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Kentucky's First Farmers: Ancient Upland Gardens of Eastern Kentucky

Date:
-
Location:
Lafferty Hall Lobby
Speaker(s) / Presenter(s):
Curated Exhibit by Lisa Guerre and Katharine Alexander
Intended Audience:
Students
Faculty
Staff
Open to Public

Ancient indigenous farmers cultivated land in what we today call Eastern Kentucky using complex tools and techniques.  These Native American ancestors began cultivating edible plants around 3,000 years ago in this “hearth” of plant domestication, such as squash and nutritious oily seeds like goosefoot and sunflower. Archaeologists have recovered extensive evidence here of sophisticated farming techniques which revolutionized land use and society. Ancient indigenous foodways are explored in a new exhibit sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology. The exhibit opens March 13, 2020 as part of the Appalachian Studies Association’s (ASA) annual meeting hosted by UK from March 12-15th. The exhibit addresses the theme for this year’s conference, Appalachian Understories, by confronting colonial myths and stereotypes, challenging marginalization, and addressing violence and erasure. Kentucky has been falsely mythologized as a “Dark and Bloody Ground” before European invasion, a largely unsettled land traversed by primitive people. Kentucky’s First Farmers challenges this myth by highlighting the land’s 15,000 years of indigenous history through an exploration of plant domestication and sophisticated indigenous food systems.