Our chapter meetings are the first Monday of each month at 6:30 pm at Mercer University in Macon. We meet in the Science and Engineering building there. Archaeologist Dan Battle will speak to us on May 4th about his excavations at a historic tannery in Old Clinton, in Jones County here in Middle Georgia) and OAS Member John Trussell will be our speaker on June 1st. He will show us slides of his recent cruise to Central America, where he visited several Mayan sites and took numerous photos.

The OAS has had some great speakers of late. Jack Wynn spoke in August on the fascinating topic of South American Peruvian archaeology. OAS member Dick Brunelle, who is involved in several SGA chapters around the state, spoke in September about his volunteer experiences in archaeology from projects as different as Fort Daniel in Gwinnett County, the search for the Spanish mission in Telfair County, to the Kolomoki site in Early County. In November, Don Gordy and Terry Jackson gave a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Archaeology at the Singer-Moye Mound Site, 9Sw2, 1967–2008: A Retrospective Summary,” which was an informative talk about the numerous excavations that have been performed at this important mound site and what it all means. The October meeting was a round table discussion of site and cemetery preservation in Middle Georgia. The society has no meeting in December, but has a Christmas party instead on December 17.

In addition to these monthly meetings, the OAS co-sponsored four Artifact Identification Days throughout Middle Georgia since August, including events in Gordon (Wilkinson County), Forsyth (Monroe County), Indian Springs (aka Seven Islands ID Day in Butts County), and Old Clinton (Jones County). Partners included the Wilkinson, Monroe, Butts, and Old Clinton historical societies. A great debt of thanks is also owed to John Whatley, Lloyd Schroder, and Sam Lawson for being pillars of this outreach; OAS members Dr. Bob Cramer, Teddy Howard, David Mincey, John Trussell, and Stephen Hammack have also volunteered their time and expertise at these events. Continuing to educate the public about archaeology is the primary goal of the OAS, so these events are wonderful opportunities to learn what is being found by collectors, to offer to go with them to record their sites, and to tell them about Georgia’s artifact collecting laws. Additionally, the OAS continues to actively participate in the Georgia Paleoindian Recordation Project, a program in which all points from Clovis to Dalton are measured, described, and photographed for submission to database coordinator Jerald Ledbetter.

The OAS has several irons in the fire involving field work on sites in Butts, Houston, and Monroe counties, all with the active involvement and encouragement of the respective landowners. The society also re-elected its 2008 slate of officers for 2009. President David Mincey, Vice-President Teddy Howard, Secretary Stephen Hammack, and Treasurer John Trussell will all be returning for another year. The group continues to meet in Macon the first Monday of each month at Mercer University’s Science and Engineering Building in Room 143 at 6:30 PM. Finally, the OAS would like to bid a fond, but sad, farewell to two faithful members, Rick and Lynn Day, who are returning home to Oklahoma after several years of working at Robins AFB. They have both been stalwarts of the OAS’s Maritime Archaeology efforts in the Ocmulgee River, and Rick also served as the first OAS Webmaster. Rick and Lynn—God speed in your new endeavors!

 

The OAS continues its mission of educating the public about the archaeology of Middle Georgia, and has had several excellent speakers this winter. In January Sam Lawson, recently returned to our area from south Georgia, gave a talk on the locations of the Creek towns that were along the Upper Ocmulgee from 1686 to 1716. Sam has been invaluable in sharing his immense knowledge and research with OAS members informally, so it was great to have him give a more formal presentation. He has some fascinating ideas, in fact, that are sure to shake things up if they are correct. Only excavation will say for sure! For those unfamiliar with this 30 year episode in Middle Georgia history, it is believed that there were 12-13 Creek towns that moved from the Chattahoochee to the Ocmulgee to escape Spanish pressure and raids in the Apalachicola watershed, and to create a trading relationship with the British in South Carolina. The deer skin trade dominated the Southeast at this time, and the Creeks brought in skins in order to trade for European manufactured goods. The Carolinians quickly established trading posts in some of these towns, such as the one on the Macon Plateau site on Ocmulgee National Monument. Sam has been scouring primary and secondary documents for references to these towns and trading posts, and is working together with OAS Secretary Stephen Hammack on finalizing a location map for both known town sites and unknown areas to visit and survey. Additionally, Stephen will soon begin working with a GIS specialist with an archaeology background, who will create a GIS location model for where these towns might have been. Anyone with any hard data is asked to contact the OAS. Thus far we have been in contact with Chad Braley, Sylvia Flowers, Carol Mason, Tom Pluckhahn, Marvin Smith, Greg Waselkov, and several local landowners, to all of whom is owed a great debt of THANKS!

