The Turk Site is a Mississippian culture

Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....

 archaeological site

Archaeological site

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

 located near Bardwell

Bardwell, Kentucky

Bardwell is a city in Carlisle County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 799 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Carlisle County.-Geography:Bardwell is located at ....

 in Carlisle County, Kentucky

Carlisle County, Kentucky

Carlisle County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1886 and as of 2000, had a population of 5,351. Its county seat is Bardwell, Kentucky. The county is named for John Griffin Carlisle, a Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky...

, on a bluff spur overlooking the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 floodplain.

Site

The 2.5 hectare site was occupied primarily during the Dorena Phase(1100 to 1300 CE) and into the Medley Phase(1300-1500 CE) of the local chronology. Its inhabitants may have moved from the Marshall Site

Marshall Site

The Marshall Site is an Early Mississippian culture archaeological site located near Bardwell in Carlisle County, Kentucky, on a bluff spur overlooking the Mississippi River floodplain. The site was occupied from about 900 to about 1300 CE during the James Bayou Phase of the local chronology and...

, which is located on the nearest adjacent bluff spur.

For a regional administrative cednter, Turk is a small site, but this is because of constraints placed on it by the geography of the bluff spur it sits on. The layout of the site is characteristically Mississippian, with a number of mounds

Platform mound

A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...

 surrounding a central plaza

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

.

See also

• Mississippian stone statuary
  Mississippian stone statuary
  The Mississippian stone statuary are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines made by members of the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast...
  
  
• Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
  Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
  The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
  
  
• List of Mississippian sites

External links

• Early shell tempering in far Western Kentucky