Adena

Groups of prehistoric hunter-gatherer-gardeners, who archaeologists call Adena, lived in central and eastern Kentucky from 500 B.C. to A.D. 200 during a portion of the Middle Woodland period. No other prehistoric groups who lived in Kentucky's Bluegrass region ever matched the Adena peoples' burial practices for complexity, or their tombs for elaborateness. This booklet presents archaeologists' current ideas about their lifeways, ritual sites, and burial practices. The Adena burial mounds and earthworks that remain today testify to these peoples' rich cultural traditions.