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Good things are happening this spring in the Society for Georgia Archaeology—I hope that you can be a part of them all.

Annual Spring Meeting. You won’t want to miss our annual spring meeting featuring the Archaeology Month theme, Mounds in Our Midst. A roster of fine speakers will make presentations at Wesleyan College concerning prehistoric mound sites around the state. New findings as well as reconsideration of old discoveries will keep the program lively. Also, the ArchaeoBus will make its SGA debut at the Macon meeting, providing everyone a chance to take in our one-of-a-kind mobile education platform. And on Sunday, May 17, the National Park Service will treat us to a walking tour of the Lamar mound site in the Ocmulgee River floodplain, perhaps best known for its enigmatic spiral-ramped mound.

Speaking of Archaeology Month, prepare yourself to be impressed by the 2009 poster design highlighting Georgia mounds, not to mention the long list of special events offered around the state. Please note that the posters will be distributed only at the meeting—they will not be mailed. More information on the meeting and Archaeology Month is provided elsewhere in The Profile (see article here) and on the SGA website.

New SGA Website. The SGA website has undergone a major redesign in recent months and we expect it to go live before the spring meeting. More information about the site and its new features is provided elsewhere in The Profile (see article here), but I offer a couple of my own comments here. First, SGA owes Michael Shirk a huge debt of gratitude for the years of work he has devoted to development and maintenance of the current website. I am more aware than ever of what it takes to do what he has done so well. Second, this is your SGA website and it will flourish only with constant member input. Sammy Smith has worked wonders to make the new design real, but she and I issue an appeal—starting now— for your contributions of content. Reports on old and new research, chapter happenings, opinion pieces, photo collections, useful links, meetings and event calendars are all solicited from the membership. Together let’s make the SGA website the one-stop source for Georgia archaeology information.

The Profile. Make note: this paper issue of The Profile will be the last of its kind; hereafter the SGA newsletter will be distributed electronically. Larissa Thomas is supplying more on the details of the change (see notice here) that you will want to review carefully. This change has significant cost benefits for our society and also improves our overall efficiency.

Membership. Membership growth is a perennial goal of SGA, but we must also maintain the loyal base that has become the heart and soul of the society. Please renew your membership in 2009 if you haven’t done so yet. Also, I challenge each of our current members to bring a prospective new member to an upcoming event, perhaps the spring meeting, an Archaeology Month event, or a chapter meeting, and encourage them to join our ranks. That simple step alone could double our ranks.

Thanks so much for your continuing participation and support.

As your editor, it is my pleasure to announce that starting with the next issue, The Profile will be published exclusively in electronic format. The SGA Board made this decision at its recent retreat in an effort to cut costs. For you, the reader, the benefit will be having a full-color publication with no page limit, while more of your membership dollars will go to a range of activities in support of archaeology in Georgia. The electronic version of The Profile will be posted on the revamped SGA website. You will receive an email when the new issue is available with a link to the electronic Profile. The content of The Profile will be accessible as individual articles that you can read online (saving a few trees), but the website will also give you the option of printing the full issue if you choose.

Let me refer you to Sammy Smith’s article about the new website here. To ensure a smooth transition to electronic distribution, please be sure that the SGA Secretary, Tom Gresham, has your current email address. He can be reached via email at sgasecretary@thesga.org.

I look forward to The Profile’s bold stride into the digital age! If you have any questions or concerns about the transition, please feel free to contact me at (770) 270-1192 ext. 118, during business hours.

The SGA’s website committee—that is: Michael Shirk, Kevin Kiernan, and Sammy Smith—has been hard at work developing a new website for the Society. Actually, the three of us have been working on content and ideas for the structure of the site. Most of the technological heavy lifting has been done for the SGA on a generous pro-bono basis, by JC Burns of jcbD. View the fruit of our labors at thesga.org.

Technical background

JC suggested we think about the website as the sum of three distinct components: content (that is, the stuff we SGA members generate: words, pictures, downloads), structure (how the parts of the website link together), and design (the colors, fonts, the template of the look of the site, aka the theme). Our goal is to maximize the time SGA volunteers can spend on content, and minimize the amount of time we have to allocate to design and structure—in a perfect world, anyway! JC created the design, and we worked with him, with input from the Board and Officers, to build the structure of the website—that is, how the individual chunks of content relate to the website as a whole.

The SGA website is now dynamically generated from a database—what web developers call a Content Management System (CMS), which gives us a simple and plain window for entering the content, and the software automatically formats the materials according to a standardized plan that is implemented separately (aka the “theme”). This software meets current web-design standards, and will serve the Society well as we move increasingly into the cloud. The term “the cloud” is a metaphor for the internet, so SGA is in the cloud now that we provide virtualized resources (e.g., stories from The Profile, photographs from our meetings) over the internet. Some people consider the cloud to be the ultimate form of globalization. Using the cloud allows the SGA to reduce capital expenditures, improve outreach (e.g., as ArchaeoBus activities expand), and add detail to the information we offer about archaeology in Georgia.

What’s on the website now

The new look of the website is mostly that—a new look to materials you have seen on the previous incarnation of our website, developed and maintained over many years by Mike Shirk—a tip o’ the hat for all your work over these many years, and a big thanks, Mike!

What the CMS gives us is a way for the materials on our website to be accessed dynamically–that is, when you call for it with your browser. For example, you can get to a particular article that Scott Jones wrote on beveled points and Edgefield scrapers via the listing for the Fall 2008 issue of The Profile, which is when it was published, but also by clicking on “Artifact information” under “Georgia archaeology resources.”

By the way, articles that are still timely from recent issues of The Profile are now posted as separate chunks of content, and older articles that report on archaeological research are also being posted to the website as time permits. The goal is for our SGA website to become a substantive resource for those researching both broad questions and detailed information about Georgia’s human past.

New features

You might enjoy several of the website’s new features. We have implemented a search option that is quite handy. Any word in any story can be searched for; this is a powerful new tool for searching the increased content we will make available on the website.

Regular visitors to thesga.org will discover the “Weekly Ponder.” Each Ponder, posted Friday mornings at 5 AM, will provide as fresh look at any topic pertinent to Georgia’s past and the practice of archaeology in Georgia. Ponders are brief stories, accompanied by a picture. Keep your eyes peeled for each new Ponder, and submit one yourself!

