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Research notes

The C. and O. Mounds at Paintsville

On the Levisa Fork at Paintsville, the C. and O. Mounds are two Adena burial mounds that William S. Webb dug and used to explain how Adena people lived.

Updated

Site

  • Two mounds 1,600 ft apart on Levisa Fork floodplain, sites Jo 2 and Jo 9; excavated with WPA sponsorship, published by Webb 1942. Tdar Clay

Paired-post circles

  • Both mounds over circular paired-post patterns, first recognized under Wright Mounds; overlapping alignments suggest reuse over time. Clay

C&O pattern and revision

  • Webb: mound = important person over house, dispersed hamlets, cremated lesser dead (Webb 1942:361-362). Later digs found no villages; circles now read as mortuary structures. Clay

Timeline

  1. c. 500 BC–AD 250 Adena mound building in the Ohio Valley (general range; no site-specific dates used) GK Adena
  2. 1942 Webb publishes the C. and O. Mounds Tdar
  3. 1998 Clay's reassessment of the C&O pattern Clay

Open questions

  • No site-specific radiocarbon dates found; pin uses the general Adena range (-500 to 250), same as other Adena pins.
  • Brief's site numbers 15Jo2/15Jo9 and Haag/Snow chapter credits not confirmed from the cited records; story says Jo 2 and Jo 9 per tDAR.
  • Origin of the 'C. and O.' name not confirmed.

Sources

web