Sweet Lick Knob: Fort Ancient Gathering Place

University of Kentucky excavations documented a structure about 42 by 28 feet (roughly 1,176 square feet) with three deep sacred-pole pits and two rectangular hearths down the center—likely a place for periodic social or ritual meetings. Floor finds include every stage of sandstone disk production and ornaments of eastern Kentucky cannel coal.

The site sits where mountain rockshelters to the east meet lowland villages to the west; the knob itself may have served as a landmark drawing dispersed Fort Ancient groups together.