Excavators working on a prehistoric settlement on the east bank of the Flint River in Spalding County have recovered materials from the Early Archaic through the Middle Woodland periods, along with posts, pits and many rock clusters. This work was performed by a crew from Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. for the Georgia Department of Transportation. The ancient community was on the first terrace overlooking a back swamp.
Read “Examining Variation in the Human Settlement of Prehistoric Georgia,” by John A. Turck, Mark Williams, and John F. Chamblee in the Spring 2011 issue of Early Georgia (included in membership in the SGA) and you will better understand changes and continuities in the prehistoric occupation across the landscape of the area we now call Georgia. The trio apply statistical methods to the treasure trove of data stored at the Georgia Archaeological Site File in Athens to fine-tune our understanding of where people lived when in the past, and of how those patterns changed over time.
The Northwest Georgia Archaeology Society will hold a meeting Thursday, March 10th, 2011, at the Etowah Indian Mounds Site near Cartersville. The lecture presented by Dr. Nick Honerkamp of the University of Tennesse at Chattanooga is Creek and Cherokee at Chattanooga’s Moccasin Bend Site. Located at the toe of Lookout Mountain, Moccasin Bend is one of America’s most unique and scenic archaeological sites—located at a significant geographic and geologic crossroads.
Track Rock Gap Site is the location of a series of rock carvings made by Native Americans in Union County, Georgia. It is one of the most significant rock art sites in the Southeastern United States. Track Rock is located on the Blue Ridge Ranger District of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. A revamp of the site has allowed viewing the petroplyphs more enjoyable and information can be found at an interactive web site designed to be used by visitors while at the site.
Campus to Careers is hiring an intern for its National Park Service Climate Change Internship Program at the Russell Cave National Monument, in northeast Alabama. This is a paid internship, lasting up to 12 weeks, working with archaeologist Sarah Sherwood assessing prehistoric climate conditions from soil samples. Online application information is in the full story.
When the SGA leadership visited the coast in February 2010, many of us also toured Sapelo Island with archaeologist Dr. Ray Crook, who has worked on the island for decades. We took the morning ferry out underovercast skies, watched the sun arrive with us at the island dock, and returned to the mainland late in the afternoon. We took a break to enjoy a Geechee lunch at mid-day.
Burke County State Court Judge Jerry Daniel in January 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. 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 2009.
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 Society for American Archaeology has 7000-plus members, and is “an international organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas.” PDFs of back issues of the Society’s magazine The SAA Archaeological Record are available for free, except for the latest issue. You may enjoy perusing them. In particular, the November 2008 issue is recommended; it has a series of articles on our current understanding of the Archaic period in North America.
Many of the archeological phase names currently used for northwest Georgia are directly attributable to the work of Joseph Caldwell in Allatoona Reservoir more than fifty years ago (Caldwell 1950, 1957). While terminology has changed over the years, most of the designations used by Caldwell remain in use today. For instance, the old term “Kellogg [...]
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has been lucky enough to work on St. Catherines Island, Georgia for the last 30+ years. Since 2006, the museum has focused its attention on the Late Archaic Period (3000-1000 B.C.) on the island—specifically, we have been working on the St. Catherines Island Shell Ring. Shell rings are [...]
Meta-slate axe from the Hardin Bridge site. Research of the Hardin Bridge Site (9BR34) in Bartow County site is ongoing at New South Associates. Laboratory analysis has shown that the Hardin Bridge site represents a Late Archaic through early Middle Woodland timeframe based on lithic and pottery specimens. To date, the majority of hafted bifaces [...]
In possibly our busiest winter to date, New South Associates is currently at work on two data recovery projects and is about to begin a third, in addition to a number of survey and testing projects, including smaller corridor or bridge surveys conducted in Bartow, Lowndes, Douglas, Coweta, Paulding, and Washington counties. Data recovery excavations [...]
Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. (EPEI) recently completed Phase III fieldwork at 9PU20 near Hawkinsville, GA. The excavations were conducted on behalf of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) as part of a proposed bridge replacement over Big Tucsawatchee Creek (also known as Big Creek) on State Route 230. The site is located on a fluvial terrace [...]