Green River Shell Middens Archeological District
The Green River Shell Middens Archeological District is a historic district composed of archaeological sites in the U.S. state of Kentucky. All of the district's sites are shell middens along the banks of the Green River that date from the later portion of the Archaic period. Studies of this assemblage of sites were critical in the development of knowledge of the Archaic period in the eastern United States.
Kentucky's Green River runs through a broad alluvial plain, from which outcroppings of bedrock project. The plain is an area that was inundated during the Pleistocene by a water body dubbed Lake Green, which resulted in the deposition of large amounts of silt. The middens of this district are typically located along the prehistoric routes of waterways that were established after Lake Green was drained. Archaic period Native Americans were drawn to these waterways by an abundance of mussels.
The district was established and named a National Historic Landmark on May 5, 1994. Each of the district's twenty-three contributing properties had previously been listed on the National Register of Historic Places by itself. The sites are distributed among five counties: Butler County, Henderson County, McLean County, Muhlenberg County, and Ohio County.
Contributing properties
The district comprises the following sites, listed by their Smithsonian trinomials; names are provided for named sites.| Number | Name | Location | City | Photo | Comments |
| Carlston Annis | Eastern side of the Green River off Kentucky Route 403 | Schulztown | |||
| DeWeese | Eastern bank of the Green River in Horseshoe Bend, west of Taylor Lake | Highview | |||
| Read | Northern side of the Green River, west of Morgantown | Monticello | |||
| Russell | Eastern bank of the Green River in Horseshoe Bend | Logansport | |||
| Rayburn Johnson | Eastern bank of the Green River in Horseshoe Bend, northwest of Taylor Lake | Prentiss | |||
| Woodbury | Left bank of the Green River immediately above Woodbury | Woodbury | |||
| Bluff City | above Bluff City on a Green River bluff | Hebbardsville | |||
| ' | Right bank of the Green River, above Bluff City | Hebbardsville | |||
| James Giles | Left bank of the Green River, east of Bluff City | Rumsey | |||
| ' | In the lawn of a house on Reed Bluff City Rd., northeast of Bluff City | Hebbardsville | |||
| R.D. Ford | Along the Green River off Kentucky Route 256, west of Calhoun | Ashbyburg | |||
| Butterfield | Southern bank of the Green River across from the mouth of the Rough River | Livermore | |||
| Austin | Left bank of the Green River, below Calhoun | Rumsey | |||
| ' | Left bank of the Green River immediately above Rumsey | Rumsey | |||
| ' | Above the right bank of the Rough River, east of Livermore | Livermore | |||
| Crowe | Left bank of the Green River, above Livermore | Kirtley | |||
| Baker | Left bank of the Green River, above the Paradise Fossil Plant | Skilesville | |||
| Chiggerville | Right bank of the Green River, above the Paradise Fossil Plant | Knightsburg | |||
| Smallhous | Right bank of the Green River at Smallhous | Smallhous | |||
| Bowles | Northern side of the Green River opposite Rochester | Rochester | |||
| Jimtown | Jimtown Hill, above Livermore | Kirtley | |||
| J.T. Barnard | Across the Green River from South Carrollton | Central City | |||
| Foot of Kirtley-River Rd. at the Green River above Livermore | Kirtley |