Talk:National Register of Historic Places listings in Menifee County, Kentucky

Additional information

The following materials are taken from Wyss, James D., and Sandra K. Wyss. An Archaeological Assessment of Portions of the Red River Gorge, Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky. Archaeological Report No. 1. Lexington: Ohio Valley Archaeological Research Associates for U.S. Forest Service, 1977. I have copied extensive amounts of text because no copyright notice is present — it's a case of {{PD-US-no notice}}. Nyttend (talk) 06:18, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

[page 33] Cowan's investigations at the Roger's Shelters (Po-26 and Po-27) and the Haystack Shelter (Po-47A and B) have provided ethnobotanical analyses of materials obtained under more controlled conditions. Radiocarbon dates from the Roger's Shelters indicate the site was occupied between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., and Cowan (1976:97-98) postulates a similar timespan [page 34] for the Haystack Shelter occupation. Plant food remains from the site include six species of nuts (black walnut, butternut, hickory, chestnut, acorn and hazelnut), four species of fruits (pawpaw, sumac, plum and grape), and four or five possible cultigens (squash or pumpkin, bottle gourd, marsh elder, sunflower, and canary grass). No corn was recovered. Fragments of cane basketry, prepared bark, and cordage were also collected (Cowan 1976:87-101).

[page 36] Cowan conducted limited test excavations at two of the bottomland sites (Po-31 and Po-42) in 1974. One of these sites (the Martin Site, Po-42) produced roughened surface pootery which is similar to ceramics from the Levisa Fork in the extreme Eastern Mountains (Cowan 1976:73-82)...In 1973, members of the Red River Historical Society and volunteers from the university of Kentucky, Department of Anthropology conducted excavations at Mf-32, a single-component Fort Ancient rockshelter site. Materials recovered included corn husks, cordage, cut cane, two species of nuts, and shell tempered pottery, in addition to lithic materials. The depth of the deposit (approximately 10-15 cm) suggested a relatively short-term occupancy (Cowan 1975:101-102). Unfortunately, the materials from Mf-32 have not yet been analyzed and reported.

[page 50] This page notes that Cowan's 1975 survey, undertaken in response to changes in plans for the reservoir, gained stratigraphic information on a multicomponent Archaic site (Po-17) in the valley. Cowan returned the following year to complete testing at Po-17 and Po-42, and to initiate excavation at Po-47B, a Woodland rockshelter site. The data recovered from Po-17 confirmed Cowan's 1973 stratigraphic sequence and provided valuable information on the transition between the Late Archaic and Early Woodland cultures in [page 51] the Red River valley (Cowan 1976:ii). Excavations at the Haystack Shelter (Po-47B), a Late Woodland dry shelter site, uncovered a large quantity of well-preserved organic remains. Split cane basketry fragments, plant fiber cordage, leather, quids, paleofeces, and numerous plant food remains including both native and exotic cultigens were among the specimens recovered

For additional information, check resources given at Talk:National Register of Historic Places listings in Powell County, Kentucky as well as:

• Fryman, Frank B. An Archaeological Survey of the Red River Reservoir in Wolfe, Powell, and Menifee Counties, Kentucky. Tallahassee: National Park Service, Southeast Region, 1967.
• Turnbow, Christopher A., and Lathel F. Duffield. An Archaeological Survey of the Red River Gorge Geological Area in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Powell, Wolfe, and Menifee Counties, Kentucky. Winchester: U.S. Forest Service, 1976.