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Green River Archaic People

The section contains excerpts from Hunters and Gatherers of the Green River Valley, a booklet authored by A. Gwynn Henderson and Rick Burdin (published by Kentucky Archaeology Survey, 2006). The excerpts contain a few minor edits to clarify or summarize some of the information. Excerpts are in quotation marks, and edits are in italics. The whole booklet may be found here: https://www.kentuckyarchaeologicalsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Green-River-Archaic.pdf

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Dripping Springs Farm is in Warren County and is about 4 miles from the Green River, not far from the study area described in the booklet.  According  to this booklet, the people of the Green River Archaic Culture may have traveled as far as 50 miles away from the river valley, so it is possible that the artifacts left behind at Dripping Springs Farm could have been left by these people .

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“Many Kentuckians are familiar with John Prine’s popular song of west-central Kentucky. In it, a boy wants his daddy to take him back to Muhlenberg County, the Green River, and the town of Paradise. Fewer Kentuckians know about the prehistoric people, who, like the citizens of Paradise, also once lived along the Green River. In the song, “Mr. Peabody’s coal train” hauled Paradise away. But many of the places these ancient people lived still remain, protected by landowners who take their role as stewards of Kentucky’s past seriously. In a state rich with prehistoric mounds and earthworks, villages and camps, rockshelters and rock art, archaeologists have recorded more than 1,700 prehistoric sites (along the Green River Valley) in Butler, Ohio, Henderson, McLean, and Muhlenberg counties. There are undoubtedly hundreds of others that have yet to be recorded.”

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“Many, but not all of these sites, contain enormous amounts of freshwater mussel shell. Over centuries, the day-to-day activities of prehistoric hunters and gatherers built up these shell heaps or shell middens (deposits of organic debris and other materials). Archaeologists refer to the people who lived at these sites as the Green River Archaic Culture. Their way of life flourished from 6,000 to 3,000 years ago. This booklet presents a snapshot of what archaeologists currently know about the Green River Archaic people from around 5,000 years ago.”

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“People have studied the Green River Archaic Culture for nearly a century. Clarence B. Moore, an independently wealthy man, was the first. From 1915 to 1916, Moore traveled up the Green River in a stern-wheel boat, interviewing local farmers about shell midden sites. He spent nine weeks studying ten sites and focused most of his efforts on Indian Knoll, one of the largest. Scientific research targeted the Green River’s shell midden sites from 1937 until the Second World War began in 1941.”

“Hundreds of local men, as part of the Depression era’s make-work projects, excavated portions of seven shell midden sites and three non-shell midden sites. University of Kentucky professor William S. Webb and his young supervisors fresh from the nation’s few archaeology graduate programs, directed the crews. These men moved enormous amounts of earth. They recovered tens of thousands of artifacts and more than three thousand burials of both humans and dogs.“

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“The information they recorded laid the foundation for all later Archaic research in the region. Archaeologists in the 1940s and 1950s also used information from Kentucky’s Green River sites to help define Archaic lifeways for the entire Southeastern US. In the 1970s, archaeologists William H. Marquardt and Patty Jo Watson from Washington University at St. Louis returned to investigate certain Green River shell midden sites. They wanted to know when prehistoric agriculture began in the Eastern US. Their work, and that of their students and colleagues in the late 1980s and 1990s, has revealed much about the Green River Archaic sites and their prehistoric inhabitants. Indian Knoll, the best known and most extensively studied Kentucky shell midden site, was made a National Historic Landmark in 1964.”

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“Twenty-two years later, 23 other shell midden sites received a similar designation. Archaeological sites become landmarks if they have made nationally significant contributions to our understanding of prehistory. Because of its size and excellent state of preservation, no other collection in the world provides as rich an opportunity to learn about the health and lives of ancient hunters and gatherers as does that of Indian Knoll and the other Green River shell midden sites. Today, researchers from all over the world visit the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky to study the materials from these important sites.”

