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Prehistory

Welcome to the Prehistory news category at West Virginia Explorer, where you’ll find news and discussion of West Virginia in its prehistoric and protohistoric periods.

Strange rock carvings greeted early explorers of West Virginia

Images of beasts and men decorate a boulder at the Half-Moon archaeological site, now submerged beneath the Ohio River.
WEIRTON, W.Va. — When pioneers and other explorers first ventured into what would become West Virginia, they encountered artifacts of a much earlier age...

Three little-known facts about West Virginia's moundbuilders

The largest of the two Oak Mounds rises overlooks the West Fork River.
The term “moundbuilder” is often used to describe two ancient cultures that archaeologists now know as the Adena and the Hopewell. These peoples lived...

Some mysterious W.Va. rock features may have sacred origins

Cairn on a West Virginia ridge. Photo courtesy Charity Moore.
Editor's Note: If you're familiar with the outdoors in West Virginia, you've likely seen rocks piled in what might seem "the middle of nowhere."...

Ancient stone walls on Armstrong Mountain no old-timer's tale

A historic marker along U.S. 60 promotes the location of the Mount Carbon Walls.
If you grew up listening to the lore of old-timers in southern West Virginia, chances are you've heard of mysterious stone walls atop Armstrong...

Legend of ancient warpath along the W.Va. Turnpike is fact

The West Virginia Turnpike follows part of an ancient warpath through the West Virginia hills.
Older folks who live in the valley of Paint Creek may recall legends about how the stream was named: an ancient warpath followed it...

Ancient West Virginia forests once a mosaic of landscapes

Forests in what became West Virginia were managed in ways we're only beginning to understand.
Historians once assumed that West Virginia had been shaded by a vast unbroken forest, but an expert on old forests in the Mountain State...

Kanawha Valley in W.Va. had highest concentration of burial mounds

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha Valley in western West Virginia once had the highest concentration of burial mounds in North America, though most...

Join WVExplorer prehistoric landmarks initiative!

Exploring Shawnee Park Mound near Dunbar, West Virginia, for Prehistoric Landmarks Initiative
Burial mounds, mysterious carvings, inexplicable stone walls -- relics of the prehistoric past are found throughout West Virginia, but perhaps too few people know...

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