The Mount Horeb Earthworks Complex is an

Adena culture The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 500 BCE to 100 CE, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing ...

group of

earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour *Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), mi ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

. It consists of two major components, the Mount Horeb Site 1 and the Peter Village enclosure, and several smaller features including the Grimes Village site, Tarleton Mound, and Fisher Mound. The Peter Village and Grimes Village enclosures were mapped by

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

and featured in

Squier Squier is an American brand of electric guitars owned by Fender. The former manufacturing company, established as "V. C. Squier Company" was founded in 1890 by Victor Carroll Squier in Battle Creek, Michigan, producing strings for violins, ba ...

and

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Green ...

's landmark publication

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley ''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley'' (full title ''Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the Results of Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations'') (1848) by the Americans Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton D ...

in 1848 as Plate XIV Figures 3 and 4.

Mount Horeb Site 1

This site is the center piece of the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's ...

's Adena Park and is located on a bank above Elkhorn Creek. It features a

causewayed ring ditch A causewayed ring ditch is a type of prehistoric monument. It comprises a roughly circular ditch, segmented by several causeways which cross it. Within the ditch is a central area used for inhumations and cremations, usually covered beneath a bar ...

with a circular diameter platform, surrounded by a wide ditch and a wide enclosure with a wide entryway facing to the west. In 1939 the site was excavated by William S. Webb and the

Works Projects Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

. They discovered the postholes of a circular wooden structure on the platform, which Webb speculated was a ceremonial center for a nearby clan. The

timber circle In archaeology, timber circles are rings of upright wooden posts, built mainly by ancient peoples in the British Isles and North America. They survive only as gapped rings of post-holes, with no evidence they formed walls, making them distinct fro ...

was made up of 132 posts, 62 "paired" posts and 8 single posts. In 1936 the site and were paid for through private donations and transferred to the Kentucky Archaeological Society. It is currently owned and operated by the University of Kentucky as part of the Campus Recreation Department.

Peter Village enclosure

The earliest occupation at this site is 300 to 200 BCE and is considered to be a pre-Adena site for harvesting and processing

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cry ...

, which occurs naturally nearby. At this time the site had an earthen enclosure and a palisade and later a deep ditch.

described the site as a twenty sided icosogonal polygon long with a wide to deep ditch surrounding it. An entryway to the enclosure was located to the south.

Images in Squier and Davis

Mount Horeb, described as "ancient work near Lexington, Kentucky," was featured in the 1848 book ''

'' by

Ephraim George Squier Ephraim George Squier (June 17, 1821 – April 17, 1888), usually cited as E. G. Squier, was an American archaeologist, history writer, painter and newspaper editor. Biography Squier was born in Bethlehem, New York, the son of a minister, Joel ...

and

Edwin Hamilton Davis Edwin Hamilton Davis (January 22, 1811 – May 15, 1888) was an American physician and self taught archaeologist who completed pioneering investigations of the mound builders in the Mississippi Valley. Davis gathered what, at that time, was the ...

. File:Peter Village enclosure Squier and Davis Plate XIV Figure 3.jpg, Peter Village enclosure File:Grimes Village enclosure Squier and Davis Plate XIV Figure 4.jpg, Grimes Village enclosure

References

External links

Adena Park

{{Fayette County/Lexington, Kentucky Adena culture National Register of Historic Places in Lexington, Kentucky Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Former populated places in Kentucky Mounds in Kentucky Works Progress Administration in Kentucky Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky

Mount Horeb Site 1

Peter Village enclosure

Images in Squier and Davis

See also

References

External links