Salts Cave is a subterranean cave site located within Mammoth Cave National Park in central Kentucky, about two miles north of the Green River. The temperature in the cave is 59 degrees F all year round. The cave includes three areas, Upper, Middle and Lower Salts cave. The caves have wide and narrow walking passages and large rooms, some 30-40 feet high and 40-50 feet wide. Radiocarbon dates for prehistoric Salts Cave occupations range from 3490-1920 years ago.
Excavations in the cave revealed hearth areas, human footprints, charcola smuchges on the wall and two large fragments of domesticated squash (Cucurbita pepo).
- Read more about Cucurbita pepo
Coprolites in Salts Cave
The most productive recovery from Salts Cave were dried, prehistoric human feces (called coprolites or paleofeces), which informed excavators about the specific diets of the inhabitants of Salts Cave. Food stuffs found within the coprolites included chenopodium, marshelder, sunflower, amaranth, maygrass, strawberries, blackberries and hickory nuts.
- Read more about coprolites
Cultivated plants include bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), squash, sunflower (Helianthropus) and marsh elder (Iva annua).
Excavations at Salts Cave
Salts Cave was excavated beginning in the 1960s by J.R. Caldwell, with excavations under Patty Jo Watson and Robert L. Hall. In the 1980, Paul Gardner undertook an excavation in the vestibule araa, to retrieve additional paleoethnobotanical data.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the American Archaic, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Gardner PS. 1987. New Evidence concerning the Chronology and Paleoethnobotany of Salts Cave, Kentucky. American Antiquity 52(2):358-367.
Watson PJ, and Yarnell RA. 1966. Archaeological and Paleoethnobotanical Investigations in Salts Cave, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. American Antiquity 31(6):842-849.