We’ve also incorporated a glossary, based on an article from the 2001 Early Georgia, “Resources at Risk,” which is a primer on Georgia archaeology.

You’ll also find a calendar of events that is robust and useful— please send in Chapter meeting notices and other activities, so they can be included!

Indeed, each Chapter has its own area of the website, although now the content is mostly from older issues of The Profile. Your submissions can change this!

Using a simple utility that generates maps based on latitude and longitude, you will find map information linked to applicable stories. This includes meetings! If you click on one of these maps, you will go to a navigable version on a Google Map page. It’s even easier and handier than it sounds!

We have added more goodies to the website-check it out yourself and see what you like! Please realize that this is not a finished or static website. What we now have will be augmented regularly, as SGA becomes increasingly “in the cloud.” (What a contrast to being “in the dirt,” where we archaeology types often dream about spending our time!)

The Board has voted to shift to distributing The Profile using the internet, for various reasons (see article here). We will still have quarterly “issues” of The Profile (meaning a collection of articles and reports, news and information), and, from now on you will find the articles from each new issue posted to our website. We will also post news between issues of The Profile.

Looking forward

Of the three components of our website, the design and structure are now pretty much nailed down (although they can be changed should that become appropriate). We already have added some of the content that forms the backbone of the website. We anticipate adding more content going forward, and also beefing up our older, archived materials as time and energy permit.

We also hope to incorporate new materials. As the ArchaeoBus programs are refined, we plan to add those materials on the website, and use the power of the CMS software to allow us to repurpose materials developed for educational outreach via ArchaeoBus programs for distribution via our website. We also hope to branch out in new directions—maybe we’ll soon have an SGA store!

Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia

The Society for Georgia Archaeology is proud to announce the theme for presentations at our semi-annual meeting associated with Archaeology Month 2009: Mounds in Our Midst: Monuments of Prehistoric Culture in Georgia. The Annual Spring Meeting will be held over two days in Macon. On Saturday, 16 May, we’ll meet at the Anderson Amphitheater in the Taylor Building on the campus of Wesleyan College for a series of presentations. Registration is $10 per person. On Sunday, 17 May, attendees have the opportunity to join a guided tour of the Lamar Mound site, south of Macon; this site is normally closed to the public.

Georgia’s archaeological landscape features numerous sites with artificial, human-constructed earthen mounds. Created by diverse Native American cultures, mainly between 500 BC-AD 1550, these remarkable monuments are evocative reminders of prehistoric societies that once flourished in every corner of the state.

Archaeology Month 2009 is devoted to a celebration of their survival and a meditation over their purpose and meaning. Long gone are the days when the impressive tumuli were explained away with reference to a lost race of “moundbuilders,” somehow distinct from Native cultures known to the same area. More than a century of archaeological study tells us that indigenous peoples are, in fact, responsible for the mounds. The same work has established that the mounds are not all the same but varied considerably in their design and purpose.

Also long gone are the days when Georgians could take prehistoric Indian mounds for granted. Because knowledge is the foundation for stewardship, Archaeology Month 2009 features new research that is improving our sense of the place these ancient constructions held in the societies that erected them. And important among these efforts are creative solutions for preserving more mound sites from looting and destruction.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of an archaeology awareness promotion in Georgia. From its inception as a weeklong celebration in 1994, the observance has grown to an entire month of special public events, exhibits, and demonstrations in communities across the state; check our calendar for events we’ve heard about. The SGA serves as the primary sponsor of Georgia Archaeology Month. Co-sponsors include state agencies, private firms, and non-profit and professional organizations. Public outreach is a critical link in fostering better awareness of archaeology and a sense of stewardship for our state’s archaeological sites. The SGA advocates preservation, protection and interpretation of these fragile resources, including the dramatic monumental architecture, or mounds, that are the focus of this year’s Spring Meeting.

Meeting program

Saturday, 16 May

• 8:30 am • Registration begins
  Cost is $10 per person.
• 9:15 am • Dennis Blanton
  Welcome and Introduction
• 9:30 am • Kevin Kiernan
  A Little-Known Prehistoric Indian Mound on St. Simons Island
• 9:50 am • Dennis Blanton and Inger Coxe
  Mound Burials Across Two Millennia on the Georgia Coast: The Perspective from St. Catherines Island
• 10:10 am • Tom Whitley
  End of Days: The Legitimization of Chiefly Power and Earthen Mound Burial Practices at the Time of European Contact on the Georgia Coast
• 10:30 am • Break
• 10:50 am • Keith Stephenson and Frankie Snow
  A History of Mounds and Mound Exploration in Georgia’s Interior Coastal Plain
• 11:10 am • Tom Pluckhahn
  Rethinking Mound D at Kolomoki
• 11:30 am • Jim D’Angelo
  A Report on Preservation Efforts at the Fort Daniel Site in Gwinnett County
• 11:50 am • Lunch
• 1:30 pm • Adam King
  Latest Results of Geophysical Testing at Etowah and Ocmulgee
• 1:50 pm • Scot Keith and Dean Wood
  Mound Use On and Around the Leake Site in Northwest Georgia
• 2:10 pm • Jared Wood
  Mounds Abound! Mississippian in the Savannah Valley
• 2:30 pm • Break
• 2:45 pm • Mark Williams
  Behind Closed Doors: What Goes on in the Temples on Mississippian Mound Summits
• 3:05 pm • Jeffrey Glover and Georgia State University students
  Report on Documentation of the Flat Rock African-American Cemetery in Dekalb County
• 3:15 pm • Brief Business Meeting
• 4:00 pm • ArchaeoBus christening
  Parking lot.
• All Day Poster Presentation • Karen Smith and Keith Stephenson
  Analysis of Vessels from the Shelly Mound in Pulaski County, Georgia

Sunday, 17 May

• 10 am • Walking tour of the Lamar Mounds Site, Ocmulgee National Monument (conditions permitting)

Directions

Here are two maps that indicate where Wesleyan College can be found. Click on either to get to an interactive Google map of the area. Also, click here for information on a reserved room block for meeting attendees at a nearby hotel.

