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Stone Serpent Mound

Site ID: 15Bd6

Middle Woodland (200 BC to 500 AD)
Earth Mound
Boyd
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
Unless specified, we cannot provide site location information.

Summary

​​The Kentucky Stone Serpent Mound extends across a ridgetop and sideslope overlooking the Big Sandy River. It is one of the very few effigy mounds in Kentucky. A local businessman, Lansing G. Brisbin, Jr., brought the site to the attention of archaeologists in 1971. 

But it was not until 1988 that professional archaeologists from the Kentucky Heritage Council examined the site. They mapped the mound and associated stone ring and carried out limited excavations. They hoped to find artifacts that could help them identify who built the effigy and collect charcoal they could use to date the site. Unfortunately, their investigations recovered neither.

The shape of the Kentucky Stone Serpent Mound is similar to that of the earthen Serpent Mound in southern Ohio. Radiocarbon dates suggest that Indigenous engineers built the Ohio Serpent Mound as early as 500 BC. Native peoples were definitely using it by AD 1000. This similarity in shape suggests that the Kentucky Stone Serpent Mound may be contemporary to the Ohio mound, and thus may have been built during the Middle Woodland (0-500 AD) period.​​​​​​​​​​​

Unit excavation: screening soil to look for artifacts.

Findings

​Ancient Indigenous people built the Kentucky Stone Serpent Mound almost entirely of deliberately placed sandstone cobbles. Although cobble size varies considerably, investigations revealed that most were not very heavy. One or two people easily could have moved the stones used in the mound's construction. 

The mound is relatively large: it spans more than two football fields. The effigy itself measures a total of 630 feet long. The serpent's sinuous body follows the natural topography and ends in a markedly split tail that is oriented northwest. The tail measures 23.1 feet wide at its widest point, and 7 feet wide at its narrowest point.

Like the head of the Ohio Serpent Mound, the squarish-shaped head of the Kentucky Stone Serpent Mound also faces east. It measures 85 feet long and 36 feet wide at its broadest point. The slightest hint of a coil is apparent in the bulged outline of the head. Unfortunately, a road destroyed much of the head before archaeologists could study it.​

A 17-foot diameter ring of stone is located on a lower ledge, 17 feet from where the now-destroyed mouth of the serpent would have been. Some have suggested that this ring may represent an egg.

Mapping a section of the mound.

What's Cool?

Ritua​l Pla​​ces 

​While Kentucky's Stone Serpent Mound and the Serpent Mound in Ohio share some basic simiarities of shape and orientation, there are important differences. The Kentucky effigy is about half the size of the Ohio example, and it was made of stone, not earth. ​​

Regardless of these differences, effigy construction in both cases would have required intensive labor, and may have taken several years to complete​. Native religious leaders would have planned the shape of these serpents and would have overseen the work.

The Ohio Serpent Mound continues to hold religious significance for the three federally-recognized Shawnee tribes. They now reside in Oklahoma, but their traditional ancestral homeland is the middle Ohio Valley. Perhaps the Kentucky serpent also holds religious significance for them​.

Taking notes on a test unit.

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