Adena Landscapes Project

The Adena Landscapes Project is a broad effort to assess how and why groups of people interacted in specific landscape settings approximately 800 BCE to 250 CE in the Middle Ohio River Valley of Eastern North America. The focus of the research is a series of Early and Middle Woodland sites spread across the Bluegrass Region of Central Kentucky. Recently, some geometric earthwork sites in this area were the subject of limited research directed toward understanding their chronology, placement, internal organization, and frequency. Some of this research is collaborative, including the efforts of archaeologists from the University of Mississippi (Dr. Jay K. Johnson), University of Kentucky (Drs. George M. Crothers and Richard W. Jefferies), Pennsylvania State University (Drs. George R. Milner and Logan J. Kistler), and Carl Shields (Kentucky Transportation Cabinet). Results have shown that sites across the Bluegrass contain unique contexts (i.e. buried A horizons, ditches, pit features, post-structures) that could provide insight on when and how humans interacted at these sites, as well as environmental conditions during these events.