Skip to Main Content

Falls of the Ohio River: Archaeology of Native American Settlement

Online ISBN:
9781683402923
Print ISBN:
9781683402039
Publisher:
University Press of Florida
Book

Falls of the Ohio River: Archaeology of Native American Settlement

David Pollack (ed.),
David Pollack
(ed.)
Western Kentucky University
Find on
Anne Tobbe Bader (ed.),
Anne Tobbe Bader
(ed.)
Corn Island Archaeology
Find on
Justin N. Carlson (ed.)
Justin N. Carlson
(ed.)
Western Kentucky University
Find on
Published online:
20 January 2022
Published in print:
25 May 2021
Online ISBN:
9781683402923
Print ISBN:
9781683402039
Publisher:
University Press of Florida

Abstract

Falls of the Ohio River presents current archaeological research on an important landscape feature: a series of low, cascading rapids along the Ohio River on the border of Kentucky and Indiana. Using the perspective of historical ecology and synthesizing data from recent excavations, contributors to this volume demonstrate how humans and the environment mutually affected each other in the area for the past 12,000 years. These essays show how the Falls region was an attractive place to live due to its diverse ecological zones and its abundance of high-quality chert. In chronological studies ranging from the Early Archaic to the Late Mississippian periods, contributors portray the rapids as at times a boundary between Native American groups living upstream and downstream and at other times a hub where cultures converged and blended into a distinct local identity. The essays analyze and track changes in stone tool styles, mortuary traditions, settlement patterns, plant consumption, and ceramic production. Together, the chapters in this volume illustrate that the Falls of the Ohio was a focal point on the human landscape throughout the Holocene era. Providing a foundation for future work in this location, they show how the region’s geography and ecology shaped the ways humans organized themselves within it and how in turn these groups impacted the area through their changing social, economic, and political circumstances.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close