Indian Knoll facts for kids

Indian Knoll is an important archaeological site located near Paradise, Kentucky. It has been named a U.S. National Historic Landmark because of its unique findings.

During the 1930s, archaeologists dug up this site. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, they studied the human remains and artifacts found there. This research showed that the people who lived at Indian Knoll were different from other groups of the Archaic period.

Most Archaic people were egalitarian, meaning everyone was equal. But the burials at Indian Knoll showed that its people were divided into two social groups. This division was not based on age or gender, but likely on social class.

What is Indian Knoll?

The Indian Knoll site is known to archaeologists as 15OH2. It is in the Ohio Valley in west-central Kentucky, close to the Green River. This area is famous for its large "shell mounds." These mounds are huge piles of shells left behind by the Native American people who lived there long ago.

People lived in this area for a very long time. However, it was most populated between 3000 and 2000 BC. This was when the climate and plants were becoming similar to what they are today. The floodplain here offered a stable environment. This stability eventually helped people start farming early in the late Holocene era.

In the early 1900s, Clarence Bloomfield Moore was the first to explore a small part of the land. This part was not being used for farming. After a big flood destroyed the farm on the site, William Snyder Webb started more excavations in 1939. Studying Indian Knoll has helped us understand how complex societies were in the southeastern United States during the mid-to-late Holocene era.

Digging Up the Past: Excavations at Indian Knoll

The first big dig at Indian Knoll happened in 1915. C.B. Moore and his team of eight men led this effort. He was the first to report finding a bannerstone at Indian Knoll. His team also found 298 human remains. Sixty-six of these were very well preserved and sent to the United States National Museum.

After a major flood in 1937, Webb and his team began a second excavation. They found 880 more burials. Moore had not fully studied the human remains from Indian Knoll. So, in 1960, Francis Johnston and Charles Snow re-examined them. They estimated there were at least 1,234 individuals, more than the 1,178 reported earlier.

Johnston and Snow found that many babies at Indian Knoll died young, mostly under one year old. Many also died before age four. The average lifespan was about 18.5 years. Slightly more males were buried than females.

Early Discoveries at the Site

The 1939 excavations included long trenches dug next to the Green River. These trenches uncovered over 1,000 burials. They also found evidence of ancient homes with clay floors and six hearths, which are like old fireplaces. Webb also noted tools used for cooking, such as hammerstones, axes, pitted stones, and mortars and pestles.

About 67,000 artifacts were found at Indian Knoll. Some of these were carbon dated, meaning scientists found their age. They were about 5,300 years old on average. These homes are thought to have been permanent places where people lived. The hearths were probably used for heating in winter and for cooking.

The nearby shell mounds contained not only gastropod shells but also animal bones. They also had fire-cracked rock like sandstone and river pebbles. These rocks were likely used for cooking, boiling water, and processing foods like walnuts, hickory nuts, and acorns.

Burials and Grave Goods

The oldest graves at Indian Knoll were found about five feet deep in the sand. Newer burials were found inside the shell mound itself. The deepest graves were better preserved because of the moist sand. Even some delicate bone tissues and infant skeletons remained intact.

Most graves were small and round. They were filled with dark shell mound debris. Burials inside the shell mound did not have formal walls. This suggests people were placed in shallow holes and covered with the surrounding shells. Most skeletons were found in tight, curled positions. This means the bodies might have been wrapped. A few were placed sitting up, and even fewer were fully stretched out.

So many people were buried here that graves sometimes accidentally disturbed older ones. However, burying multiple people together was common between 5500 and 2000 BC. Multiple burials were usually circular, but larger. They often lacked grave goods, except for single projectile points near the chest. These points might suggest violence around the time of death. If a new grave disturbed an old one, the original bones might have been moved. Usually, the bones would be piled up and reburied. Sometimes, parts like skulls or limbs were missing. Robert Mensforth thought this could be evidence of warfare and taking trophies.

Grave goods were found in 187 burials. Shell beads, used as decorations or sewn onto clothes, were not counted as deliberate grave goods in one study. Common artifacts found with graves included pestles, hammerstones, axes, and projectile points. A few copper and stone vessels were also found. Forty-three atlatl weights, also called bannerstones, were found with burials. Webb focused his research on these items to learn more about them.

Dog Burials

Archaeologists found 21 dog burials at Indian Knoll. Seventeen of these were very well preserved. The graves for dogs were treated with the same care as human graves. In nine cases, dogs were buried with humans.

