An Official Website of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
Kentucky Heritage Council public education efforts include a series of booklets designed to make information about the results of prehistoric and historic archaeological research carried out in Kentucky more widely available to Kentucky's citizens. In addition, KHC works with KyOPA and other professional entities to post blogs about Kentucky's past. The 30 Days of Kentucky Archaeology blog posts new content each September to celebrate Kentucky Archaeology Month.
2024 Louisville Bridges Project Brochure [PDF, 6.29MB]
2019 Louisville Bridges Project Brochure [PDF, 14.2MB]
by A. Gwynn Henderson
This book describes the lives of one Native American family in central Kentucky in the year 1585. Fishes-With-Hands, his wife She-Who-Watches, and their family grind corn, make cooking pots, and build their homes while in their summer village. In autumn, they attend the funeral and mourning feast of Masked-Eyes. Then they move to their winter hunting camp, where they process nuts, make arrows, and hunt and butcher animals in preparation for the winter. Readers will soon realize that their lives and experiences in many ways parallel those of this family from Kentucky's not-so-distant past.
The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington (1992)
by David Pollack, Cheryl Ann Munson, and A. Gwynn Henderson
The authors describe the lifeways of the prehistoric Caborn-Welborn people, a village farming society that lived in western Kentucky from about A.D. 1400-1700. Information about the looting of the Slack Farm site and what was learned as a result of research there is also presented.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number One (1996)
ISBN 978-1-934492-00-0; 30 p.
by William E. Sharp and A. Gwynn Henderson
This booklet describes the lifeways of hunters and gatherers who lived in Eastern Kentucky 8,000 years ago and discusses how archaeologists learn about the past from the artifacts people left behind.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Two, prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service (1997)
ISBN 978-1-934492-01-7; 16 p.
by Leon Lane, Eric J. Schlarb, and A. Gwynn Henderson
The authors draw on Paleoindian research carried out in Kentucky in general and the mountainous portions of Cumberland and Clinton counties in particular to Paleoindian and Early Archaic lifeways. This booklet presents a new explanation for how the earliest peoples colonized and settled Kentucky.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Three (1998)
ISBN 978-1-934492-02-4; 16 p.
by Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt, Cecil R. Ison, William E. Sharp, and A. Gwynn Henderson
This booklet tells the 10,000-year long environmental and human story of Keener Point Knob, based on research carried out at a small ridgetop pond and nearby rockshelters by paleoecologists, archaeologists, and fire ecologists. It describes the changes in forest vegetation brought about by changes in climate and through prehistoric peoples' use of fire to manipulate the forest as they turned to a gardening way of life. The authors also discuss how paleoecologists and archaeologists go about their research.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Four, prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service (1999)
ISBN 978-1-934492-03-1; 28 p.
by Maria Campbell Brent
This booklet presents Alexander Arthur's attempts to build a modern city in the mountains of Bell County in the late 1800s, during America's "Guilded Age."
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Five, prepared in cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District (2002)
ISBN 978-1-934492-04-8; 30 p.
by Patti Linn and M. Jay Stottman
This booklet describes the discovery, reconstruction, and interpretation of Riverside's first (circa the late 1830s) detached kitchen. Archaeologists, historians, local volunteers and area school children collaborated on this fascinating project.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Six, prepared in cooperation with Riverside, the Farnsley-Moremen Landing, Inc. (2003)
ISBN 978-1-934492-05-5; 34 p.
by A. Gwynn Henderson and Rich Burdin
Drawing on a wealth of information collected from the region’s world-famous shell midden sites, the authors describe the prehistoric lifeways, technology, and health of the people who lived in west-central Kentucky 5,000 years ago.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Seven, prepared in cooperation with William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (2006)
ISBN 978-1-934492-06-2; 32 p.
The author discusses the history of the Fort Ancient people (A.D. 1000-1750), touching on their houses, the layout of their villages, their foodways and technology, their health and diseases, their social and political organization, what they traded, and something of their religious beliefs. This booklet features information recovered from the 2004 investigations of a prehistoric village disturbed by the construction of a basement in Petersburg, Kentucky.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Eight, produced at the request of the Boone County Historic Preservation Review Board and funded in part by a Federal Survey and Planning Grant to the board from the Kentucky Heritage Council and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (2006)
ISBN 978-1-934492-07-9; 48 p.
by A. Gwynn Henderson and Eric J. Schlarb
This booklet describes the lifeways, ritual sites, and burial practices of the Adena people, a hunting-gathering-gardening culture that built large earthen burial mounds in central Kentucky from 500 B.C. to A.D. 200.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Nine, prepared in cooperation with The Institute of Museum and Library Services, Museums for America program, and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (2007)
ISBN 978-1-934492-08-6; 48 p.
by David Pollack, A. Gwynn Henderson, and Peter E. Killoran
The authors report on the re-discovery of a mid-nineteenth century cemetery that lay beneath buildings and parking lots in downtown Frankfort. The Old Frankfort Cemetery was an integrated burial ground for working-class people of African, European, and mixed heritage. This booklet illustrates what can be learned from the study of human bones and provides portraits of some of the deceased by the project's forensic artist.
Kentucky Archaeological Survey Educational Series Number Ten, prepared in cooperation with The Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Finance Cabinet (2009)
ISBN 978-1-934492-09-3; 72 p.
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