The myth of Kentucky as a "dark and bloody ground" that was uninhabited by Native peoples save as hunting territory before European contact is persistent - and false. Kentucky has been inhabited by indigenous people since the end of the last Ice Age, and its pre-contact history is globally renowned for a series of spectacular developments, including the origins of agriculture in North America, the elaborate funerary culture of the Adena people, and some of the largest geometric earthworks in the world. Dr. Plank will give an overview of these developments and provide an opportunity to handle some of the artifacts and objects produced by ancient Kentuckians from the Department of Anthropology's teaching collection.
Dr. Shannon Plank is an archaeologist and anthropologist with specialties in ancient Maya archaeology and epigraphy and in the Plains societites of North America. Her research and teaching interests currently center on indigenous cosmologies of the indigenous New World and the way they continue to shape indigenous responses to national and global political and economic forces.
This event is free and open to the public.