In February, Dennis Blanton spoke to the OAS about his search for the Spanish mission Santa Isabel de Utinahica, which was probably located somewhere in the Big Bend region of the Ocmulgee River in Telfair County. Dennis described these efforts, as “Archaeology Fantasy Camp,” comparing them to Earth Watch-style public archaeology, a thing we have too little of in Georgia. While the site has been known to have produced early Spanish artifacts, it turns out that what has been found predates the dates for that particular mission (which was in the area from about 1610-1640). Dennis explained that there are so many artifacts from the earliest period in Georgia’s recorded history, that there had to have been a significant encampment at the site that lasted for some time. Further, there could only be two explanations: 1) that De Soto encamped there (which would put his much-debated route closer to that theorized by John Swanton, of the 1930s U.S. De Soto Expedition Commission than to the route theorized by UGA professors and students in the 1980s and 1990s; 2) that some survivors of Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon’s doomed 1526 colony at San Miquel de Guadalpe (which was probably located somewhere in Sapelo Sound on the Georgia coast) boated up the Altamaha and settled there among some Lamar Indians. The telling artifacts are the many chevron beads, made no later than 1540, found on the site. Either way, a major reinterpretation of the Spanish in Georgia seems certain!

In March, Lloyd Shroder, author of “The Anthropology of Florida Points and Blades” spoke to the OAS about the Paleo and Early Archaic lithics of Florida and southern Georgia. Lloyd has assisted the OAS at a number of Artifact ID Days, and has spoken to the group once before. One of the most interesting aspects of his talk was his explanation of his theory that based on a sample of 350 Florida Bolen points he studied, there are 10 Bolen subtypes! He calls these: Types 1-5, E-Notched, Wide-notched, Recurved, Ace, and Auriculate subtypes. When asked about Taylors and Big Sandys, and whether or not they are just the same points as Bolens, Lloyd said that he thinks Taylors are equivalent to his Type 1 subtype and that Big Sandys are the same as his Auriculate subtype. After the lecture Mr. Chad Childs of Jones County, a well-known artifact buyer and seller who evidently disapproves of most of Georgia’s artifact collecting laws, then stood up and described an Early Archaic site that he has been digging in Clinchfield, in Houston County, on the property of a local cement factory. This area has been known to collectors for many years, and may not be in existence much longer, due to uncontrolled pot hunting and the destruction of the soil profile by mining.

The OAS has a number of Artifact ID Days scheduled for 2008, including:

1) Hawkinsville – March 8th, 12-4 pm in the Opera House

2) Macon – May 17th, 11-3 pm at Fort Hawkins

3) Thomaston – June 14th, 11-3 pm in the Archives building

4) Milledgeville – July 12th, 11-3 pm in the Old Capitol Museum

5) Gordon – August 16th, 11-3 pm in the Depot

6) Jackson/Indian Springs – October 11th, 11-3 pm at the McIntosh House

7) Gray/Old Clinton – November 15th, 11-3 pm at the Clinton School House

It is hoped that these events will continue to lead to collectors taking OAS members out to record sites. So far about 20 sites throughout Middle Georgia have been recorded by using this strategy. In return, members of the public learn what they have and how old it is, and hopefully they go home a little more educated about Georgia’s archaeological heritage and artifact collecting laws.

Follendore Cemetery pedestalled within development tract.

In other news, a Macon judge came down on the side of a local developer, Moon Family Properties, which had petitioned to remove a historic cemetery from a planned shopping center. The cemetery had evidently been abandoned since the 1960s, and though some family members fought the removal, they lost the court case in the end. The known burials at the site include Joseph Follendore, a native or Germany, and his two sons. The developer graded all around the cemetery, creating the island seen in this photo (at right), well before the case went to court. The “mound” has since been further reduced in size. Archaeologists from a Florida company will be overseeing the removal in the near future.

Brown’s Mount after logging.

And in other bad news, the important site at Brown’s Mount was adversely impacted by logging activities sometime in 2007. It was discovered when OAS member John Wilson (President, Brown’s Mount Association [BMA]) took the OAS on a guided tour of the property in January. Due to an unfortunate oversight within Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which did not consult the Office of the State Archaeologist-a unit within DNR-about the project caused an unknown amount of damage to an earth lodge on top of the Mount (see photo to the left). The BMA is hoping that the OAS will be able to do some investigations at the site in order to find evidence of the famous wall that was in existence on parts of the site at late as the late nineteenth century.

Some good news is that OAS members Rick Day, Matt Marone, and John Trussell are working to get us a permanent website up and running! Rick designed it with photos provided by society members and gave us a preview at the February meeting. The trio hopes to have it up and running sometime this spring.

The OAS continues has continued its work throughout Middle Georgia this fall, and has quite a few interesting activities to report.

