Stories of Old KentuckyPurcell, Martha C. Grassham, Mrs.
History
Stories of Old Kentucky
Purcell, Martha C. Grassham, Mrs.
Kentucky -- History
It is possible that all agricultural work was done with "digging
sticks." Fishing and hunting were accomplished by arrows, knives, and
spears, chipped from stone or rubbed out of antlers, by fishhooks of
bone, and by nets. There were also "animal calls" made from small mammal
bones, and the hollow bones of the birds. The knives were probably
chipped stone points, clamshells, or bear teeth; there were also awls
of bones, strainers of pottery, hammerstones, whetstones, chisels of
bone, and needles from bones of small animals. Modeling, impressing,
twisting, knitting, painting, and sculpture were carried on; personal
ornaments, rattles, whistles, and pipes were made. Moccasins, beads of
pottery, bone, shell, teeth, and copper, and pottery of various sizes,
shapes, and decoration were and sometimes are still found all along the
streams of the state.
[Illustration: Relics of the Mound Builders.]
We know that they were an agricultural class because in some mounds were
found remains of Indian corn and beans, also hickory nuts, butternuts,
walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and pawpaw seeds.
While in some instances the graves were more or less surrounded by
limestone slabs, in other places the dead were laid on skins or on the
bare ground, and covered with skins and soil heaped above. As this soil
had to be carried in baskets or skins, these immense mounds stand as
mute memorials of their love for one another.
SOME PREHISTORIC REMAINS
There are many curious natural formations in Kentucky; yet the many
artificial mounds also have added interest to the topography, and it is
sometimes difficult to distinguish where nature ends and art begins.
The noted scientist, C.S. Rafinesque, claimed to have discovered one
hundred and forty-eight ancient sites and over five hundred monuments in
this state.
The greater number of the mounds were small cone-like structures from
five to ten or sometimes forty feet in height; in several counties those
of pyramid shape were found, and other counties contained unusual
structures.
In Bourbon were found several sites, forty-six monuments, a circus of
fourteen hundred and fifty feet, and a town whose stretch of walls
measured four thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet.
Hickman County had a teocalli, or temple, ten feet high, thirty feet
wide, and four hundred and fifty feet long.
Livingston with several sites and monuments had also an octagon whose
walls measured twenty-eight hundred and fifty-two feet in length.
In McCracken was found a teocalli fourteen feet high and twelve hundred
feet long.
Rockcastle had a stone grave three feet high, five feet wide, and two
hundred feet long.
Warren claimed a ditched town, octagonal in shape, measuring in
perimeter one thousand three hundred and eighty-five feet.
In Trigg was found a walled town with a circumference of seven thousand
five hundred feet.
A mound more than twenty feet high with a diameter of over one hundred
feet was located in Montgomery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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