Skip to main navigation Skip to main content

Withrow Creek

Site ID: 15Ne55

Camp
Nelson
Kentucky Archaeological Survey (from the Collection of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology)
Unless specified, we cannot provide site location information.

Summary

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Withrow Creek (15Ne55) is a small, early Late Woodland (AD 400-700) campsite that sits on an upland ridge crest in Nelson County.  The University of Kentucky's Program for Cultural Resource Assessment investigated the site in 1997,​ prior to the construction of the Bardstown Industrial Park.  

Over the course of several weeks of work, archaeologists documented the remains of several Late Woodland domestic structures, and associated hearths and cooking pits.  Investigators determined​that ancient Indigenous hunter-gatherer-gardeners - either as one large extended family or as two smaller families - had camped there seasonally.​​

Lowe Flared Base spearpoints.

Findings

Patterns of post holes the archaeologists found below the plow-disturbed layer revealed that three to four small ancient Native structures, likely houses, had once stood at Withrow Creek. These post hole patterns also suggested that each structure faced west.  Hearths, cooking pits, and storage pits in front of each structure represented an outdoor activity area.  

Several trash-filled pits were located away from the main occupation area.  Site residents may have processed hides here.

Hickory and red oak were the most common wood species used in house construction, and for heating and cooking.  Other wood species used by the camp residents included white oak, ash, black locust, hard maple, yellow poplar, and slippery elm. 

​Site inhabitants grew native cultigens in nearby fields and gardens. These included nutrious​ seed-producing plants such as goosefoot, maygrass, marshelder, erect knotweed, and little barley. Residents also collected wild plants like sumac, blackberries, and hickory nuts. They also would have hunted deer and smaller game, such as rabbits and groundhogs.

Fragments of broken ceramic jars.

What's Cool?

​Ceramic Concentration and Cross-mends

​Early Late Woodland ceramics recovered from Withrow Creek represent fragments of large globular jars. Native peoples would have used these vessels for cooking as well as for storage.  

During the excavation of one storage pit, investigators found sections of at least three large jars. It is unknown whether site residents intentionally broke the jars and threw them into this pit, or if the jars broke during storage or use.  

All the jars had cordmarked exterior surfaces. Several jar fragments could be cross-mended. One jar was decorated with deep diagonal lip notches.  

​Late Woodland cordmarked jar fragments with diagonal notched lips.

Late Woodland cordmarked jar fragments:  top, rims; bottom, shoulders.

Related Materials