The Lyons Adena Cache Greene County Indiana	by Michael Rogers
Central States Archaeological Societies 2023 April Journal	Indianapolis Indiana

Figure 1. Mike Hollar is shown with the entire cache he found on the floor in front of him in the April 1972 issue of Artifacts.

A remarkable cache was found by 16-year old Mike Hollar (Fig. 1) on his family farm in 1972, located three miles south of the town of Lyons in Greene County, Indiana. The average blade in the cache of 191 was 4” in length. Initially, several blades were visible laying on the surface of a high sand ridge. Upon further excavation, 18” below the surface, the remainder of the cache was found. The blades were stacked end-on-end in multiple rows. The cache has remained together with the finder’s family for the past 50 years (Reichert 1972:7).

Shown in Figure 3 are 14 of the cache blades, all of which are currently curated by the author. The largest blade of the 14 measures 5 ¾” X 1 ?” (see Fig. 2)

Adena willow-leaf style cache blades, such as the examples pictured here, are dated to the early Woodland period (1000 BC to 500 BC) and have been found in several locations across southern Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, generally within a reasonable proximity to a major waterway. In the case of the Lyons cache, this waterway is the White River, some five miles to the east. All the blades in this cache are made of Indiana hornstone (Wyandotte chert) with many showing visible areas of cortex as well as ...

 

Read the complete "The Lyons Adena Cache, Greene County Indiana" column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2023 April Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2024

Figure 2. The largest blade of the cache shown full size. Collection of the Author