Track Rock Gap and the Forest Service
Submitted by James R. Wettstaed, Heritage Program Manager/Forest Archaeologist Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests (jwettstaed@fs.fed.us)
Over the last year a great number of claims have been made about Mayans and Georgia archaeology. Many of these claims have focused on sites located on National Forest land. The Track Rock Gap rock art and stone landscape sites on the Chattahoochee National Forest were created by Creek and Cherokee people beginning more than 1000 years ago and continuing into the 1800s. There is no archeological evidence of any link to Mayan people or culture at this site. Stone landscape sites occur throughout the region and are not unusual, but they should be respected and protected.
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The Chesser–Williams House is now at the campus of the 
Read SGA President Catherine Long’s first-person story of adventuring from the Atlanta area to Douglas to attend meetings on the 17–18th August, 2012. En route, she stopped and toured the Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site in Irwin County, and discovered that one of the tales she had heard about Mr. Davis…well, read the full story and find out!
Recently, researchers have studied the chemistry of food remains on mugs from the huge Mississippian-period occupation at Cahokia, a multi-mound site across the Mississippi River from what is now St. Louis, Missouri. They discovered that the chemical profile included methylxanthines present in two species of holly. Historical records from early Euro-Americans record that Native peoples drank teas made from these species. This research confirms that these ritual drinks were consumed for hundreds of years. Also, these holly trees are not native to the Cahokia area, and researchers propose that bark and leaves for making teas were traded inland from native stands along the Gulf Coast.
On Friday, June 29, 2012, twenty-plus members of the GAAS and their guests visited several notable locations in Lumpkin, Stewart County, in southwest Georgia: the Bedingfield Inn, the Hatchett Drug Store Museum, and the Singer/Moye archaeological site, a complex of nine Mississippian mounds, which now belongs to the University of Georgia and is currently being used for a UGA field school.
In a recent 
The Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance, Inc. and Georgia’s Historic Preservation Division (HPD) are partnering in a public archaeology project at the Lyon Farm in DeKalb County. The public is invited to attend and participate in excavations planned over two weekends in 2012. Fieldwork is designed to 1) locate cabins that housed slaves prior to the Civil War; and 2) uncover evidence of Creek settlement prior to the establishment of Lyon Farm around 1800. You must notify HPD ahead of time if you want to participate in this fieldwork.
Come to the Museum at 
Recently, SGA member Tom Gresham found an 1875 article in the Oglethorpe Echo in which the newspaper’s editor and publisher, T. Larry Gantt, discussed an overnight fishing adventure he made with friends along the Oconee River. As Tom comments, “Fortunately, little of the article discusses fishing, and most describes his ten-mile buggy ride to and from the river and the archeological sites they found along the river, including the Scull Shoals mounds.” We offer the full text of the article in a format evocative of the original, and Tom’s account of finding the article.
While 
SGA Vice-President Tammy Herron and two colleagues, George Wingard and Keith Stephenson, attended the 75th Anniversary Reception on Thursday, December 1, 2011 at Ocmulgee National Monument. In a later ceremony, the SGA received a Certificate of Appreciation for helping to “preserve and protect the ‘Ocmulgee Old Fields’” and for helping to “create Ocmulgee National Monument” in 1936.
The first documented find of gold in Georgia dates to the summer of 1829, according to E. Merton Coulter in Auraria: The story of a Georgia gold-mining town (University of Georgia Press, Athens, originally published in 1956 and released in paperback in 2009, and available online for free). Auraria, in Lumpkin County, was a town that flourished during the rush and is a ghost town today.
While volcanoes are undeniably destructive, they can aid archaeological tourism by preserving ancient homes and settlements. We discuss the case of AD 79 Roman Herculaneum, formerly on the Bay of Naples, Italy, and offer a few photographs.
Make a field trip to Athens and check out the Civil War-period double barreled cannon on the top of the highest hill downtown, on the northeast corner of the grounds of the old city hall. Consider visiting the cannon on 22 October 2011, as well as attending the SGA’s Fall Meeting that day and the Society’s silent and live auctions in the evening. 
Macon.com contributing writer Jim Gaines featured a story August 30, 2011, regarding the Lamar Institute’s renewal of their 2005 dig at Fort Hawkins. The article mainly addresses the call for volunteers at the site from October 10 through 28, 2011. Lamar Institute President Daniel Elliott is looking for about twenty-four volunteers who can work at least five days, front $150 to cover basics and insurance, and those with field experience.
Georgia Southern University’s archaeology team has announced more artifacts that have been identified from Camp Lawton. Camp Lawton was a Confederate prisoner of war camp located just outside of Millen. The camp was occupied for only six weeks before evacuations began in the middle of the night on November 26, 1864, as the Union army approached during Sherman’s March to the Sea. “The amount of artifacts and the variety of artifacts we are finding at this site is stunning,” said Georgia Southern archaeology professor and director of the project Dr. Sue Moore. Dr. Moore is a Past President of the Society for Georgia Archaeology. This story considers a trade token found by archaeologists that was issued in 1863 by a grocer-wholesaler in Niles, Michigan.