Are you curious about all this hub-bub over some old vehicle? Come satisfy your curiosity and see the brand new ArchaeoBus at its christening. The ArchaeoBus, (A.B or “Abbey” for short), becomes official on Saturday, May 16, 2009! The outside in its new splendor will be unveiled before your eyes. Walk through the bus to see the interior exhibit and storage areas. Examine table-top activities beneath associated tents around the bus as you enjoy light refreshments. This unique event will take place on May 16, 2009 at 3:30 p.m., following the last paper of the session at the Spring SGA meeting in Macon. The unveiling will occur in the parking lot adjacent to the Taylor Building (where the SGA meeting presentations will be given) on the campus of Wesleyan College. Won’t you join us?

Please visit our online calendar to read about events happening around the state for 2009 Archaeology Month! May is Archaeology Month in Georgia!

In economic times such as we are experiencing today, it may be difficult to contribute to your favorite worthy non-profit. We understand and we appreciate past and current donors. These most recently have included: Stan McAfee (in honor of Corley Thomas), The Bulloch Hall Archaeological Society (in memory of Fred Scheidler), Charlotte “Sammy” Smith and John Burns, Carole Griffith, Tammy Herron, and Jack Wynn and Mary Frank Wynn. A very hearty thanks to each of you! The Society for Georgia Archaeology Endowment Fund currently stands at $22,209.

Should you be in need of a tax deductible contribution for your income tax form, please consider the SGA Endowment. SGA is a 501(c) 3 non-profit and contributions are fully deductible as allowed by law. Contributions are never spent, only the interest is used to fund public outreach projects. Checks should be made out to “SGA”, with “SGA Endowment” on the subject line. Please mail them to “SGA Treasurer, P.O. Box 693, Athens, GA 30603”. If you are interested in discussing the Endowment, or have questions, please contact Rita Elliott, SGA Endowment Chair, (912) 826-5214 or endowment@thesga.org.

The Preserve at Callaway Gardens is offering archaeology programs again this year. The Preserve at Callaway Gardens encompasses thousands of acres of land west of Callaway Gardens in Harris County. It is dedicated to the wise stewardship of our natural resources and to offering new, exciting, environmental education programs. Of all of Callaway’s land, this parcel is in the most natural state. The land is a demonstration area for ecosystem restoration, sustainable forestry, watershed protection and habitat improvement for wildlife. The Preserve has conducted archaeological surveys and workshops over the last decade devoted to identifying and protecting Native American and historic sites with the overriding goal of connecting man and nature.

There are three types of programs planned. First, on Saturday, April 25, a hike is scheduled through the beautiful Preserve to several archaeological sites. Then, each Tuesday morning beginning June 2 and running through August 4, an archaeologist and biologist will lead hikes through the Preserve during the Summer Family Adventure Program. Finally, this Fall there will be an all day workshop where registered individuals can work along side archaeologists as they excavate an archaeological site. See below for more details and contact information for the Spring and Summer hikes. The Fall workshop time will be announced at a later date.

Farmstead Hike with an Archaeologist

The Preserve at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia
Saturday, April 25, 2009 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Join us on a special hike with a registered professional archaeologist who has conducted surveys and excavations of Native American and historic period archaeological sites on the Callaway Gardens Property for the past 10 years. We’ll hike through the Preserve to the ruins of a farmstead site from the 1800s. Directions to the hike location will be sent with the confirmation letter.

Age limit: 10 years and older
Length: 2.5 miles; moderately easy
Fee: $7.00 for members and $8.00 for non-members
Space is limited. Pre-registration is required. To pre-register, call 706-663-5153 or email education@callawaygardens.org

Web link: http://callawaygardens.org/foundation/info/education.workshop.aspx

Callaway Gardens Summer Family Adventure Program

Discovery Program: Archaeology—Amazing People, Amazing Places Hike

Tuesdays, 9:30AM – 12:30PM

Meander down the trail with a professional archaeologist from Southern Research and a biologist from the Callaway staff as you explore the beautiful woodlands of the Preserve at Callaway Gardens. See evidence of the amazing people who lived on this land from the Native Americans through early settlement times. Along the way, discover how we manage the land today to create an amazing place for the native wildlife and plants of this region to thrive. This moderately strenuous hike covers about 2 miles, is in an area accessible to visitors only during guided programs and is suitable for ages 10 and older. Please wear sturdy walking shoes and bring drinking water.

This hike is part of the Summer Family Adventure Program at Callaway Gardens. The popular Summer Family Adventure is available in 7-day or 4-day packages and Mini Break Packages for 1, 2, and 3-day stays. To get started with the planning of your summer escape, check out the Summer Adventure Guide. Call 1-800-CALLAWAY. Or, for more information just about the hike call 706-663-5153 or email education@callawaygardens.org.

Web link: http://www.callawaygardens.com/callaway/info/things.seasons.summer.aspx

Long time SGA member and primitive technology researcher Scott Jones has just published a book that is a compilation of his articles from the past decade related to primitive technology and experimental archaeology. Scott has practiced primitive technology for two decades and now makes a living presenting the subject to the general public (always with lots of examples and demonstrations) and by conducting experimental archaeology with CRM firms. He is a long time board member of the Society for Primitive Technology and is currently its president. He lives with his wife and son in rural (i.e., primitive) Oglethorpe County.

The book, entitled A View to the Past: Experience and Experiment in Primitive Technology, is a 277-page, soft bound collection of about 40 articles, most of which were originally published in the Bulletin of Primitive Technology. The articles are illustrated with numerous photographs and a few drawings and charts. They are organized into six chapters: foundation skills, making things fly, shelter, stone tools, regional perspectives in experimental archaeology and other musings. While there is a good bit of “how to” in many of the articles, Scott also addresses the “why” and “what does it mean” aspects of experimental work. The fact that Scott has an anthropology degree (UGA) and works with professional archeologists allows him to make a great many more anthropological observations from his work than most primitive technologists. Thus, while the articles on building a shelter, making a long bow, and fire starting will appeal to the general public, and especially young readers, these and most every article have important messages for the working archaeologist who is trying to interpret the anthropology of artifact assemblages. This is a very readable, interesting, and entertaining book that will appeal to a wide audience.

