Archaeologist Jerald Ledbetter records stratigraphic information to provide context for the looted artifacts and bone.

Burke County State Court Judge Jerry Daniel in January 2010 handed down heavy fines on four east Georgia men who pled guilty to multiple counts related to looting a Late Archaic, Stallings culture shell midden site on the Ogeechee River in southern Burke County, Georgia. The four men were apprehended on private land by Georgia Department of Natural Resources Ranger First Class Jeff Billips and Ranger First Class Grant Matherly in late September of 2009. Two were found on the site with digging tools and fled when approached by the rangers. They were caught and charged with criminal trespass and interfering with the duties of an officer. They initially pled not guilty.

The other two men were arrested the next day when they were observed in the act of digging on the site. They had a number of artifacts in their possession, including a bone tool, several spear points and a shell gorget. One of the latter two men was digging through a human burial when caught. They were charged with criminal trespass, digging on an archeological site without permission and littering, and pled guilty to all counts.

In statements made during the sentencing, Judge Daniel said he knew that important archeological sites in Burke County were being badly harmed by site looters and that he wanted to put a stop to this long-standing activity. He also emphasized that the looters were trespassing on private property, and stealing private property, since archaeological sites (with the exception of burials and associated artifacts) under law belong to the landowner. In an attempt to put an end to destructive site looting the judge levied heavy fines and penalties, which included a $1000 fine for each count, a minimum $7384.00 fine to repair the archeological and physical damage to the site, 12 weekends in jail, community service, three years of probation (which requires a surcharge payment of $52/month) and a ban on attending any type of artifact show. After hearing about this heavy sentence, the first two men then pled guilty to avoid potential harsher sentencing in a trial. The three men who live outside of Burke County (one is from Swainsboro and two are from Metter) were banned from Burke County for three years.

All four men have been digging on sites for many years and one acknowledged that he has dug on many sites on the Ogeechee River acknowledged selling artifacts.

Testifying at the sentencing were State Archaeologist Dr. David Crass and Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns (GCAIC) archaeologist Tom Gresham. Crass requested GCAIC involvement in the case, and Gresham was called to the site in early October to document the site and the extent of the looting. He saw numerous piles of Stallings/Thoms Creek pottery, animal bone and chert artifacts left by the looters, as well as spoil piles containing abundant fresh water shell. After the DNR officers gathered the evidence they needed, Gresham and three colleagues mapped the extent of the looting, calculating that about 290 square meters had been disturbed. They also gathered about 47 pounds of bone, 56 pounds of stone artifacts and 82 pounds of pottery. This material is now being analyzed by Jerald Ledbetter and Lisa O’Steen so that some scientific value can be salvaged from the site. The site dates to the Stallings and Thoms Creek cultures of the Late Archaic period, which spans a critical time in Georgia prehistory, from about 3500 to 4000 years ago. This was a time when Indians in the Southeast were becoming more sedentary and began heavily exploiting freshwater shell fish.

Dr. Crass told Judge Daniel that Burke County contains some of the most important Archaic Period sites in Georgia, and that DNR believes an educated and caring private landowner is often the best protection for such sites. He also pointed out that there is an important distinction to be made between wholesale digging and casual surface collecting, and that DNR (and Georgia code) recognizes this distinction.

The Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns actively supported the efforts of DNR’s Law Enforcement Division to prosecute the case and rectify the damage to the site and to the human burials. Although the Council was disappointed that felony charges of burial disturbance were not brought, it was explained that misdemeanor convictions and appropriate penalties in State Court were a better bet than the uncertain outcome of a felony charge in Superior Court.

Tom Gresham notes that these sentences were largely a result of several actions taken by the archeological community in the past two decades. The principal charge was excavating on a site without written permission of the landowner and without notifying DNR. This law was proposed by archeologists in 1993 to allow prosecution without requiring the landowner to press charges. Additionally, the DNR rangers had been trained and sensitized to the problem of site looting and were very effective in gathering evidence and presenting a strong case. Dr. Crass lauded the two rangers and their colleagues, Sergeant Max Boswell and Captain Thomas Barnard, saying that they handled the case with high professionalism.

