 Mississippian sites on the Lower Ohio River | |
  Location within Kentucky today | |
| Alternative name | Nolan Site, Village area designated 15BA14 |
|---|---|
| Location | Cairo, Illinois, Ballard County, Kentucky,  USA |
| Region | Jackson Purchase |
| Coordinates | 37°4′3.50″N89°8′38.58″W / 37.0676389°N 89.1440500°W /37.0676389; -89.1440500 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1300 CE |
| Cultures | Mississippian culture |
| Site notes | |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | Platform mound |
| Responsible body: private | |
TheTwin Mounds Site (15BA2 and15BA14), also known as theNolan Site, is aMississippian culturearchaeological site located nearBarlow inBallard County, Kentucky, just north of the confluence of theOhio andMississippi Rivers, and directly across the Ohio River fromMound City, Illinois.
The site was a regional administrative center that consists of two largeplatform mounds around a centralplaza and a large 2 metres (6.6 ft) thickmidden in the village designated 15BA14. Principal occupation of the site was from 1200 to about 1450 CE during the Mississippian Dorena and Medley phases of the local chronology, although somepottery from the precedingLate Woodland period was also found during excavations at the site. For most of its history, it was contemporaneous with another local site,Wickliffe Mounds, which is several miles to the southeast. It is thought that when Wickliffe was slowly abandoned around 1300, the population had been slowly relocating to the Twin Mounds Site.[1][2][3]
A rareCahokiahuman effigy pipe was found during excavations at the site. It is carved fromMissouriflint clay (a variety of easily carved redpipestone only found in eastern Missouri across the Mississippi River from theAmerican Bottom) and measures 17.8 centimetres (7.0 in) in height. It depicts a crouching nude male figure slightly leaning forward and sitting on a small pedestal, similar in design to the "Chunkey player" figurine found at the Hughes Site inMuskogee County, Oklahoma. Many of the male Cahokian flint clay figurines have been associated with theRed Horn mythic cycle of theSiouanoral traditions, although it is unclear which episode of the stories the "Crouching figure" may represent. In 2004 the figurine was loaned to theArt Institute of Chicago for the "Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South" exhibition from the private collection of Tommy Beutell.[4]
| 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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