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Time periods in Kentucky history, showing when the Green River Archaic Culture flourished. (table to be added)

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“Before the Green River Archaic Culture began, Paleoindian and earlier Archaic period hunters and gatherers had inhabited the Green River valley for thousands of years. These people lived in very small families. They moved widely and often across a Green River valley that looked like Canada’s does today. So, why did the Green River Archaic Culture occur when it did? Around 8,500 years ago, the climate began to change all across the Midwestern US, including the Green River valley. Temperatures rose. It rained and snowed less in the winter, and each year the valley experienced long, dry spells. Scientists call this period the Hypsithermal. It was in full swing between 7,000 and 5,500 years ago. Plant communities, the river, and people adapted to these climatic changes. Stands of dryness-loving deciduous trees expanded at the expense of evergreens and trees that preferred a wetter climate. The Green River became shallower. Less snow meant fewer springtime floods. People began to move less often and within smaller areas. Thus, a new hunting and gathering way of life developed in the Green River valley: the Green River Archaic Culture. The climate began to change again about 3,000 years ago. Rainfall became more evenly distributed throughout the year. Temperatures became slightly cooler and more like today’s. People developed new ways to live.”

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“Descendants of the Green River Archaic people, the Woodland period gardeners, came to camp on the shell midden sites. Later, their descendants, the Mississippian period farmers, built villages in the region. Now we are the people who live in the Green River valley. Why did this distinctive hunting, gathering, and shell fishing way of life develop in the Green River valley? Five thousand years ago, meeting basic needs was not a particularly difficult task for people. They were surrounded by abundant and reliable natural resources. Research at the shell midden sites gives us some idea about what the valley might have looked like back then. Cottonwood, sycamore, river birch, and willow lined the lower riverbanks. In some bottoms, cane grew in large stands. Grapes and other viney plants created a tangle of vegetation. The slopes leading from the bottoms to the uplands were forested with beech, sugar maple, chestnut, and several species of oak. An oak-hickory-tulip tree forest covered the uplands.”

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“In the middle Green River valley, the river flowed across ancient lake deposits. At certain spots, it flowed across sandstone bedrock. In these locations, before modern dams disrupted its natural flow, the river formed shallow, fast-flowing riffles or shoals. Deeper pools of water, slowed by rocks and logs, occurred alongside the riffles. Along the mudbanks, smaller rocks and riverside plants created a quiet riverine environment. All these factors created good conditions for thriving communities of diverse freshwater mussel species. The mussel beds were an important natural resource…, but not the only one that made these places attractive campsites. Fish, deer, and nuts also were readily available there. The shoals also provided perfect river crossings. People could move easily across the river, and therefore move within the valley more freely than had their ancestors. For all these reasons, the Green River Archaic people returned to these places year after year after year, for 3,000 years.”

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“SOCIETY

 Life 5,000 years ago in the Green River valley would have revolved around the family. Between 15 and 20 people probably made up a family. This would have consisted of a man and a woman and their unmarried children; their married children, their spouses and children; and perhaps a few other close kin. Membership in families was flexible. Families could adopt outsiders as members. People chose their spouses from families other than their own. Archaeologists think that, once married, a woman may have left her own family to live with her husband and his family.”

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“Leaders could have been men who were the most successful hunters or whom others respected for their common sense or intelligence. These men did not hold their leadership positions permanently, however. They led when the need arose, like when several families came together at certain times of the year and ceremonies had to be organized. Sharing would have been a basic rule of Green River Archaic life. Everything belonged to the family. No single person owned food or natural resources or land. This way, everyone had equal access to all the necessities of life. Differences in age and gender also created rules by which families lived. It is likely that men were the hunters, while women collected plants and mussels and took care of children. Older men and women probably served as religious leaders.”

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“Personal accomplishments set some people or families apart. Archaeologists base this suggestion on the fact that Archaic people buried a few men, women, and children with rare and valuable objects. These included engraved marine shell pendants, marine shell bead and stone bead necklaces, copper pins and beads, and decorated bone pins… These objects were valuable because it took a long time to make them and because some were manufactured from non-local materials. Their value also may have stemmed from important symbolic or ritual meanings they held.”

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“By identifying the sources of the non-local materials, archaeologists can trace the general routes by which they made their way into the Green River valley. The copper came from the Great Lakes, and the stone came from the Appalachian Mountains. These materials most likely moved thousands of miles from their sources by being passed between many individuals through face-to-face exchanges. Families followed sharing, age, gender, and personal accomplishment rules when interacting with other families. Perhaps as many as six to ten different families might regularly interact with each other during a year. Because they were related by birth or through marriage, these groups of families could ask each other for help, like when food was scarce. In this way, kinship ties knitted families together into larger groups.”

