 Looking toward the site from the southwest | |
  Location in Kentucky today | |
| Location | Bardwell, Kentucky, Carlisle County, Kentucky,  USA |
|---|---|
| Region | Jackson Purchase |
| Coordinates | 36°53′52″N89°5′5″W / 36.89778°N 89.08472°W /36.89778; -89.08472 |
| History | |
| Founded | 900 CE |
| Abandoned | 1300 CE |
| Cultures | Late Woodland period,Mississippian culture |
| Site notes | |
| Responsible body: Private | |
TheMarshall Site (15CE27) is an EarlyMississippian culturearchaeological site nearBardwell inCarlisle County, Kentucky, on a bluff spur overlooking theMississippi River floodplain. The site was occupied from about 900 to 1300 CE during the James Bayou Phase of the local chronology and was abandoned sometime during the succeeding Dorena Phase. Its inhabitants may have moved to theTurk Site,[1] located on the nearest adjacent bluff spur to the south,[2] and founded about this time. It is several miles south of theWickliffe Mounds Site.[1]
Marshall is a large village site, with evidence of once having hadplatform mounds andearthworks, although it is unclear from what period these mounds would date. It is one of the few James Bayou Phase sites to be extensivelyexcavated. Because it was abandoned, its archaeological features were undisturbed by later occupations.[2]
In 1985, an archaeological team from theUniversity of Illinois conducted excavations at Marshall, with some work being performed by the university's summer field school.[3]: 43 Four locations were excavated: spots on the eastern and western sides of the central knoll, another on a spur to the north, and a fourth at the bluff edge to the southwest of the center.[3]: 42 On the eastern side of the knoll, a substantialmidden was investigated and found to possess goodstratigraphy; a piece ofcharcoal from the midden wasradiocarbon dated to c. 1027 CE.[3]: 43 On the knoll's western side, excavations examined the remain of house under a midden,[3]: 46 findingMississippian culture pottery tempered with mussel shells. In contrast, the excavation north of the knoll revealed the presence of numerous linearfeatures interpreted as being the remains of several houses constructed on the site in sequence.[3]: 49 Little was found in the excavation site to the southwest of the knoll; the excavators tested a horseshoe-shaped earthwork but could establish virtually nothing aside from a conclusive determination that it was the site's southwestern corner.[3]: 52
| Middle Mississippian |
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| South Appalachian Mississippian |
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| Fort Walton culture | |||||||||||
| Pensacola culture | |||||||||||
| Plaquemine Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Caddoan Mississippian | |||||||||||
| Upper Mississippian cultures |
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| Culture |
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