17-07-2025
Who were the people who lived here before us?
I always enjoy when archaeological teams come to the area to check on certain sites.
Back in 1990, when Scott Paper Co. — now Kimberly-Clark — was proposing to build a $500 million tissue paper plant near Newman, a University of Kentucky archaeological team came to check the site.
They discovered a 1,000-year-old storage pit — sort of an early American landfill — and the foundation of a Native American house on the southwestern edge of the 1,100-acre site.
They said the discovery wouldn't hinder construction of the paper plant.
Tom Sussenbach, an archaeologist with UK's Cultural Resource Management Program, said the site appeared to have been a small village that was inhabited twice — the first time from about 850 to 1050 AD and the second from about 1100 to 1400 AD.
That's a period of roughly 500 years — more than twice as long as modern Americans have lived in Daviess County.
''We found a big storage pit — about three feet in diameter and three feet deep,'' Sussenbach said. ''It was used to store food at one time. Later, they threw garbage in it. That indicates a longtime occupation.''
A 3-by-3 foot landfill that lasted centuries may seem odd by modern standards.
But Sussenbach said Native Americans had much less to discard than modern Americans.
And the natural substances decomposed much faster.
The house discovered was 18 feet by 13 or 14 feet, Sussenbach said.
None of the structure remained.
But, he said, ''They used to dig trenches and set posts in them'' to support the houses. ''We found a trench and you could see glimpses of the posts that had been set in them.''
Houses from that time period often had wooden walls plastered with mud, Sussenbach said.
He said he believed the village covered about four acres.
''It was a fairly small village,'' Sussenbach said. ''We don't know if it was all occupied at the same time. They may have moved a short distance.''
The people who lived there ''generally mixed agriculture with hunting, fishing and gathering,'' he said. ''They probably grew corn, gathered nuts and used the Green River for food.''
Sussenbach called the discovery ''fairly significant'' and said he recommended an additional investigation.
''I would anticipate finding other homes, perhaps an earth oven,' he said. 'It will help us learn more about village layouts. This is one of several hundred sites in the lower Ohio Valley, but it's one of the best. It's fairly uncommon to run across one like this.''
In eastern Daviess County, there's approximately 10 acres that were home to a thriving village more than 1,500 years ago, a study in the 1970s said.
It sure would be interesting to know more about those people.
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