A View to the Past by Scott Jones is available from Createspace.

Wiley Publishing has just issued Archaeology for Dummies ($21.95) by SGA member Nancy White. The book tells how archaeology is detective work and traces over 2 million years of prehistoric human cultures. It demonstrates how archaeology uncovers things about historic times that history can’t, and shows how archaeological knowledge is useful for modern issues like global warming, environmental depletion, genocide or disaster victims, and recovering a people’s lost heritage. Included in the book are also some of White’s (awful) jokes and stories from fieldwork in northwest Florida, south Georgia and south Alabama. This book is useful for professional and avocational archaeologists as well as lay readers who want to learn about the breadth of the field and how to get involved. It’s available in many bookstores and at online outlets such as amazon.com.

The Fish Vault has been famous in Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville’s city cemetery, as the place where poor Mr. Fish, despondent over the loss of his wife, had shut himself into the vault and killed himself while sitting in a rocking chair. Visitors to the vault are routinely told to knock at the door and ask “Mr. Fish! What are you doing in there?” With the person encouraged to place an ear to the crack in the wall in order to hear Mr. Fish’s answer, the response, of course, is “nothing.”

The vault is a partly subterranean, 1840s tomb made of handmade bricks. This style of structure is rare in central Georgia. It is large, approximately 14′ 3″ by 12′, and has a gable-style brick roof. Through the years it had suffered vandalism, which had caused the city to brick up the door in the 1960s. Secondhand reports from that time suggested that there were no visible remains. Now the deteriorating condition of the roof suggested that it was probably leaking. The front wall had been bumped by passing vehicles and had settled to the point where it was separating from the rest of the vault. Without intervention, the front wall would have eventually fallen, exposing the interior of the vault.

The Friends of Baldwin County Cemeteries, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity and historical society, decided to undertake the vault’s restoration. Susan Harrington, chairperson of the Friends, acted as project coordinator. Since there was still the possibility that there may be remains and opening the vault may constitute “disturbing a grave,” the Friends consulted with the superior court judge, probate court judge and the city attorney. It was determined that the only Georgia law that seemed to fit was the Abandoned Cemeteries and Burial Grounds Act, Official Code of Georgia 36-72. Under that law, descendants were to be determined and contacted for permission, a permit from the city was required, and an archaeologist should be present for the vault’s opening. Stephen Hammack agreed to serve as archaeologist.

After genealogy was performed, descendants contacted, and permissions given, the city issued the permit. This process took approximately 8 months. In the meantime, a leading brick mason was contracted to do the brick masonry. The work began September 8, 2008, one day after the permit was received by the Friends. Security was a concern, and the city immediately erected a large fence around the vault as the brick mason began his work.

The Friends notified descendants in Moultrie, Macon, and Atlanta, who came to Milledgeville to watch as the vault was opened. The vault was opened on the hot and rainy afternoon of September 9, 2008, and since no human remains were expected to have survived, it was assumed that the archaeologist’s responsibility was to be on hand to ceremonially give the go-ahead so the brick mason could begin his repairs.

View of Burial 3 within the vault.

But the vault was not empty! Upon peering through the just-opened door, it was clear that there were multiple sets of human remains, all but one of which were visible from the steps. Taking two steps down, Hammack found himself surrounded on 3 sides of the vault by stone benches. Remains and casket material covered the floor and benches to his left and the wall opposite. On his right was another burial enclosed in a cast iron coffin immediately recognized as a Fisk Metallic Burial Case.

It was quickly decided that all the remains had to be removed before nightfall, to prevent any potential looting or vandalism, and the back-up plan was put into effect. The plan was that any remains would be placed in the care of a local funeral home for safe-keeping until re-interment. Because there were three obvious burials in the crypt, though one contained more than one set of remains, the decision was made to extensively photograph everything in situ and to number the sets of remains Burial 1, Burial 2, and Burial 3.

Burial 1 was on the left (south) wall and was that of an adult. The most obvious thing about this burial was that in addition to the remnants of coffin wood, there was an enormous amount of charcoal intermixed with the bones. Burial 2 was on the back (west) wall, was also an adult, and appeared to have contained lesser amounts of charcoal. However, it appeared that some of the bones had been disturbed at some point in the past and replaced in piles. These piles, however, also included the skulls and some bones of what appeared to be one or two children. Burial 3 was enclosed in the Fisk burial case and was not visible for inspection, though it was clear that the metal coffin itself had once been inside a wooden coffin.

The “methodology” for removing the remains was as follows. Since daylight was limited, the only logical choice of action was simply to remove the bones and large pieces of coffin wood and charcoal and place them in individual body bags. Burial 1 and Burial 2 were each placed in separate body bags and placed in the back of the funeral home van. Burial 3, which was noted to have a corroded layer near its bottom, was slowly and cautiously removed from the vault and placed on thick wooden boards, which were to provide support in case the iron coffin’s bottom gave way. The coffin and boards were then placed on dollies and rolled to the van and, with much effort, the coffin was placed inside. Several breaks were required over the course of the afternoon because of the rising humidity and temperature, which rendered the situation in the vault nearly unbearable for the archaeologist. Finally, just before dusk and with the assistance of a flashlight, the work was completed. The following day, the Friends contacted Dr. Matthew Williamson, an anthropologist at Georgia Southern University, who came to acquire the bones for identification in his lab.

A few days later at the funeral home, with the family’s permission, it was decided to remove the iron plate covering the glass face plate, or viewing port, of the Fisk Metallic Burial Case in order to assess the condition of the remains inside. The Burial Case was patented by Almond Fisk of New York City in 1848 and was designed to be air tight and filled with gas to prevent the decomposition of the body. The upper and lower halves fit tightly together and are sealed with a glue-like cement and fastened by screws. The Burial Case would have been ideal for Sarah Fish, who died in 1856 in Gordon Springs, Whitfield County, located in the northwest corner of Georgia, to be transported back to central Georgia for burial.

The body had not been preserved by the supposedly air tight coffin, and the skeletal remains were found to be in an advanced state of decay, evidently due to penetration into the coffin of water from the damp vault. It is interesting to note that a fair amount of fabric from what appeared to have been a striped dress was still intact and visible around the waist.

