In conjunction with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to the William S. Webb Museum, which is being used to create a digital catalog of the museum’s WPA collections, research papers on the Woodland Period were solicited in context of the WPA to encourage use of the archives to address new research questions and build upon excavations dating to this era.  The grant will also be used to prepare and publish a public-oriented booklet highlighting results of Early and Middle Woodland Period research in Kentucky, The Adena People: Woodland Period Moundbuilders of the Bluegrass Region, and to create lesson plans that utilize the museum’s collection of Woodland artifacts and documents.

“Using WPA resources as a starting point not only gives us an opportunity to explore many things we have learned about the Woodland culture since then, but it also is a way of drawing on this body of research to present new ideas, new concepts and new ways of looking at old data,” said Dr. David Pollack, Heritage Council interim executive director and state historic preservation officer.  “This is another reason why museum collections are so important.  When people ask questions about the past, the historical documentation is there, and if we don’t keep and maintain this information this history is lost to future generations.”

On Friday, conference participants will go on a hiking tour of the Red River Gorge area of Daniel Boone National Park.  In 2004 the region was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of rich cultural resources that range from hundreds of prehistoric archaeological sites to historic sites and buildings.  Habitation of the gorge dates back more than 11,000 years with evidence encompassing some of the earliest farmers in the region, Woodland Period settlements, saltpeter miners who contributed gunpowder to the War of 1812, moonshiners who took advantage of the gorge’s isolation to make their product, and Depression-era laborers involved in civil works projects.

On Saturday, presentations will focus on the Woodland Period research, with the remaining sessions addressing other archaeological issues and current research being undertaken in Kentucky.

The Woodland Period is marked by the introduction of pottery and a greater investment in food production.  Woodland gardeners grew a variety of plants that produced edible greens, and most important, seeds that are high in starch, protein and oils.  Among the plants they grew were sunflower and what we consider today to be weedy annuals, such as goosefoot and maygrass.  Woodland peoples also hunted a variety of animals, collected wild plants and tended to build bigger houses and live in larger communities than their predecessors.  Throughout the state, Woodland religious and ceremonial life is reflected in large, circular earthen enclosures and mounds, remainders of religious ceremonies and burial mounds constructed over several decades.

The Works Progress Administration was the largest agency of the New Deal domestic policy program implemented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 through 1943, designed to pull the United States out of the Depression by creating jobs through direct government funding.  The program was manifested in capital improvement projects such as schools, courthouses, bridges, dams, roads and parks built in partnership with various New Deal agencies – including the WPA, Civilian Conservation Corps, Civil Works Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, National Youth Administration, Public Works Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority.

The Kentucky Archaeology Conference is open to anyone interested in Kentucky history.  Registration is $20.  For information, contact Yvonne Sherrick at the Kentucky Heritage Council, 502-564-7005, ext. 112 or email yvonne.sherrick@ky.gov.  For more information about the Kentucky Archaeological Survey and Kentucky’s prehistoric cultures, see the Heritage Council Web site, www.heritage.ky.gov.