Dogs buried with humans were found with women, children, and men. These dogs were likely killed when their owners died. They were placed on top, below their owner's feet, or at their side. According to Cheryl Claassen, at least six of the ten dogs buried with humans show signs of a violent death. In these cases, the human skeleton was usually face down and had no artifacts. The only burial with two dogs and a face-down human was a female child around five years old.

Claassen suggests these dogs were not just beloved pets. They also had important symbolic and ritual meanings. Similar beliefs about dogs as healers are found in many Native American myths. Some Cherokee beliefs say dogs are spiritual guides and judges. They symbolized good morals and were considered sacred. Claassen also thought dogs might have represented warriors whose bodies were never found after war. This idea comes from finding male dogs in single burials.

Understanding Social Life

Indian Knoll shows signs of long-distance contact with other groups from the Late Archaic period. This includes unusual materials and evidence of warfare. Archaic cultures are often thought of as small groups of hunter-gatherers. They had few belongings and no permanent villages, farming, or pottery. These cultures usually based social status on age, gender, and personal achievements. There were few differences in wealth or possessions.

Studying the artifacts and remains from Indian Knoll helps us better understand how society was organized during the late Archaic period. Grave goods or tools were mostly found with men in other communities. But at Indian Knoll, women and children also had one or many artifacts. This suggests that status was not limited by age or gender, according to N. A. Rothschild.

Some division of labor is clear. Different types of artifacts were commonly found with men and women. For example, men were buried with axes, stone and woodworking tools, fish hooks, and awls. Women usually had shells, bone beads, and nut-cracking stones.

The most common material found in graves was various types of shell. These were made into beads and buttons for personal decoration. Some of these shells were not from the local area. This could mean wealth and status. It also shows that people traded with other Archaic cultures over long distances. Shells like Busycon, Marginella, and Olivella came from the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic coast. They were found at Indian Knoll but rarely in burials, suggesting they were very valuable. A few pieces of copper, another foreign material, show trade reaching as far north as Lake Superior.

Archaic trade networks were like a "down-the-line-transfer." Resources and gifts were passed from one village to the next, not at big trade fairs. This informal exchange network seems more likely. It involved fewer people and had less impact on cultural traditions.

By 2000 BC, tool styles started to vary by region. For example, the design and use of atlatl weights, or bannerstones, changed. These were used to balance a throwing stick. By this time, communities had strong control over their land and resources. This led to more tension and warfare. Relationships between neighboring groups likely became more important with increased trade and hunting or war parties.

By 1000 BC, differences in status were clear in grave goods. Many bodies had multiple puncture marks, broken bones, or missing bones. This shows evidence of warfare and taking trophies. Many bodies were missing skulls and limbs, which were never found. This indicates trophy taking. However, one trophy, a human jawbone, was found at Indian Knoll. It is thought that 12 incomplete skeletons might represent as many as 34 human bone trophies taken by opposing groups. Most injuries were from blunt force, but they were usually not deadly. This suggests organized war parties had clear rules to reduce deaths, rather than just random fights.

Pottery at Indian Knoll

Archaic societies developed early forms of pottery during the late Holocene. A total of 792 pieces of pottery were found at Indian Knoll. All of them had shell or grit added to the clay. Most were found within the first foot and a half of the mound. They are similar to the later Mississippian culture's pottery.

Most vessels had wide openings and curved or flat bottoms. They were handmade by building up coils of clay. Pottery helped people use and process wild plants better. It also made food processing and water storage more efficient.

The most common type of pottery had shell added, making up 78.5% of all pieces found. Only 171 pieces of bowls or jars had grit added. Heavy grit-tempered pottery appeared in different parts of the Eastern Woodlands, including the Ohio Valley, between 2000 and 500 BC. The grit-tempered pottery found showed plain, cord-marked, and simple stamped patterns.

Several different finishes were seen on shell-tempered pottery. Nine pieces were cord-marked, meaning they were tapped with a paddle wrapped in twisted fibers. Three pieces showed signs of roughening, made by a rectangular object. Other pieces showed net impressions from mesh fabrics. This is common in much of western Kentucky.

Farming and the Future of the Site

The people living in the Ohio Valley were complex hunter-gatherer societies. They relied on rich food sources from the deciduous forest and floodplain. This included both water and land animals and plants. They regularly used hickory nuts, acorns, roots, and seeds. Later, people in the Green River Region started growing squash. This shows a clear move towards subsistence agriculture, or growing food mainly for themselves. However, this has not been fully confirmed at Indian Knoll.

The Indian Knoll site was never completely dug up. Webb mentioned "difficulties arising from a shortage in the Works Progress Administration labor quota of the county." But little area was left unexplored. In 1966, Indian Knoll was named a National Historic Landmark. Today, the site is part of 290 acres of private farmland.