After washing and analyzing the artifacts, Hammack noted a variety of different sizes of coffin nails and other types of extant artifacts, such as wood and Prosser (China) buttons. Some curious findings were three rocks of granitic or gneissic composition that were found with Burial 1. It is not known if they were placed on top of the coffin or included inside with the body, but they were the only lithic artifacts discovered within the vault and may have been memorials placed purposefully with Burial 1. The presence of large amounts of charcoal with Burial 1, and the smaller amount included with Burial 2, were also noted. Research eventually pointed to the usage of charcoal as an odor-deterrent when bodies were shipped long distances, and this method was evidently also utilized for the same reason in vaults, especially where future burials were planned. It appears that in such burials the coffins were lined with charcoal, sometimes even to the point of surrounding the corpse with it. Other instances are recorded of charcoal actually being placed into the abdomen of the corpse.

Williamson determined that two adult males and three children (labeled Burials 2a, 2b, and 2c) of predominant European ancestry are represented by the Burial 1 and 2 remains. Dark brown staining was present on all the bones, which was consistent with other historic burials perhaps caused by tannins that have leached out of the coffin wood and were then absorbed by the bones. In addition, a small amount of dried adipocere was present at various locations on the skeleton, indicating that the body may have come into contact with water relatively soon after burial. Adult dental health was fairly poor based on the presence of several carious lesions and antemortem tooth loss while the juvenile teeth were in pretty good condition. In general, there were no lesions from infectious disease, metabolic disorders such as chronic anemia, nor any significant osteoarthritis present on the adults. According to local legend, Mr. Fish shot himself in the head while sitting in a rocking chair. From his analysis, Williamson found that there was no skeletal evidence of a gunshot wound.

Unfortunately, positive identification of people from historic cemetery contexts is generally impossible unless they are buried in separate grave shafts with an associated nameplate or grave marker. With this in mind, the skeletal remains have been tentatively identified as those of William Fish who died in 1843 (Burial 1), his youngest son Horace Virgil Fish who died in 1845 at the age of about 5 (Burial 2b), two infants whose names are unknown, and a 45–55 year old male whose identity is unknown. Sarah Harvard Fish, the wife of William Fish, died in 1856 and was buried in the Fisk metallic burial case (Burial 3).

Because of the concerns for security and the need to close the vault in conformance to the brick mason’s availability, all remains had to be returned to the vault and sealed in on October 1. This date provided Hammack and Williamson less than two and a half weeks to perform their analyses.

The Fish Vault after restoration.

The archaeological, anthropological, and historical preservation experience at the Fish Family Vault was, to say the least, a memorable one. It proved to be very interesting from beginning to end, and the best part was that after the restoration was complete and the contents of the vault subjected to study, all remains, casket materials and other items were reinterred with dignity in the vault where they rightfully belonged. Despite the tight timetable, this is a great example of how a project of this kind, with cooperation of many experts, is supposed to work. Preservation-minded Georgians everywhere should be proud of this endeavor!

The Visitor Information Center Program of the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Tourism Division is once again sponsoring Georgia On My Mind Days at Georgia’s Visitor Centers. These events are free, and SGA can set up a table/display (we must provide the table) to distribute our brochures and informational fliers; offer fun, educational games and activities for kids; and generally educate the public about archaeology in Georgia and perhaps drum up new members. Visitors to these events come from everywhere (locals and people from across the state of Georgia and beyond), and the events get newspaper/media coverage that could help raise the profile of SGA and our mission. Many people attend and enjoy the festival-like atmosphere. This is a fun activity and a great project for SGA’s chapters.

See the website here for more information on the dates and locations of the events, presented at right. If you would like to participate or coordinate an SGA presence at one of the events, please contact Pamela Johnson at pamjohnson@dot.ga.gov or (404) 699-4424.

Locations and Dates
Augusta Visitor Center, July 17, 2009
Columbus Visitor Center, March 27, 2009
Kingsland Visitor Center, May 15, 2009
Lavonia Visitor Center, May 22, 2009
Plains Visitor Center, May 9, 2009
Ringgold Visitor Center, June 19, 2009
Savannah Visitor Center, May 29, 2009
Sylvania Visitor Center, April 16, 2009
Tallapoosa Visitor Center, June 5, 2009
Valdosta Visitor Center, April 3, 2009
West Point Visitor Center, July 31, 2009

Event: Spring Crafts Festival, Scull Shoals Mill Village
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009
Time: 10 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: Macedonia Road to FS Road 1234, Off GA Highway15, between Athens and Greensboro. For maps and directions see website here
Contact: Bob Skarda, 770-846-1859; bob@hotwtr.com or Jack Wynn, 770-287-5506; jtmfwynn@windstream.net
Fee: $5.00; lunch available, additional charge
Description: 19th Century craft demonstrators and musicians, guided tours of Old Mill Village Ruins, archaeology excavation exhibit of tools, techniques and materials by Passport In Time volunteer excavators, and speakers on 19th Century lifeways, and Oconee War and Civil War eras
Sponsors: Friends of Scull Shoals, Inc., P.O. Box 295, Greensboro, GA 30642

For more events you may be interested in, visit the SGA calendar here….

The Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeological Laboratory at the University of West Georgia is hosting their annual Open House on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Come out and bring the entire family, rain or shine! We will have an archaeological dig in the mock pit, flint knapping demonstrations by James Spake, artifact identification by Dr. Thomas Foster, games, tours of the lab, snacks and more. For map and directions, go to the Waring Lab website. Please contact Susan Fishman-Armstrong at (678) 839-6303 with any questions.

For more events you may be interested in, visit the SGA calendar here….

The Augusta Archaeology Society Chapter is busy now with a variety of projects, meetings, and events. We are working on an update of our Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) Hafted Biface Types booklet, this time adding an abbreviated ceramics component. Long-time member Vivian McDiarmid has involved herself in assembling our AAS records into an up-todate history. Being the good packrats that we are, many of us who have been around a while have bulging file folders at her beck and call.