Mark Barnes, recently retired National Park Service Archaeologist, gave the OAS a great talk on the old and new theories about Clovis and pre-Clovis sites on November 5, particularly relating to the Borax Lake site in California, the Hester site in Mississippi, and the Hardaway site in North Carolina, and expressed an interest in returning to give a talk on the Spanish mission period in the Southeast, another area of his expertise. Mr. Barnes is also willing to give talks to other SGA chapters. Other recent speakers have included Marty Willett, Chairman of the Fort Hawkins Commission, who spoke on the commission’s plans for the fort’s future, and Dan Elliott, President of the LAMAR Institute, who spoke on his recent findings and theories regarding Fort Hawkins archaeology.

Two OAS members, David Mincey and Stephen Hammack, attended Dr. Al Goodyear’s wonderful Clovis and pre-Clovis talk about the Topper site, which he gave to our sister organization, the Augusta Archaeological Society (AAS) in October.

Stephen Hammack attended the SHPO conference “Eternal Places: Discovering Georgia’s Historic Cemeteries,” and learned a great deal about Cemetery Preservation Plans, cemeteries and Georgia law, and several other topics that will be beneficial to the OAS as it continues to record cemetery sites and to work with historical organizations to document and delineate historic cemeteries. In fact, the Warner Robins Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp has asked that the OAS assist in delineating and mapping the Lt. James T. Woodward gravesite/cemetery, which is under threat from development all around it. This project will be done this winter.

In October, OAS members recorded several sites where Jones County landowner Jennifer O’Kelly has been finding artifact concentrations. These sites include a Clovis point site, a Dalton site that also has other Archaic material, a moonshine still site, a historic house site, a historic cemetery site, a large multi-component site dominated by Late Archaic material, and site where only lithic debris has so far been found.

Landowner Tony Pierce, from the same county, reported that he thought his artifact collection contained some Ocmulgee Fields pottery, indicative of the Creek towns along the Ocmulgee from 1685-1716. As the relocation of these towns is a new OAS initiative, Dr. Bob Cramer and Stephen Hammack visited to peruse the collection. It did indeed include Creek pottery, and a return visit will be necessary to record the site it came from. The collection also includes a great amount of the same pottery from the Mile Track site in Bibb County, as well as a Dalton point, Early, Middle and Late Archaic points, some Woodland points, and a few sherds of Lamar pottery from various sites around Middle Georgia. Also of note was a pipe stem fragment from Sonova Beach, across the Ocmulgee River from the new Waterworks Park, that has a 7/64th bore indicating a date range of 1650-1710.

Lloyd Schroder assisting the public at Seven Islands Artifact ID Day.

The OAS has sponsored 3 Artifact Identification (ID) days this fall, including:

• Seven Islands Artifact ID Day held in Indian Springs at the William McIntosh house on October 27, 2007. This event was a tremendous success and was held in conjunction with the Butts County Historical Society (BCHS), which marketed the event in Atlanta and Middle Georgia. A whopping 175 people brought items to be identified—so many that numbers had to be given out and people had to wait until their names were called! Lloyd Shroder (see photo at right), John Whatley, David Mincey, and Stephen Hammack were on hand to assist the public. Artifacts identified were from both the prehistoric and historic eras and included an unfinished Clovis point, a Suwannee/Simpson projectile point/ knife (see photo below), and two Daltons (all of which were recorded for the Georgia Paleoindian Recordation Project); many Early Archaic crystal quartz points; a fair number of quartz Morrow Mountain points; great numbers of Late Archaic points; some Woodland and Mississippian material; and historic ceramics, spikes, and nails. One gentleman with a large collection of Early Archaic points from a single site on his property attended UGA and took an archaeology course in the 1950s with Dr. A.R. Kelly! It was fascinating to talk to him about his experiences digging on different sites with Kelly and Joseph Caldwell. Another local landowner invited the OAS to visit his family farm and visit what may be the first site that was recorded in Butts County— a project that is now planned for January when deer season is over. Special thanks goes to W.J. Shannon of the BCHS, who organized the event and made it so successful!

• Warner Robins Artifact ID Day held on November 8, 2007, as part of Native American Heritage Observance (NAHO) month. OAS members David Mincey and Stephen Hammack assisted the public. Folks brought in collections from Middle Georgia and from as far away as the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Artifacts included two Clovis points, one Dalton point, Early, Middle, and Late Archaic material, and a small amount of Woodland and Mississippian material. The gentleman from New York shared some pieces from his collection, which was begun by his grandfather and father and includes material from the Lamoka Lake site and many others. He also shared his father’s notebooks, which preserve in great detail the locations of sites and what was found there. Some of the material is on loan to a local New York historical society museum. It is hoped that the three Paleo points, all from Georgia sites, can be recorded at a future date, as the owners said they would contact the OAS for this to be done. Other NAHO events included a luncheon, American Indian dancing and musical performances, primitive skills demonstrations by the talented Scott Jones, free roasted corn, and three talks by the base archaeologist—two at Macon’s Museum of Arts and Sciences and one before the Old Clinton Historical Society. Special thanks go to the Robins NAHO committee for making these events possible.

