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Butler County · Prehistoric · 3000 BCE – 1000 BCE

Read Shell Midden (15Bt10), Butler County

In Butler County, the Read Shell Midden is another Late Archaic (roughly 3000–1000 BCE) camp-and-cemetery in the same shell-midden world as other Late Archaic sites in Kentucky.

WPA crews dug it from 1937 to 1939 under William S. Webb; more than 240 burials were identified, though poor preservation left only about 152 individuals removable for study. Webb’s 1950 report and later paleodemography treat Read as seasonal habitation plus mortuary ground.

It joined the National Register in 1986 with a thematic group of Archaic shell middens—Kentucky’s densest Archaic shell-midden landscape.

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Published . Last revised .

Chicago

Snowden, Shannon. "Read Shell Midden (15Bt10), Butler County." Kentucky History Drive. Published September 14, 2026. Last revised October 24, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/read-shell-midden-15bt10-butler-county/.

MLA

Snowden, Shannon. "Read Shell Midden (15Bt10), Butler County." Kentucky History Drive, published 14 Sept. 2026, last revised 24 Oct. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/read-shell-midden-15bt10-butler-county/.

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