We meet 6 times a year: four dinner/speaker meetings, our Identification Day meeting in conjunction with the Augusta- Richmond County History Museum, and our Holiday Social. Our annual holiday party/potluck dinner for 2008 was December 11 at the home of Audrey and Paul Mahoney—two very enthusiastic people. Their house exudes Paul’s passion for understanding the Paleo-Indian culture of this area. We put forth our slate of 2009 officers and we elected John Arena, president, Diane Black, treasurer, and we can’t let our faithful and wonderful secretary and Debitage editor, Donna Hope go…she’s consented to stay on! Yea! Audrey Mahoney and John Whatley are co-workers on our program speakers and special events. So if you are in the neighborhood…. At the moment, our vice-president/president-elect position is vacant…but we have a great meeting coming up in April, so who knows, maybe someone will be inspired to step forward. The meeting will be at Famous Dave’s BBQ on Washington Road at 6:30 PM on April 17.

At our February meeting, our speaker was Dr. Thomas G. Whitley from Brockington and Associates. He has 18+ years experience on 300+ prehistoric and historic archaeological projects all around the United States. His presentation was on Hammond’s Ferry, more technically 38AK933, the Riverfront Village site, during the Early Mississippian and Contact Period in North Augusta, South Carolina. This site was a Yuchi village which was raided by the Westo in 1660. Our meetings are open to the public, so feel free to join us.

John Arena, Vivian McDiarmid, and John Whatley visited Stallings Island on January 30 to check on the goats and donkeys and the state of the site. The animals were in good shape and the site appeared undisturbed. We are helping the Archaeological Conservancy keep this valuable and unique site clean of weeds and free of looters. Stallings Island flourished some 3,700 years ago during the Late Archaic Period (3000–1000 B.C.). The Stallings Island culture produced the oldest documented pottery in North America, evidence of the first local shellfishing, and the region’s first settled communities. The repeated use of village sites, coupled with their consumption of large quantities of shellfish, produced the large shell midden mounds. They produced the earliest forms of elaborately decorated pottery, along with carved bone pins, banner stones, and stemmed projectile points.

We have tentatively scheduled May 23 for our Archaeology Day event at the Ezekiel Harris House. Located on Broad Street in Augusta, the house was built in 1797 and is said to be “the finest eighteenth-century house surviving in Georgia” (The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America). The house is an outstanding example of early Federal style architecture and is a reminder of the days when tobacco was the primary cash crop in Georgia. We look forward to a great turn-out.

Our club had a busy fall season starting off with our October 18 tour, where we visited the Effingham Old Jail Museum and the Reiser-Zoller House to see an amazing array of 19th and early 20th century tools and household furnishings—the stuff we often dig up in its fragmentary, rusted, and broken state! The Fall Meeting was held at “Vernon Hall” in Vernonburg, just outside Savannah, within a stone’s throw of what is supposed to be the final resting place of the “Water Witch”, a Union blockade vessel scuttled in the Vernon River in 1864. Our new Underwater Archaeologist, Chris McCabe gave an excellent talk on his search for the “Water Witch” and other projects. With our club members, Vernonburg neighbors and other invitees, we had standing room only. We are so indebted to Jeff and Ellen Bolch for their hospitality in lending their wonderful house (ca.1840, remodeled in 1875) for this meeting.

Other events included the Oyster Roast with the Elderhostel at the Marine Extension Service on Skidaway Island, and just recently, a chance to hear of some new research by local historian Barry Sheehy on Civil War battlefield sites and buildings associated with the slave trade, 1830–1860. Coming up this spring, CGAS will co-sponsor a talk at the Savannah College of Art and Design by Dan Elliott on archaeological work he has done on the slave row at North End Plantation, Ossabaw Island. The talk will take place on Wednesday, April 8, at 6:30 PM at 120 Montgomery Street, Savannah. Anyone in the Savannah area wishing to join us is welcome. Please contact Chica or Carl Arndt at (912) 920-2299 or Carndt2651@aol.com for more information.

GARS and Friends of Fort Daniel (FFD), a special committee created for Fort Daniel preservation efforts, have had a lot going on since the last Profile. Since Fort Daniel’s listing as one of ten historic properties listed the Georgia Trust’s 2009 Places in Peril, GARS and FFD have submitted an application for a Georgia Trust preservation grant. The matching grant proposal is for the purpose of developing a master plan for a proposed Archaeological Park at the site of Fort Daniel in Gwinnett County. The master plan, to be designed by a leading Atlanta-based planning and landscape architecture firm, will initially be used in public outreach efforts that have as their goal raising public awareness of the importance of the site for local and state history, and promoting grassroots support for purchase of the site by the county. The firm has generously offered to return onehalf of their fee as the match for the grant.

The FFD, presently being chaired by a direct descendent of Major General Allen Daniel, John Hopkins, and GARS have already begun work on an ambitious Archaeology Month program that will include a half-scale replica of a portion of the stockade wall and corner blockhouse. The plan for this will be based on similar restorations at other late eighteenth and early nineteenth century forts, General Daniel’s written orders of how he wanted the 1813 fort built, and what has been learned so far from the archaeological record at Fort Daniel. Other things planned include an artifact and posterboard display, period reenactors, a blacksmith who will be making 1790s “Fort Hog Mountain Wrought Nails,” buckets of dirt salted with artifact replicas for children to screen, and the opportunity to do some archaeology as we look for another side of the stockade wall enclosure. The Fort Daniel Frontier Fair and Public Archaeology Day will be held on May 2.

The monthly general meeting of the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society is held the first Wednesday of the month in Conference Room B at the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center, 75 Langley Place, Lawrenceville at 7:30 PM. Details about GARS meetings, projects, field trips and Fort Daniel can always be seen at our web site.

The Dawn of Art: Recent Discoveries on Shamanism, Altered States and the Origin of Religion and Art

Free public lecture followed by a book signing at the Savannah College for Art and Design (SCAD) Event Space, Atlanta Campus, on Saturday Night April 25, 2009 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM

For the first and perhaps only time in history, three leading experts in the field of Stone Age rock art, Jean Clottes (France – Cosquer: Cave Paintings from Under the Sea), David Lewis-Williams (South Africa – Decoding the Past: Breakthroughs into the Meaning of Bushman Rock Art), and Dave Whitley (USA – Shamanism and the Origin of Artistic Creativity), will be talking within a single session about their work decoding our earliest art. They have worked at remote locations on rock art, some of which contain examples from the last Ice Age, dating to between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago. Come and learn what these world authorities have to say about some rarely seen examples of early rock art and what these sites can tell us about human consciousness, creativity, and the roots of religion. After their illustrated talks (30-minutes each, followed by questions from the audience), the speakers will be signing the latest rock art books that they have published.