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“SETTLEMENTS

The Green River Archaic people were mobile hunters and gatherers. This means they did not live in a single spot all year. Instead, they moved with the seasons across the Green River valley and into its surrounding uplands.”

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“Their life was not one of aimless wandering, though. Families planned their moves carefully. They drew on their deep knowledge of the life cycles of the local plants and animals, and on where they could find certain resources. Moving most often as families, they might travel perhaps as far as 50 miles in a year. However, hunters could have traveled over a hundred miles from camp before returning. Families lived in the open near streams.”

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“They also lived within upland rockshelters in the sandstone bluffs away from the Green River. Most of their camps were small. Families might stay at a camp for as long as a month or two before moving on. This may have been particularly true during the cold winter months and in late summer and early fall, when many plant foods would have been ready to collect. They did not necessarily return to the same campsite every year. Sometimes they camped briefly in certain spots for very specific reasons. These may have been places where they collected nuts or chert (a stone like flint used to make tools). Even with their mobile lifestyle, though, families would return year after year to certain places. These larger campsites often were located near particularly rich natural resources. Many camps overlooked the Green River’s rich mussel beds. They stayed at these riverside camps mainly in the summer and fall.”

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“Archaeologists don’t know much about what Archaic houses looked like or how people arranged them at any of their camps. They could have lived in hide or mat-covered tents, or brush-covered lean-tos. Information also is lacking about the kinds of activities they carried out at the smaller camps and short-term campsites. The amount and identity of discarded materials at their riverside camps, however, clearly show the kinds of domestic activities these prehistoric people carried out at these places. They discarded firecracked sandstone rocks they could no longer use for hot-rock cooking. They also threw away the animal bones and charred fragments of nuts that were the leftovers from their meals. Women cleaned out ash and burned wood from fire hearths, and threw away mussel shells once they had scraped out the animals from inside. After making and resharpening stone tools, men tossed away the broken fragments. If a bone or antler tool broke during use, or if a child lost or misplaced his father’s spearpoint or drill, it became a part of the midden.”

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“FOOD

Archaic peoples of the Green River valley hunted many different kinds of animals. Based on analyses of their food remains, archaeologists know that these people depended most on white-tailed deer, grey squirrel, rabbit, and raccoon. Green River Archaic hunters used the atlatl, or spear-thrower, to hunt the larger animals. To capture the smaller ones, they may have used snares, traps, and possibly hunting dogs. They probably hunted wild turkey only during times when food was scarce. Because turkeys are fast runners, these Archaic hunters would have speared, trapped, or netted them using ambush tactics or turkey calls.”

“We know that river resources played an important role in their diet. That’s because archaeologists have recovered large quantities of freshwater mussel shells, as well as fish bones and aquatic turtle shells and bones, from the midden deposits at the riverside sites. They also ate snapping turtles, mud turtles, and soft-shell turtles. Hunters would have netted or trapped the snapping and mud turtles. However, they likely caught drumfish, catfish, and softshell turtles with a bone fishhook and plant-fiber line. Besides gathering mussels, these Archaic people also collected a variety of plant foods. Acorns and hickory nuts were their favorites. They also ate many different wild fruits, such as blackberry, grape, strawberry, and persimmon; and the seeds of weedy plants like knotweed and goosefoot. They undoubtedly stored nuts and seeds for use in the winter, when such foods would not have been available.”

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“TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

The Green River Archaic people used plants and animals in more ways than just as sources of food. They worked them into a host of items they needed for their hunting and gathering way of life. Wood and stone also were necessary raw materials. These people used plant fibers and animal sinew to make twine or cord. In turn, they would have made fishing nets, net bags, clothing, and foot gear. Animal skins and furs served as the raw material for clothing and bags. Dyes from plants could have been used to decorate baskets and nets. Plants with medicinal properties would have eased a variety of aliments, such as stomach ache, fever, and toothache.”

