets, which are decorative necklaces.
Gourds from their gardens and turtle shells were used to make ceremonial rattles. These were likely used in special events or rituals.
Pottery and Art
The pottery found at Hardin Village is similar to what was made at other Fort Ancient sites. Women would add ground mussel shell to wet clay. This shell acted as a temper, making the clay stronger and easier to work with. Using ground mussel shell for pottery was a common practice among Mississippian cultures to the south and west. This shows how the Fort Ancient people were influenced by these other cultures.
The clay was rolled into strips, layered, and then smoothed into different shapes. The pottery was decorated in various ways. They would engrave designs with a sharp stick, or create patterns by pressing twine (called cordmarking) or stamps into the wet clay. They also used wooden paddles to beat patterns onto the surface.
Most of the pottery found at the site is called Madisonville-Fox Farm Cordmarked (about 75%). Other common types include Madisonville Plain. Less common types are Fox Farm Saltpan, Madisonville Groove Paddled, Madisonville Net-Impressed, and Fox Farm Check Stamped. These unique decorations and shapes help archaeologists identify Fort Ancient sites. They also help them understand which period the sites are from and which other groups the people interacted with.
Burial Customs
The villagers buried their dead in special areas within the village. Archaeologists have found between 301 and 445 burials at this site. This is the largest number of burials found at a Fort Ancient site in Kentucky.
Most people were buried in an extended position, lying straight out. A smaller number of burials were found in other positions. Some were flexed, with knees drawn up. Others were bundle burials, where bones were reburied together after the body had decomposed. Some graves also had stone slabs.
About half of the burials included grave goods. These were items buried with the person. They included pottery and stone tools, which were often buried with adults. More special or exotic items were often buried with children up to about 4 years old (but not infants under 1 year old) and adults over 50. Men were sometimes buried with fancy engraved shell ornaments, hematite, and metal objects. These metal items, like brass tubes and copper, came from European sources. These special trade items reached the Fort Ancient people through Mississippian culture groups to their south and west.
Studies of these burials show that Fort Ancient people were not as healthy as their ancestors who farmed less. This was partly because they relied heavily on maize (corn) for food. Eating a lot of corn without other foods could lead to health problems. This caused many Fort Ancient people to have issues like arthritis and dental diseases. They also had shorter lives and many babies did not survive. Their diet also made them more likely to get infections.
Archaeological Digs
The Hardin Village site has been excavated several times. The first digs happened in the late 1930s. More work was done in 1966. Most recently, archaeologists from the University of Kentucky excavated the site in 2015.
Images for kids
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Mississippian shell gorget from the Hardin Village site
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A typical piece of Fort Ancient pottery