SCAD is located at 1600 Peachtree Street, just north of Spring Street and directly across from the Temple. Free parking is available, or take MARTA rail to the Arts Center Station and transfer to Bus 23.

Southern Research has recently carried out a number of projects in Georgia that may be of interest to the members of SGA.

Barnes Cemetery Relocation, Bibb County

The Barnes Cemetery was first recorded in 2007 during a reconnaissance for the Macon-Bibb Industrial Authority conducted by Southern Research. The reconnaissance was required by a site certification program for Georgia Allies and the Georgia Department of Economic Development. The Authority gained the important certification and began to market the property for development. When Kumho Tire Corporation selected the Authority’s Property to build a new manufacturing facility, plans to relocate the Barnes Cemetery were developed. In April 2008, Southern Research delineated the cemetery and conducted genealogical research for the Authority. The Industrial Authority petitioned the Superior Court of Bibb County, Georgia for a permit to disinter and relocate the human remains present in the Barnes Cemetery, an Abandoned Cemetery as defined by state law (OCGA 36-72). The Court issued a Consent Order permitting the activity as proposed in the Permit Application’s Disinterment and Relocation Plan. The Authority enlisted the services of Southern Research to carry out the Court’s Order. The Disinterment and Relocation was conducted in late October (yes, on Halloween) and early November 2008. The work discovered 13 individual graves interred in the Barnes Cemetery: four adults, one adolescent and eight children or infants. The results of this effort determined that the living direct descendants included Mr. Thomas Carlton Barnes, his children and grandchildren who live nearby. Based upon the genealogical research, we determined that the individuals were interred between the 1880s and 1907.

Fort Valley State University Reconnaissance Survey, Peach County

During the first two weeks of June 2008, Southern Research, Historic Preservation Consultants, Inc. conducted a Level One Archaeological Reconnaissance at Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Georgia. This effort was part of the development of the first Campus Historic Preservation Plan by a team of preservation professionals. The purpose of the reconnaissance survey was to conduct a literature and records search to determine if previously identified archaeological sites had been recorded on the university campus and to assess the potential for as yet undiscovered sites to be present. The archaeological reconnaissance survey recorded artifacts and features dating from the establishment of Fort Valley High and Industrial School (started in the early twentieth century) as well as evidence of earlier mid-nineteenth century occupations. Using the 1920 Sanborn Insurance Map, we projected the footprints of earlier buildings long since demolished, onto a modern aerial photograph using ArcGIS 9.2. Locating the earliest features of the school contributed to the sense of place that will enhance the students, faculty, staff and alumni’s appreciation of the school’s history as well as what came before.

Don Carter State Park Survey, Hall County

Southern Research has completed the fieldwork and laboratory analysis for an archaeological survey of the portions of Don Carter State Park. A Draft Final Report is in preparation. The area surveyed for the Don Carter State Park consisted of three separate parcels encompassing approximately 400 acres belonging to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District (USACE). The land lies adjacent to Lake Lanier in northeastern Hall County, Georgia. The tracts that were surveyed are where the first improvements will occur on the largely undeveloped property. The land belonging to the USACE was surveyed under Archaeological Resources Protection Act Permit Number DACW01-4-09-0457 issued to the DNR. The survey resulted in the identification of 20 previously recorded archaeological resources: 18 sites and two artifact occurrences. Site 9Hl530 is a cemetery with at least 15 marked and unmarked graves dating to the mid to late nineteenth century. Additional unmarked graves are likely present. Archaeological sites 9Hl537, 9Hl540, and 9Hl542 are house sites that date to the mid nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. All three have retained some integrity as witnessed by intact stone and/or brick ruins and have the potential to yield important information about the history of Hall County. Archaeological sites 9Hl538 and 9Hl540 are prehistoric artifact scatters that yielded pottery sherds from the Middle Woodland Period. These two sites also produced quartz and chert lithic artifacts, fire-cracked rocks, and charred plant remains in sufficient quantities and in context that would suggest they have retained enough integrity to yield important new information regarding prehistory in the Upper Chattahoochee River Valley. Other archaeological sites included quartz lithic scatters of unknown age.

Survey of the Mountain Creek Drainage, Harris County

In 2008, Southern Research conducted a reconnaissance survey of private property located on and adjacent to Pine Mountain in Harris County, Georgia. The work included a search of archaeological records for information regarding past archaeological research on the property and in the region. Historical research in the Harris County Court House yielded important chain of title data for several land lots on the property. During a fieldwork, archaeologists examined at a reconnaissance level, approximately 1,000 of the 8,000 acres. Two previously recorded archaeological sites are located on the property and the field crews found 52 previously unrecorded resources during the survey. These include Native American camp sites, a stone mound, a prehistoric quartzite quarry, historic house sites, cemeteries, a steel truss bridge and a water powered mill site. Most of the sites are disturbed to the extent that little important scientific information about the past remains intact. Poor agricultural practices in the nineteenth century and subsequent timber harvesting activities have contributed to the erosion and disturbance. These resources are for the most part small Native American camp sites probably from the Archaic and Woodland periods. There are some very important resources that are judged to be significant or potentially significant with further investigations. These include the previously recorded archaeological sites, the stone mound, eight cemeteries, a Champion steel truss bridge, the small water powered mill site and four archaeological house sites. These resources are unique, or have retained enough integrity to be able to contribute substantially to our understanding of the past through additional research. The property owners intend to protect and conserve the sites.

How Hoboken got its name

Southern Research recently conducted a cultural resources survey for a client in Hoboken, Georgia. While no archaeological resources were discovered, our historian uncovered the origin of this South Georgia town’s name. Historical research was conducted using traditional published sources, online sources such as NAHRGIS, and informant interviews. It is the latter interviews that proved so interesting. Below are excerpts from some of the informant interviews (edited for general audiences).