Jeanne Cyriaque, African American Programs Coordinator for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Division has notified the SGA about the launch of “African American Voices,” Oakland Cemetery’s first cell phone walking tour, which consists of twelve burial sites, located in the African American burial section of the cemetery.
The Sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War began this year. The 
The SGA’s eighteenth annual Georgia Archaeology Awareness promotion, Archaeology Month 2011, had as its theme Gone But Not Forgotten: Rediscovering the Civil War Through Archaeology. The Governor proclaimed May Archaeology Month, at a signing attended by several SGA members. The spring meeting was held on Saturday, May 14th in McDonough. Attendees spent the day socializing and listening to several presentations. On Sunday, attendees headed to Nash Farm Battlefield and Museum, and also the Historical Museum in Heritage Park and Veterans Wall of Honor. The SGA thanks our co-sponsors and all who helped this meeting to be such a success.
When people began to save food for longer than several days, they had to develop ways of storing it that would be safe from predators ranging from other humans to bacteria. Look around a typical Georgia kitchen today, and you probably will see a refrigerator and freezer, cupboards, perhaps a pantry, breadbox, and cookie jar—all for storing food. What strategies did ancient peoples use to store their food? This article uses an example from the Neolithic period in what is now Jordan to investigate how ancient peoples solved the problem of food storage.
Robert Skarda and the Scull Shoals site show will be broadcast on the 
Help save a 
The Natural Trust defines Cultural Heritage Tourism as traveling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present, including cultural, historic and natural resources. The main goals of cultural heritage tourism include improving the quality of life for residents as well as serving cultural heritage travelers who will most likely stay longer and spend more money than travelers who are not affiliated with local history and its cultural environment.
Join Johannes Kolb Archaeology & Education Project, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources on the Great Pee Dee Heritage Preserve, Darlington County, SC on March 7-12, 14-18, 2011, Open 9am to 4pm daily.
Did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s remains have been buried twice? At his funeral in 1968, they were buried at South-View Cemetery on the south side of Atlanta. Then, in 1977, Dr. King’s remains were moved to the famous marble tomb at the King Center that is part of the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site. These events were accompanied by important rituals. Rituals are important components of cultural behavior, but they preserve poorly—and at best incompletely—in archaeological contexts. What are the implications of this for reconstructions of the past based on archaeological data?
Recently, a team of volunteer and professional archaeologists directed by professionals from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, West Florida University, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources have discovered the site of the original lightkeeper’s house on Sapelo Island. Since the collapse of the ruins, probably in the early 1900s, its location had been lost. The SGA leadership visited the lighthouse in February 2010, perhaps walking over the buried remains of the house.
The UGA Student Association for Archaeological Sciences is sponsoring an exciting, free event on Friday, February 18 at 6:00 pm in the UGA Zell Miller Learning Center, Room 171, on the UGA campus in Athens. Archaeologist Dr. Sue Moore, Georgia Southern University, will discuss “Sacred Ground: Archeology at Camp Lawton,” emphasizing recent investigations and new findings at Camp Lawton, a relatively unknown and recently re-discovered Confederate prison camp that operated in 1864 near Millen.
Long-time SGA member Pat Garrow’s new book, The Chieftain Excavations, 1969-1971 reports the results of excavations Pat conducted on the 
The city of Atlanta has undertaken a visionary project to improve the transportation network for pedestrians. Under construction is the Atlanta Beltline project, which includes a 22-mile loop of pedestrian-friendly rail transit, almost 1300 acres of new parkland, and 33-miles of foot trails. Such projects are examples of changes in land use that affect historic and archaeological preservation. 
Human beings are a busy species. We often change the landscape around us. We build homes and roads, we establish fields and dam up creeks. Over time, land use of a particular spot can change quite a bit. This story examines the land use of one hill about two miles east-northeast of downtown Atlanta. Land use change can be considered layers of history….
Get out your calendar and plan a trip to a national park on a fee-free day in 2011. Details are in the full story.
The Cave Spring Historical Society is seeking to restore the town’s old hotel, which has two-story squared-log walls that were long obscured by blue siding.
Are you inquisitive enough to look up when most people don’t? You can often spot something interesting if you look up in public buildings with high ceilings. The full story discusses a mural painted on a ceiling in…wait, take a look and remember if you’ve seen it in real life!
Time to plan a road trip to Russell Cave. You’ll see mountains, navigate woodsy trails, and experience the strange change to sound that happens when you are in a cave. What a great place to think about what it’d have been like to live a thousand years ago—or more!
Even the national news recently picked up on the story about Camp Lawton, where investigations, including a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey, have revealed the exact location of this Civil War/War Between the States prisoner of war camp that was established in 1864.