Third, it is likely that a long running campaign by archaeologists to inform the public about the harm that site looting does to all Georgians created the atmosphere for harsher sentencing.

Society for Georgia Archaeology President Dennis Blanton observes that

the outcome of this case sends all of the right signals: Georgia’s irreplaceable archaeological sites are under siege and require vigilant protection, there is a broad spectrum of our citizens out there that cares deeply about them, and such sites have a critical story to tell about our human forbears. We can only hope that looters will take note and that others will be alert to illegal digging elsewhere in the state.

Tom Gresham remarked that he had never seen such a wide array of punctated and stab-and-drag motifs on the pottery. One sherd alone has five types of punctation. As noted a decade ago by Ken Sassaman, Stallings-like pottery on the Ogeechee River is mostly sand tempered, with very little fiber. Thus, it is more accurately typed as Thoms Creek pottery. Of the approximately 700 sherds collected from the spoil piles, every one is Thoms Creek/Stallings pottery. The animal bone contains a great deal of deer and turtle bone, and only small amounts of bird and other mammal bone. No fish bone has yet been identified. As mentioned, human bone, probably from two individuals, has also been identified.

Illegal digging on shell middens along the Ogeechee River is a long-standing problem, presumably fed by the antiquities market that highly values bone pins often found in shell middens. Ken Sassaman, Kristin Wilson and Frankie Snow wrote an article in the Spring 1995 issue of Early Georgia citing this problem and documenting two looted sites on the Ogeechee River not far from the recently looted site. It is anticipated that the analysis of the pottery, stone and bone from the present site will be described in an article in Early Georgia.

 

Greenspace projects involve lands set aside to remain undeveloped. In cities, publicly owned greenspace is often in parks. The central purpose of greenspace is to assure that some terrain remain protected from building.

However, greenspace, or lands set aside for planning and conservation, also has significant collateral bonuses. For example, they provide opportunities for recreation, and ecological and environmental benefits. Also, preserving greenspace can often mean the preservation of archaeological sites.

How does that happen?

Here is an example of a new park in Atlanta, called Morningside Nature Preserve. The 32-acre Preserve was dedicated on a foggy morning—Monday, December 14th, 2009. Yes, it’s a preserve, and it is also greenspace.

The Preserve’s property was landlocked, or in the middle of a developed area—both residential and business—and lacking legal access, even for a footpath. Thus, a big part of making this preserve more useful was to obtain legal access, develop a parking area, and build a path from the parking area to the core of the Preserve.

At the dedication, interested individuals and a few dogs assembled. Speakers spoke. Many individuals and organizations received heartfelt thanks and a moment of applause.

Several characteristics of this ritual are common to this sort of dedication. First, it took the cooperation of many stakeholder organizations to make this Preserve happen. The impetus for formation of this preserve came from a few individuals, who kept pushing for this to happen for over nine years.

There was also considerable institutional cooperation. Important organizations involved in the establishment and development of the Morningside Nature Preserve included, of course, the city of Atlanta and several neighborhood organizations, the city’s parks department (which is now responsible for maintaining the Preserve), and, especially Georgia Power Company. Georgia Power set aside land for the parking lot and contributed to development of an access corridor to the central part of the Preserve.

Without all of this cooperation, the Morningside Nature Preserve could not have been dedicated.

Check out the photo gallery for a dozen pictures of this event and the Preserve.

So, how do greenspace projects, like the Morningside Nature Preserve, benefit archaeological preservation? Don’t forget to add your comment….