One informant suggested that the town was named for Hobo Ken, a country music singer who appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in the 1940s. Another informant countered that Hobo Ken was a professional wrestler on the Southern circuit back in the 1950s to early 1980s. This elderly gentleman went on to say “I went up against him a few times when I was on the circuit, wrestling under the nom de guerre Buddha the Magnificent back in the mid to late 1970s. He was getting on in years back then, while I was an up-and-coming slab in my late 20s. You might have caught us out at the J & J Center on the Commerce Highway (north of Athens) on Tuesday nights back then.”

Another informant suggested that while he had not actually seen the match, he had heard that Hobo Ken whupped Buddha’s a**. Another old timer who said he witnessed the match added “… it’s been many a year since I thought of ‘Buddha’ the Magnificent and his match with Hobo Ken. First off, and this is a fact, ‘Buddha’ started his career as Bubba the Magnificent. But the kid was dyslexic, often getting his b’s and d’s mixed up. So when he wrote his name in Elmer’s glue and glitter on the back of his bathrobe, it came out ‘Budda’ the Magnificent. Now, concerning his match with Hobo Ken at the J & J, it wasn’t really an a** whuppin’, with bodies bouncin’ off the ropes and lots of blood and all. Ken just applied his own form of the ‘sleeper’—a hobo armpit over the nose. It was over in a couple of seconds.” Informant Buddha disputes this version in a tersely worded retort that cannot be repeated here! Further research uncovered this fact: “Hobo Ken” is track 4 on the A side of Ain’t But the One Way written by Vaetta Stewart (aka Vet Stone), little sister of Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone). This was the last album by Sly and the Family Stone released in 1983. Vet Stone was with the vocal group Little Sister which sang backups for Sly and the Family Stone and also did their own thing. Little Sister included Mary McCreary who married Leon Russell, which some say resulted in the recording of the “Wedding Album.”

Finally, our historian settled on this version: Hoboken, Brantley County was incorporated as a city August 16, 1920. This town in the western part of the county may have been named for the city in New Jersey, which was named from the Algonquian word hopocan, meaning “tobacco pipe” or “pipe country.”

Now, who you gonna believe?

In October 2007, TRC began data recovery excavations at The Spirit Hill Site, 1JA642, a multi-component prehistoric site on the Tennessee River in northeastern Alabama. We completed the fieldwork in May 2008, and are currently involved in the analysis and reporting. Data recovery operations focused on a 2.81-acre tract in the central portion of site that received 100 percent excavation coverage, but our investigations also included the removal of prehistoric human burials that were unexpectedly encountered in a 1.52-acre area to the south. The work consisted of test unit excavation, backhoe trenches, mechanical stripping, and feature excavation. Because of the site’s complex stratigraphy, mechanical stripping to expose cultural features was conducted in multiple episodes after each level of burial and feature excavation was finished to expose additional features further down the soil column. During the data recovery efforts, pit features, postholes, structures, canine burials, and human burials, were identified, mapped, and documented. Early Archaic, Early, Middle, and Late Woodland, and Mississippian components have been identified at the site, but the vast majority of features are associated with Late Woodland and Early Mississippian occupations.

We excavated over 600 non-burial features at 1JA642, including small to very large hearths, storage/refuse pits, smudge pits, and rock clusters. A majority of the features consisted of shallow or amorphous pits with a monolithic fill zone, but some exhibited zoned, multi-event fill layers. Many of the largest and deepest pit features are associated with the Archaic period components. Non-burial features are yielding ethnobotanical and zooarchaeological data on subsistence and seasonality, while the lithic and ceramic assemblages from those proveniences will provide perspective on the material and social aspects of technology. Due to outstanding preservation, we also have a rare opportunity to examine bone, antler, and perhaps wood artifacts, and determine how those tools and ornaments were integrated into specific technological traditions. We collected over 900 soil samples from non-burial features for flotation. Botanical analyses are in progress, but the results to date indicate that a variety of plants were being utilized. Maize and squash have been identified in some cases, but hickory nut, acorn, maygrass, chenopodium, and other species are more common. Although we are still at a preliminary stage of analysis, the relative low abundance of maize suggests that the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian inhabitants were primarily focused on hunting and gathering rather than horticulture.

Excavations in one portion of the Spirit Hill site with rectangular structure in foreground.

Post patterns indicate that palisade walls were present, and at least 10 discrete structures have been identified. The structures are rectangular and circular in shape, some with partitions. Over 4,000 post holes were excavated, mapped, and documented, and we expect that additional structures will be identified once a more detailed analysis of posts and non-post features is conducted. Four structures have been radiocarbon dated; the calibrated intercept dates are A.D. 600; A.D. 660; A.D. 880; and A.D. 1010. Thus far, it appears possible that prehistoric people from the Late Woodland/Early Mississippian periods lived at this site more or less continuously for over 400 years.

A total of 27 canine burials were excavated at 1JA642. Most were articulated and in a flexed position within discrete burial pits. However some were in association with human burials and refuse pits.

Spirit Hill dog burial.

TRC excavated the human burials at the site in accordance with a plan developed in consultation with the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee. A total of 278 human burials were discovered, and with a few exceptions, they appear to be arranged in 12 clusters, some or all of which could be formal cemeteries. Radiocarbon dates confirm that burials date to the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian periods. The burials were found immediately below the plowzone, and up to 2.7 m below the surface. Most burials contained mussel shell fill, but not all. Some graves were superimposed over deeper interments, and it appears that soil was deliberately added on top of existing graves to allow burial of additional people in the same location. Some interments appear to have been part of a burial mound. Single and multiple interments were present, and burial methods include tightly flexed, flexed, semi-flexed, and extended. Although post-cranial elements were well preserved, the entire skull was missing in a few cases. Projectile points were discovered in contexts that suggest some individuals were wounded or killed by them. A few individuals could not be associated with a formal burial pit, and some were found without a skull lying face down with the feet bent behind them. Most graves did not contain burial goods, and those that did had no more than a few items. Some burials contained bone hair pins, needles, or awls. Others contained undecorated limestone slabs, and in other cases, large pitted cobbles were found within the burial matrix. Four intact shell tempered ceramic vessels were encountered within a burial pit of an adult male.

Analysis is on-going, but TRC expects that 1JA642 will greatly expand our understanding of the late prehistoric period in the region.