 Mound at the site | |
  Location in Kentucky today Show map of Kentucky Wickliffe Mounds (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Ballard County, Kentucky, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 36°58′15.67″N89°5′34.30″W / 36.9710194°N 89.0928611°W /36.9710194; -89.0928611 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1000 CE |
| Abandoned | 1350 |
| Cultures | Mississippian culture |
| Site notes | |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | platform mounds,plazas |
| Architectural details | Number of temples: |
Wickliffe Site | |
| NRHP reference No. | 84000789[1] |
| Added to NRHP | December 08, 1984 |
| Responsible body: State | |
Wickliffe Mounds (15 BA 4) is a prehistoric,Mississippian culturearchaeological site located inBallard County, Kentucky, just outside the town ofWickliffe, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the confluence of theOhio andMississippi rivers. Archaeological investigations have linked the site with others along the Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky as part of theAngel phase of Mississippian culture. Wickliffe Mounds is controlled by the State Parks Service, which operates a museum at the site for interpretation of the ancient community. Listed on theNational Register of Historic Places, it is also a Kentucky Archeological Landmark and State Historic Site.
The town at Wickliffe Mounds is located on a bluff above the Ohio River, and was both a ceremonial and administrative center of an importantchiefdom in the Mississippian culture. At its peak it had a population probably reaching into the hundreds.
The site is dominated by two largeplatform mounds, with at least eight smallermounds scattered around a centralplaza area.Agriculture was based on the cultivation ofmaize as a staple, which was stored and supported denser populations and stratification of society. The Mississippian culture peoples had trade with societies as far away asNorth Carolina,Wisconsin, and theGulf of Mexico. As in most other Mississippianchiefdoms, the community of Wickliffe had asocial hierarchy ruled by a hereditarychief.
| Phases | Dates | Markers |
|---|---|---|
| Early Wickliffe | 1100 - 1200 CE | High percentages of "Old Town Red", and some "Ramey Incised" |
| Middle Wickliffe | 1200 - 1250 CE | Decrease in "Old Town Red", some "O'Byam Incisedvar. Adams" |
| Late Wickliffe | 1250 - 1350 CE | Increase in "Old Town Red", presence of "O'Byam Incisedvar. Incised", "Nashville Negative Paintedvars. Angel andNashville", exotics such as "Winterville", "Leland Incised" and "Owens Punctated" |
The site was inhabited between 1000CE and 1350 CE. When Wickliffe began to be abandoned around 1300, the population had been slowly relocating to theTwin Mounds Site, several miles to the northeast near the confluence of theMississippi andOhio Rivers.[3]
Amateur and semi-professional excavations first began in the site around 1913 and continued sporadically for several decades. In 1932, Fain W. King, a lumberman, amateur archaeologist, and Indian artifact collector fromPaducah, Kentucky, who was a member of the Board of Regents of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, Tuscaloosa requested and privately paid for the Alabama Museum archaeology staff to conduct the excavations of the center portions of three mounds (A, B, and C) at the Wickliffe site including the cemetery, Mound C. The excavations were done under the direction of Walter B, Jones, Alabama State Geologist, andDavid L. DeJarnette who was the crew chief. The first publicity flyer about the excavations was co-authored by TMN Lewis and Fain King and the first two separate journal articles about the excavations (Wisconsin Archaeologist and Tenn. Academy of Science) by each author said the work was undertaken as both a scientific and educational enterprise through which the public was enabled to examine a page of unwritten history. To defray the cost of operating the site a one dollar admission was charged for the one hour guided tour during the King era.
In cooperation with his wife, Blanche Busey King, he opened the site for tourists under the name "Ancient Buried City". The Kings' venture was highly controversial because they used sensational and misleading advertising, altered the site to make it more visually appealing, and made dubious and exaggerated interpretations of the site. These actions put them directly in opposition to professional archaeologists who studied the site and did not want it disturbed.
The Kings deeded the site to the Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah in 1946, that agreed to pay them a monthly stipend until both of their deaths. The hospital continued to operate the site as a tourism business until 1983 the year Mrs. King died. That year the hospital donated the site toMurray State University, to be used for research and training students. In 1984 the site's historic importance was recognized and it was added to theNational Register of Historic Places. In 2004, the site became the 11th State Historical Site ofKentucky and entered the control of theKentucky State Parks.
In addition to the freestanding Mound A, the major ceremonial mound, the museum park encloses three excavated mounds with archaeological features, to aid in their interpretation for visitors. It displays the outstanding collection of pottery and artifacts excavated on site. A mural with a birds-eye view of the Mississippian village on the bluff shows how the entire complex would have looked.
Ceremonial Mound is the largest of the mounds and was the location of ceremonial structures. This would have been political and religious center of the community. Originally excavated in 1932 and later in 1984–85, it has been determined that there are six phases of development.[4]
TheArchitecture Building covered a mound that was residential. The Architecture Building has been removed and the excavation filled. This mound was built up over 200 years. Until 2016, visitors could look into the layers of this mound. It showed the evidence which archeologists used to identify this as a residential area, such as the layers of charred materials from cooking fires and the postholes for the poles that held thewattle and daub siding.[4]
TheCemetery Building formerly covered the area used as the community's burial ground.Native American practices prohibit the display of the dead. The original remains were reinterred and artificial skeletons were placed to show the original burials. The exterior of the excavation has curtains with traditional designs to cover those remains that could not be removed. The burials are from the 13th century. They included many infants, as well as people with identifiable medical problems, includingarthritis,tuberculosis (TB) and various injuries.[4] All excavations have been filled and the interior can no longer be viewed.
TheLifeways Building is the excavation of an early village/residential portion of the community. The early homes were replaced by an elongated mound. The excavation shows the arrangement of earlier structures, including numerous infant burials.[4]
In the lowerOhio River valley inIllinois, Kentucky, and Indiana, the Mississippian-culture towns ofKincaid, Wickliffe,Tolu, andAngel Mounds have been more closely grouped together into a "Kincaid focus" archeological set, due to similarities in pottery assemblages and site plans. Most striking are the comparisons between the Kincaid and Angel sites, which include analogous site plans, stylistic similarities in artifacts, and geographic proximity. These connections have led some experts to hypothesize that the builders and residents were of the same society.[5] Rare painted and incised sherds ofMississippian culture pottery have been found at all four sites, ranging from less than one percent near Kincaid to about three or four percent of the assemblage at Wickliffe. Some common pottery styles found in these sites include: Angel Negative Painted, Kincaid Negative Painted, and Matthews Incised. This pottery isshell-tempered and ranges from the smoothed surface and coarser temper of Mississippi Ware to the more polished surface and finer temper of Bell Ware.[5]
| 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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