12/15/2023 0 Comments Slack family cemetery to ne moves![]() During the 1987 looting, 650 to 750 graves were opened by the looters. ![]() In Late Caborn-Welborn times, European trade goods such as glass beads, copper/brass bracelets and tubes were deposited in the graves. Grave goods such as limestone disc pipes, shell beads and ear plugs, as well as small pottery jars were often included, usually near the body's upper torso. They were often laid out in parallel rows and the absence of overlapping burials sug-gests that they were marked in some way. Burials were typically in extended positions. "Each section of the large village maintained its own cemetery. The pits were large enough to have stored enough grain to feed 7 to 12 people for a year. Located near most houses were special pits used to store maize and other dried foods. Houses were typical Mississippian rectangular wall trench wattle and daub structures set in shallow basins. A shallow ravine bisects the site running from the west to the south. The Slack Farm site itself consisted of 7 dis-crete village areas surrounding a central plaza and covering roughly 35 acres. There was a mound (Site 15 UN 70) lo-cated on the bluff overlooking the site. Image credit Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, used under "Fair Use", 18 USC 107 Wikipedia describes the Slack Farm Site thusly: "The Slack Farm site is located 4 O on a projecting terrace and adjacent levee 300 metres (980 ft) from the Ohio River. ![]() Evidence of settlements and trade routes that could have been in-finitely valuable to the cultural history of the area was demolished for the value of artifacts on the black market." () Illustration 5: Caborn-Welborn decorated jar. The entire site was a vast stretch of gaping holes and ravished graves. All that was left were scattered crushed bones and broken artifacts, lying alongside empty beer and soda cans and cigarette butts. The once well pre-served site of Slack farm with its countless precious remains of a distant people, a site that could have helped researchers find answers to the prehistoric Indian cul-tures was now left ruined. By the time the looters were arrested, the damage had already been done. It took several months before the townspeople complained to the authorities about the digging and the noise. The desires of the Slack's were soon crushed under the massive tires of tractors, along with the bones and artifacts of a long gone cul-ture. The new owners originally kept to the wishes of the Slack family in keeping gravediggers away from the farm, but when a group of pothunters offered the owners $10,000 they relented. The farm had been in the family for centuries, but when the last member of the family passed away, the farm changed owners. In the late 1980's near Uniontown, Kentucky, a farm owned by the Slack family was looted. These sites are of note in order to understand the vast difference between legal archaeology and illegal looting. Ancient American Magazine Arkfeld Site Iron Smelting Virginia, 150 AD:
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