 

From the spring symposium at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, which kicked off Archaeology Month, to the proclamation signing ceremony at the Capitol, which this year provided closure, Archaeology Month 2008 was a success. Months of planning and hard work by the Archaeology Month committee and volunteer laborers preceded the promotion. Archaeology Month committee members included Betsy Shirk (chair), Dennis Blanton and Kate Ruedrich (poster, lesson plan and spring program), Pamela Johnson (events), Catherine Long (distribution), and Tammy Herron (publicity).

Once again, SGA relied on contributions of co-sponsors and event sponsors to take this program to the public, reaching thousands through our annual promotion. We met our goal of raising public awareness of the importance of our state’s archaeological resources through distribution of 3,000 posters, 1,200 lesson plans, and education of those attending the 22 archaeology month events, including our spring meeting, that celebrated our state’s rich archaeological heritage.

The fifteenth annual Georgia Archaeology Awareness promotion had as its theme “Archaeological Encounters in Georgia’s Spanish Period.” As in past years, educational materials and associated poster, as well as event brochures were distributed statewide to public middle schools, regional libraries, federal and state parks and historic sites, legislators, SGA members in good standing for 2008 and various historical organizations and museums. Event brochures were sent to Georgia Visitor Centers as well.

Materials were distributed the week of April 7. The place to be on Packaging Day, April 8, was Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Catherine Long, Dennis Blanton and Kate Ruedrich coordinated this effort. Volunteers provided the more than 113 hours required to package and distribute the materials. Those who contributed their time were Tammy Herron, Catherine Long, Dennis Blanton, Kate Ruedrich, Tom Gresham, Michael Shirk, Allen Vegotsky, Dick Brunelle, Terri Hynes, Justin Arrington, Scott Morris, David Kasriel, Tom Peard, Lyn Kirkland, Furney Hemingway, Jack Kilgore, and Andrew Vaughn. Members of the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society and Fernbank Volunteers were instrumental in getting the task accomplished.

Dennis Blanton and Kathryn Ruedrich of Fernbank Museum of Natural History provided poster design and associated lesson plan as co-sponsor of Archaeology Month. The poster graphic profiled the three groups (Native Americans, Spanish soldiers, and priests) representative of the Spanish period in Georgia. Text on the poster back addressed archaeological evidence of the Spanish period in Georgia. The lesson plan consisted of 12 pages and included activities and text targeting 8th grade objectives.

Pam Johnson coordinated events, and the events brochure listed 21 events, including artifact identification days, site tours, open houses, lectures, and exhibits. Mary Beth Reed oversaw event brochure design and printing.

The spring meeting was held on April 26 in Atlanta at Fernbank Museum of Natural History and included a full day of presentations entitled “Archaeological Encounters in Georgia’s Spanish Period: New Discoveries and Improved Understandings.” Speakers included Dave Crass, John Worth, Richard Melvin, Jim Langford, Dennis Blanton and Frankie Snow, Jeannine Windham, Mark Williams, David Hurst Thomas, Richard Jefferies and Christopher Moore, Carolyn Rock and David Hally, and Marvin Smith. A highlight of the meeting was presentation of the Caldwell Award to Tom Gresham.

Once again, SGA reached thousands through its Archaeology Month program. We realized our goal of raising public awareness of the importance of our state’s archaeological resources through distribution of posters and educational materials, and education of those attending the archaeology month events that celebrate our state’s rich archaeological heritage.

 

SGA was proud to have a table with activities for children and information for adults at Coastfest 2003, on October 4th.

All photographs are copyright Michael Shirk.

 

Members met at the Jekyll Island Hotel for the 2003 Spring Meeting. Events included a delightful and informative public lecture by Judy Bense, of the University of West Florida, and a walking tour to several archaeological sites, including tabby ruins. Afterward, all adjourned to a beach-side banquet.

All photographs are copyright Michael Shirk.

 

Members of the Bulloch Hall Archaeology Society, the SGA Chapter based in Roswell, organized a cleanup workday at Roswell Mill, on 11 January 2003. It was a bit cold, but, thankfully, sunny.

All photographs are copyright Michael Shirk.