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“The Green River Archaic people did not make ceramic jars and bowls. Women cooked food using hot rocks in animal skin-lined pits they dug into the ground. For food storage or serving, they likely used skin or net bags, gourds, or turtle shells. Wooden containers also may have been used for some of these tasks. Gourds may have provided floats for their nets. Flutes or whistles were fashioned from animal long bones. Box turtle shells and gourds filled with small pebbles made excellent rattles. They probably also had drums made from skin and wood. Animal bone, animal teeth, and antler provided the raw materials for ornaments like bone pins and beads. Beads and pendants also were made from freshwater and marine shell. Bone and antler served more functional purposes, too. Many flat, needle-like bone tools have been found at Green River Archaic sites. Stone tool makers used deer antler to form or resharpen spearpoints and scrapers. Sometimes hunters used drilled antler tips as spearpoints.”

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“The atlatl was the Archaic hunter’s weapon of choice. It required skill to make and to use. A two-part tool, it consisted of a wooden spear fitted with a spearpoint of antler or chert, and the atlatl itself: a handle and a hook made of wood, bone, or antler, and often a drilled counterweight or bannerstone.”

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“These people used locally available stone as the raw material for a variety of tools and ornaments. Making chipped stone tools required collecting chert from sources in the Green River valley. Using a hard rock called a hammerstone, the toolmaker would roughly chip out the tool. Then he would use a piece of antler to carefully shape and finish it. Scrapers and hafted endscrapers were used to process meat and hides. Large spearpoints also could have served as knives, but small blade tools would have worked just as well. Pitted stones, sometimes called nutting stones, were used to process nuts. Bell-shaped, conical, and cylindrical sandstone pestles and grinding stones also were used to prepare plant foods and dyes. Among the stone tools used to work wood were grooved axes and adzes. Toolmakers formed these “pecked stone” tools by pecking or tapping a larger rock with a smaller one until the former was the desired shape. Adzes are smaller than axes. Craftspeople probably used these tools for detailed woodworking tasks, like shaping wood for bowls or cradleboards.”

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“RELATIONS WITHIN THE VALLEY

The larger shell midden sites next to the Green River may have served as the focal points for gatherings of several families. These likely happened more commonly between spring and late fall, before each family moved to its winter locations. When these families met up with each other, it was like family reunions are today. People visited with old friends and made new ones. They talked about what had happened since their last meeting: babies that had been born, how much the children had grown, and who had died. As they shared these and other stories, they passed to the next generation family histories of who they were and how they believed they should live.”

“This visiting and socializing apparently included huge feasts. Archaeologists have found large, bathtub-sized pits filled with debris at some of these large riverside camps. They have documented distinct areas where people cooked massive quantities of mussel and discarded the shells, dense concentrations of deer bone, and large numbers of food processing tools. Along with the feasting, they may have held ceremonies, singing and dancing to celebrate the passing of the seasons. After performing the appropriate rituals, these families may have worshipped their ancestors and buried their dead at these large riverside camps.”

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“Also during these visits, some couples might have married. Studies suggest that hunting and gathering families from different areas within the Green River valley did, in fact, intermarry. Before the families parted, they likely exchanged information with their closest friends and relatives. Topics could have included where to find the best raw materials for stone tools and the most suitable campsites. They might have shared information about the locations of good hunting or fishing places, and where to find certain plants. Like hunters and gatherers today, they probably exchanged gifts such as spearpoints, food, and clothing as symbols of sharing and of their relationships. Over time, these large, riverside shell midden sites became places steeped in history. They became fixed in people’s memories and described in stories much like those told about family farms today. In these ways, kin relationships became stronger and family ties expanded.”

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“The Green River valley was home to many groups of families, and so the valley was a patchwork of different homelands. As families moved within the rich Green River valley, they would have encountered families from their own group and those from neighboring groups. Ceremonies and rituals helped maintain good relationships among families and between neighboring groups. But sometimes, peaceful relations broke down and conflicts resulted. A personal misunderstanding may have started some conflicts. Evidence for this kind of conflict may come in the form of shallow, round to elliptical depressions on the skulls of some Green River people. These skull depressions occur twice as frequently on men’s skulls than on women’s. Most did not lead to the person’s death. These depressions were caused by a blow to the head with a blunt object. Individuals could have suffered these injuries during a fight, or, alternatively, during violent social games and contests, in much the same way football or ice hockey players sustain injuries today.”

