White Site facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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White Site (15FU24)
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 Location in Kentucky
Location in the United States
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| Location | 0.8 miles (1.3 km) north of the Adams Site |
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| Nearest city | Moscow, Kentucky |
| Area | 10 acres (4.0 ha) |
| NRHP reference No. | 88000183 |
| Added to NRHP | March 21, 1988 |
The White Site is an ancient place where people used to live a long, long time ago. It's an archaeological site located in Fulton County, in the state of Kentucky.
Archaeologists found this site in the 1980s. Many different groups of people lived here over a long period. Because of its history, it's now known as a historic site.
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Where is the White Site?
The White Site is found near the Mississippi River. It sits on the edge of the river's floodplain, which is flat land that can get covered by water when the river overflows. A smaller river called Bayou de Chien is just south of the site.
The soil here is mostly loam, which is a good mix of sand, silt, and clay. Sadly, in the 1800s, people cut down many trees. This caused a lot of the soil to wash away.
A small stream flows near the site. It empties into Bayou de Chien. There are also old dirt road paths crossing the area. The site itself is on a raised area, like a natural step in the land. It's about 400 meters wide from east to west and 200 meters long from north to south.
How Archaeologists Explored the Site
For a long time, no one knew about the White Site. Then, in the 1980s, archaeologists started looking for old sites in Kentucky. They found the White Site in 1981.
At first, they just collected things from the surface of the ground. This suggested that people from the Woodland period lived there. But in 1986, they dug deeper. This is called a test excavation. They found artifacts from other cultures too!
Digging Up a House
The archaeologists focused on digging up one house. They found the outlines of its walls and roof supports. It looked like the house had been destroyed by fire.
They used a method called radiocarbon dating on pieces of wood from the house. This showed that the house was used between the years 1277 AD and 1427 AD.
The main goal of this first dig was to find out what kind of pottery the people made. So, they spent a lot of time looking for potsherds, which are broken pieces of pottery.
What They Found
Besides the house, they found many other interesting things. They collected 154 potsherds. They also found a pottery trowel, which is a tool for working with clay.
There were also pieces of daub, which is a mix of mud and straw used to build walls. They found many lithic flakes (small pieces of stone from making tools) and four lithic cores (larger stones from which flakes were struck).
They also found bigger stone tools. These included parts of hoes, two bifaces (stone tools sharpened on both sides), and two projectile points (like arrowheads or spear points).
The pottery was a mix of styles. There were pieces from the Mississippian culture and the Woodland period. About 40% of the pottery was plain, shell-tempered pottery. This means tiny bits of crushed shell were mixed into the clay. Some pieces even showed influences from the Wickliffe Mounds site.
They also found 295 burned bones. Most were from mammals, but some were from fish and turtles. The most common plant remains were bits of charcoal from fires. They also found nutshells, mostly from hickory trees. A few corn cupules (parts of the corn cob) were also found. These plant remains were similar to those found at the nearby Adams Site.
What We Learned from the White Site
The archaeologists thought finding the burned house was a big deal. It also helped them understand how big the White Site was. Before this, they had only found small farms or tiny villages from the Mississippian period nearby. The White Site was the first larger village found in the area.
Other big Mississippian settlements often had large mounds for ceremonies. The White Site didn't have mounds. But it was very close to the Adams Site, which did have mounds. This made archaeologists think that the people at the White Site went to the Adams Site for their special ceremonies.
Even though they found clear signs of Woodland-period people, like influences from the Baytown culture and Jonathan Creek, they needed more digging to learn everything.
Protecting the White Site
In 1988, the White Site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is a special list of places important to American history. It was added because of its archaeological importance.
The White Site is one of five archaeological sites in Fulton County that are on this list. The others are the Adams Site, Running Slough Site, Sassafras Ridge Site, and the Amburg Mounds. Most of these sites are from the Mississippian period, except for the Amburg Mounds, which are from the earlier Woodland era.
