WARREN COUNTY KY> DESECRATION -- BURIAL GROUND DESECRATIONS,ETC.

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Date Posted: 13:00:07 04/02/01 Mon
Author: Sacred Heart
Subject: WARREN COUNTY KY> DESECRATION

Artifacts find puts stop to road work
State wants to know if any more prehistoric material remains at site

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By Robyn L. Minor, rminor@bgdailynews.com -- 270-783-3249
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Chris Nevens of Elizabethtown looks over two fresh holes Tuesday at an Indian artifact site off Upton Road in Warren County. The area is near expansion of U.S. 231 between Scottsville and Bowling Green. Nevens said he heard about the site and wanted to see it. Photo by Joe Imel

Construction on a small portion of U.S. 231 in Warren County has been halted while state archeologists determine if any prehistoric Indian artifacts remain at the site.
For as much as two weeks, people have dug through the patch of dirt near the Allen County line, finding spearheads and bits of tools used in implement- and weapons-making - some apparently 8,000 to 9,000 years old.

They apparently returned to the site Monday night, authorities said.

The problem was that those artifacts were being illegally removed from state property and without the state�s knowledge, two state archeologists said.

�From an archeologist�s viewpoint, it�s a great loss that something like this was so thoroughly picked over,� said Carl Shields, an archeologist for the state Transportation Cabinet. �We were told that as many as 10 cars were parked there, with people working from sun up to sundown (removing artifacts).�

Shields, who called it disturbing that the state wasn�t notified, spent Monday reviewing the site, which he said had been pretty well denigrated.

He found only bits of flint but said � based on what he�s been told about the other findings � the site could have been a camp for either Early Archaic or Early Woodland Indians.

Kentucky Heritage Council archeologist Dave Pollack said that makes the finds 8,000 to 9,000 years old.

The Heritage Council identified the site years ago while doing an archeological survey for the project to expand the road to four lanes, he said.

�It was recorded and evaluated at that time,� he said. �And, at that time, it was determined it was not significant. But, in that finding, we always leave room to re-evaluate the site.�

From information he has been able to glean about what was found at the site, it likely should have been labeled a significant site, Pollack said.

Whether it still is remains to be seen, Shields said.

�Right now, what we have to do is a salvage operation,� he said.

If there is anything left, it will be excavated, cataloged and curated by one of the state�s regional museums, Shields said.

Once that is done, the site can be cleared for construction again.

Pollack said it�s a rarity that a site

would be �so significant that we would tell the Transportation Cabinet (to) �move your road.��

While the state may not have considered the site significant at the time, Warren County Attorney Mike Caudill said county land in the same vicinity contains what he and retired Western Kentucky University archeology professor Jack Schock consider significant.

Schock in 1997 evaluated the property and found pottery shards from Early Woodland Indians and mounds likely used for religious purposes.

Schock recommended that the county properly excavate a portion of the property, which is likely to contain other artifacts.

Caudill said he plans to ask Warren County Fiscal Court to agree to fund the excavation and then include information about what was found in a permanent display.

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