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“Other, more serious conflicts probably turned into feuds. A feud usually starts with a serious grudge that involves members of two different groups. Feuding groups usually raid each other. Sometimes, the conflicts between neighboring Green River Archaic groups got worse. Archaeologists know this because people in some graves are missing body parts, and other graves contain extra body parts. They infer from these burials that these people raided each other as part of ritualized warfare. During a raid, victorious warriors cut off parts of their enemy’s body and brought them back to their camp. This proved how brave the warrior was and increased his social standing. Burying someone with trophies probably showed that the person was a warrior of some note.”

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“Thanks to the work of countless individuals over many decades, we have learned much about how prehistoric peoples lived in the Green River valley 5,000 years ago. We know something about their tools and settlements, and their health and diet. There is still much we do not know, though, and many questions remain unanswered. What did their houses look like? Where were the best places to collect stone for spearpoints? What kinds of ceremonies did they hold? The list goes on and on. Paradise, Kentucky is gone, but a song helps keep it alive in our memories. Gone, too, are the people of the Green River Archaic Culture who once lived around “Muhlenberg County, down by the Green River where Paradise lay.” The places they lived and the objects they left behind celebrate their way of life and keep it alive in our memories. People were hunters and gatherers throughout much of human history. By learning about how the Green River Archaic people may have met their everyday challenges and arranged their lives, we learn more about ourselves.”

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“The people of the Green River Archaic Culture did not write down their history. They purposefully or coincidentally left it behind in the places they once lived. They actively shared it through stories. Their stories have not been passed down to us. The patterns of objects that remain in the ground at their campsites are the only record of their culture. Their campsites, then, are their legacy.”

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“ Because we live in their homeland, we have a responsibility to preserve and protect that legacy. We are the stewards of their heritage. Their campsites are fragile places, unique and irreplaceable. The growth of towns and cities threatens these sites. So, too, does the construction of roads and bridges, and farming. These disturbances will continue to take place as modern people follow their own lives. The willful actions of looters, however, also threaten their campsites. These people mine the shell middens for the artifacts and human bones they contain. Then they sell them. These people can destroy several hundred years of prehistory in one afternoon. Many Green River Archaic sites have been owned by the same families for several generations. They renew their stewardship responsibilities as the land passes from parent to child.”

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“But, is there something you can do? There is. Start by deciding that these sites are important. Then put that decision to work. If you discover a prehistoric campsite or village, don’t disturb the ground. Record what kinds of artifacts you see. Then report your findings to the Kentucky Heritage Council, the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, or the Office of State Archaeology…. To protect the sites, these organizations keep information on site location confidential. If someone asks to dig for artifacts on your land, make sure he or she is a professional archaeologist. Ask them why they want to dig and what they hope to discover. Ask for their business card and check on them. Insist they give you a copy of the report they write once they have finished their research.”

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“Discourage looting by reporting instances that you know of to the state police or to an organization listed on the inside back cover of this booklet. Speak out against the buying and selling of artifacts. Encourage lawmakers to pass stiffer penalties. The market in prehistoric artifacts encourages looting and leads to the destruction of archaeological sites. Once these sites are destroyed, they can never be replaced. Then the history of these people’s ancient ways of life is gone forever. Each of us has a responsibility to make sure that these long-ago campsites and the history they contain endure for another 3,000 years. You can make a difference.”

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The Kentucky Archaeological Survey is located at the Western Kentucky University Department of Anthropology. https://www.kentuckyarchaeologicalsurvey.org/.

Founded in 1995, the mission of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey is to provide a service to state and federal agencies, work with private landowners to protect archaeological sites, and educate the public about Kentucky’s rich archaeological heritage. The Survey provides hands-on educational experiences to WKU students in the field, the lab, and the community.

The award-winning Kentucky Archaeological Survey undertakes a variety of projects throughout Kentucky. Some are conducted in advance of construction by state agencies, while others are conducted to identify sites on public lands, so that state and federal agencies can be better stewards. KAS works with local governments and non-profits on diverse initiatives, including educational projects that involve grade-school children and civic groups who participate in ongoing archaeological research.