Are you interested in visiting a castle? There’s a thirteenth-century fortress under construction in northern Arkansas that opened in May. Well, the construction site opened. Planners say it’ll take thirty years to finish the stone complex.
Consider visiting the Chief Vann house, built over two hundred years ago just west of Chatsworth. It was the first brick home in the Cherokee nation. The house overlooks James Vann’s land, called Spring Place Plantation, and what we now call the Old Federal Road. This route followed an earlier foot trail and lead from east-central Georgia to the northwest, eventually crossing into Tennessee. What advantages did Vann, a Cherokee leader and businessman, have that contributed to his wealth and influence?
On Saturday, May 16th, 2010, the Jones Archaeological Museum at the 320-acre Moundville Archaeological Park reopened after a two-year, $5 million renovation. The Moundville site is in Alabama, south of Tuscaloosa. Moundville is a multi-mound civic-ceremonial community dating to the Mississippian period.
The archaeological remains near modern Coolidge, Arizona, now known as Casa Grande Ruins National Monument became the USA’s first archaeological reserve in 1892. The roof protecting the large three-story ruin known as Casa Grande was built in the 1930s. The ruin is constructed of locally available caliche. Read more about the architecture at this stunning site, and of the remains that spread beyond the limits of the preserved area.
Quick: what is the only installation built by the United States military during the settling of the interior of the continent to protect Indians from Indians (rather than settlers from Native Americans)?
Georgia’s Jekyll Island has an interesting past, detailed here. The Island is owned by the the people of Georgia and managed on their behalf by the Jekyll Island Authority. It’s a natural and cultural treasure most of us don’t know enough about.
If you want to have coffee in an historic eighteenth century coffeehouse, you can now do so! The drinks that are offered are tea, chocolate, and, of course, coffee!
Recent data from a geophysical survey of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum, in Norfolk, England, directed by researchers from the University of Nottingham, reveals that this walled town was less densely settled than previously thought. Geophysical surveys do not disturb buried archaeological remains and can reveal important data, using less expensive and repeatable research methods.
John H. Blitz doesn’t mince words. Answering the question who built the mounds at the famous Mississippian settlement next to the Black Warrior River at Moundville, Alabama, Blitz writes: “We don’t know” (page 4). Nevertheless, Blitz presents a useful summary of the settlement, research relevant to interpreting it, and the history of how it came to be the 320-acre Moundville Archaeological Park in a new book.
Even a cursory examination of cross-cultural data indicates that around the globe, in many societies, peoples with many belief systems have built structures important to them on high places. In addition, the structures are often unusually tall when compared to residential buildings. Indeed, important buildings are often tall, large, or both. Why?
An important event in the history of the telephone happened on Jekyll Island. If you wander around the historic area south of the Jekyll Island Clubhouse, now the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, you will find a plexiglass box encompassing an old telephone. Do you know what this commemorates?
Quick: where in the world is the largest concentration of Bronze Age graves?
The Blood Mountain shelter on the Appalachian Trail provokes thoughts about the network of prehistoric footpaths that criss-crossed Georgia.
A crew of students lead by Diana Greenlee of the Department of Geosciences at University of Louisiana at Monroe tested buried circles in the plaza area of the famous Poverty Point site in northeast Louisiana this summer and was able to date the features they tested. This important civic-ceremonial site dates to the Terminal Archaic and is open to the public.
The Coastal Heritage Society of Savannah has been sponsoring archaeological research on Revolutionary War archaeological sites across the city as part of the 
The July 2009 issue of the Smithsonian magazine has an article by Barbara Krieger that details the research lead by Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University at the hilltop fortress palace that the Biblical King Herod built to eventually house his mausoleum. The exact location of his burial place, however, become lost to history, and remained an archaeological mystery until 2007.
Next time you’re in Augusta, go downtown and visit the Springfield community. Springfield community is just west of the original downtown Augusta, right on the river. The community was a free African American community established around the time of the Revolutionary War. The heart of the community was and is Springfield Baptist Church, which was probably established between 1787 and 1793.
Peoples with material culture common across the North American Southeast lived even farther north than the area around Criel Mound, in western West Virginia. Even if you’re most interested in Georgia’s archaeological past, you can best understand it in a regional context….
Dick Brunelle has revealed the answer to the challenge he posed to readers almost two months ago, since no one logged in and submitted the answer. He asked people who made a brick he saw in LaGrange with “LACLEDE KING” stamped on it. As a tease, he noted: The brick is more closely related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, than it is to covered bridges in Georgia. Ed. note: You must read the full story; it’s wonderful!
Identify the maker of a brick GAAS and SGA member Dick Brunelle found and photographed at Hills and Dales, the Callaway family plantation near LaGrange, and shown in the picture to the left.
The wooden building known as Gum Creek Courthouse is over a century old, and can be viewed in northern Newton County.