• Jones County Artifact ID Day, held in conjunction with the Old Clinton Historical Society (OCHS) on November 17, 2007. AAS member John Whatley and OAS members David Mincey, John Trussell, and Stephen Hammack assisted the public, and recorded one Dalton projectile point/knife and made plans to record about 15 more, all from Jones County. Other artifacts included Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian material, and several historic artifacts including a Union officer’s sword, and a token with Arabic writing on one side and possibly Chinese writing on the other that has a square hole through the center and probably dates to the early 20th century. But the most fascinating artifact, if it turns out to be authentic, was a small item carved from a rock with the consistency of soapstone. This artifact came from a field near the Savannah River in Effingham County, and depicts what appears to be a dead Indian with clothes and a haircut from the Spanish Mission era whose sarcophagus is decorated with many native plants and animals (see photos below). It could date as early as the sixteenth century and as late as the late seventeenth century, if it is not modern. Special thanks go to SGA and OCHS member Carol Krom for making this event possible and for showing OAS members and their families around her family farm and feeding us afterwards!

The OAS continues to meet the first Monday of each month at 6:30 PM in Room 143 of Mercer University’s Science and Engineering Building. Please come and visit!

The photos below are various views of an unusual artifact brought to the Jones County Artifact ID Day.

 

The Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (OAS) is working to finalize a meeting place for next year since we have to move from Ocmulgee National Monument (ONM), where we have been meeting since our re-establishment in 2003. The National Park Service’s budgetary restraints have made it impossible to have a ranger on duty after hours next year. This connection between ONM and SGA goes back to the 1930s, when the founding members of what became the SGA organized in Macon, acquired the property, and donated it to the government for a national monument. The relationship continued in the 1950s and 1960s when the Macon Archaeological Society, and in the 1980s when the Middle Georgia Archaeological Society, met at Ocmulgee. As of 2007, the SGA will have a Macon- based society, but no presence at the Macon Plateau site. Perhaps we will return in the future. It looks at this point as though a lecture room in the Willett Science Center at Mercer University will be the new venue. Special thanks go to physics professor Matt Marone, an OAS member, for working on this for us.

Dr. Marone is also working with two students to complete the construction of a magnetometer for use by the OAS in 2007 in locating a number of Confederate cannon tubes that may have been buried in the spring of 1865 by Union General James H. Wilson’s cavalry, possibly on or near ONM property. Dr. Richard Iobst, author of Civil War Macon, is the originator of this project, and others who have volunteered to help include the local United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans camps. Another related project the OAS is beginning to research is the original location of Camp Oglethorpe, an antebellum fairgrounds and militia parade field that was converted to a Union officer POW camp. It appears to be on railroad property now owned by Norfolk-Southern.

The OAS will have a Christmas party at the home of Stephen and Donna Hammack, on a date yet to be decided, in lieu of its regular meeting. Artifact ID Days are planned in Vienna (Dooly County) at the City Park in conjunction with the Vienna Historic Preservation Society on December 2, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., and in Thomaston at the Archives building (the old library) in conjunction with the Upson County Historical Society on December 9 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Special thanks go to John Whatley for agreeing to travel from Augusta for both of these events.

Additionally, incoming 2007 President David Mincey’s Bibb County Clovis point and Bibb County Dalton point were recently re-recorded by Stephen Hammack for a correction to the SGA Paleoindian Recordation Project (see photo above).

—photo by John Trussel

John Trussell and Stephen Hammack visited two small caves along the Houston-Macon County line in August 2006 to look for petroglyphs. Only the Houston cave was large enough to crawl into, though John (2007 OAS Treasurer) put on his thinking cap and opted to take pictures. John’s photo of Stephen emerging from the cave in an uncomfortable position is quite humorous. We found no petroglyphs, but did see graffiti outside the cave that may date to the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. Despite local legend, no underground passageway to Montezuma was discovered. More research is needed before recording the cave as an archaeological site.

—photo by Stephen Hammack

John Whatley, left, of the SGA’s Augusta Chapter, expounds on Georgia lithics to David Mincey (middle; 2007 OAS President) and John Trussell (right) during a brief lull at the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society’s Artifact ID Day in Thomaston in December 2006. This event was held jointly with the Upson County Historical Society at the Archives building in downtown Thomaston and attracted scores of people from all over the county who brought many, many artifacts.

—photo by Stephen Hammack

SGA members and the general public gather for the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society’s Artifact ID Day in Vienna (Dooly County) in December 2006. This event was held in conjunction with the Vienna Historic Preservation Society on the town square in downtown Vienna, and was also very successful.