Lower Shawnee Town
Bronze historical marker near site
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 Approximate location within Kentucky today
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| Location |
South Portsmouth, Kentucky, Greenup County, Kentucky,  USA
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| Region | Greenup County, Kentucky |
| Coordinates | 38°43′17.76″N 83°1′22.98″W / 38.7216000°N 83.0230500°W |
| History | |
| Periods | Madisonville horizon, protohistoric |
| Cultures | Fort Ancient culture, Shawnee people |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural details | Number of monuments: |
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Lower Shawneetown
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| NRHP reference # | 83002784 |
| Added to NRHP | April 28, 1983 |
Lower Shawneetown (15Gp15), also known as the Bentley Site, Shannoah and Sonnontio, is a Late Fort Ancient culture Madisonville horizon (post 1400 CE) archaeological site overlain by an 18th-century Shawnee village; it is located near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1983.
Between about 1735 and 1758 Lower Shawneetown became a center for commerce and diplomacy, "a sort of republic populated by a diverse array of migratory peoples, from the Iroquois to the Delawares, and supplied by British traders, Lower Shawneetown had become a formidable threat to French ambitions. With a 'fairly large number of bad characters from various nations' Lower Shawneetown posed a significant challenge to France and Great Britain alike. The community was less a village and more of a 'district extending along the wide Scioto River and narrower Ohio River floodplains and terraces.' It was a sprawling series of wickiups and longhouses...French and British traders regarded Lower Shawneetown as one of two capitals of the Shawnee tribe."
The town was destroyed by floods in November, 1758 and the population relocated to another site further up the Scioto River.
A feature of the site is the "Old Fort Earthworks", a part of the Portsmouth Earthworks known as Group A. Built between 100 BCE and 500 CE by the Adena culture, the earthworks are a series of large rectangular enclosures connected to the main features of the group (located across the Ohio River in Portsmouth) by an earthen causeway.
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Wikipedia