The Fort Daniel Foundation has scheduled its annual meeting for 7:00 pm on December 15th at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center (GJAC) in Lawrenceville in the 2nd floor conference room center. It will be the first official annual meeting and voting will take place for officers, etc. For those of you who have not joined the Fort Daniel Foundation and would like to do some as a founding member, you may do so until then end of this meeting. Remember, you must be a member in order to vote!

The Fort Daniel Foundation (FDF), founded in 2009, is a nonprofit organization composed of professional and avocational archaeologists, descendents of militiamen associated with Fort Daniel during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and interested members of the general public. Our mission is to preserve the Fort Daniel archaeological site by promoting the creation of the Fort Daniel Historic Site and Archaeological Research Park, as a permanent archaeological research preserve available to researchers, historians and educators.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society will be having work day at Fort Daniel this Saturday, November 14, weather permitting, beginning about 9:30 am. For those who have not been out there before, this is an opportunity to see the excavation in process—feel free to come and help!

This is not, however, a public archaeology day. Contact Jim D’Angelo for more info especially if it looks like a torrential downpour as that is what it will take to cancel it (his words).

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.

Figure 1. Trench feature with hearth feature in background, both at the bottom of the plowzone.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS) has put excavations at Fort Daniel on hold until analysis of recovered artifacts, representing more than one year of investigations at the site, and preparation of a technical report are completed. On the last day of field work in September, it was determined that two features, which had been the focus of the summer’s fieldwork, were definitely a hearth with probable toppled firebox, and a stockade wall trench (Figures 1 and 2). In his 1813 letter to the Commander at Hog Mountain, giving specific instructions about how to rebuild the circa 1790s fort, Major General Allen Daniel had stipulated that the stockade wall be constructed of timbers sunk 3 feet into the ground. The bisected trench feature, completed on the last day in the field, exhibited a post mold about 36 inches deep that was filled with surface soils, charcoal and brick fragments and ceramics, suggesting that the wall’s timbers had been pulled when the fort was abandoned sometime after 1815.

Figure 2. Bisection of trench feature with post mold outlined.

GARS archaeological advisor and site archaeologist, Jim D’Angelo, believes these features represent the west end of a stockade wall where it abutted a corner block house within which was the fireplace. The block house timbers would have been horizontal and sitting on the ground, perhaps on a brick foundation, accounting for the brick that has been found. Based on other results across the site, if this interpretation is correct, this would be the southwest corner of the fort.

In October, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation announced that Fort Daniel is one of 10 sites included on its 2009 Places in Peril list. The Trust, together with GARS and Friends of Fort Daniel, a local group organized to save the site from development, will host a “Spotlight on Fort Daniel,” at the Fort Daniel Elementary School, which is located near the site. Speakers at the December 8 event will include Mark McDonald, President of the Georgia Trust, Dennis Blanton, President of the Society for Georgia Archaeology, and State Archaeologist, David Crass. Jim D’Angelo and Shannon Coffey, site historian and conservator of Fort Daniel glass and ceramics, will give presentations on the archaeology of Fort Daniel and the site’s artifacts. Beverly Paff, chairperson of the Friends of Fort Daniel will speak on efforts to purchase the site and adjoining tracks to create a passive park where continuing archaeology can take place.

Progress on work at Fort Daniel can be followed via the GARS website.

This year the GARS Archaeology Month event was a public archaeology day at the Creekside Rock shelter located on the historic Elisha Winn property in Dacula, on May 3 and 4. The site was first identified, recorded, and excavated by GARS in 2006. Although contending with intermittent showers and poor turnout on Saturday, two large slabs of roof fall were broken up and removed by GARS members. With clearing skies on Sunday, a number of families showed up with about 10 children aged 6-13. The aim was to involve them in the excavation of a 1 x 1-m x 10 cm level from the very back of the shelter where there was as little as 21 cm of ceiling clearance.

The munchkins were just the right size for the task. They each took a turn filling a bucket and then taking it to the screen. One young man was fortunate enough to come up with an Early to Middle Archaic (8000-5000 B.P.), Pine Tree projectile point base (Figure 1)! The point was recovered at about 15 cm below surface. Everyone gathered around as Jim D’Angelo explained how the broken point likely was tossed to the back of the shelter several thousand years ago when its owner sat by the creek hafting a new point to his atlatl dart.

Figure 1. Michael holding projectile point he excavated at the Creekside Rock Shelter.

Figure 2. 1776 Spanish 2 Reale coin recovered at the Fort Daniel site.

GARS had recovered Lamar pottery and a French trade bead from the shelter in 2006-2007. The finds suggest that occupation of the site may span as much as 7,500 years, bracketed by the Early Archaic and Contact periods. The answer, as we know, lies below.

Within the week, one of GARS’ members, Greg Beavers, was working at the Fort Daniel site (9GW623) and recovered a 1776 silver coin (Figure 2)! This was in the plow zone in an area where we are excavating a hearth feature that we think is located within the fort and another feature that is probably the south stockade wall trench adjacent to the hearth. Research suggests that the 2 Reale coin was minted in Mexico and, until the practice was made illegal by the Federal government in 1857, was used as tender in the colonies and then the states. The well-worn appearance of this coin indicates that it was in circulation from 1776 until the time that it was dropped at Fort Daniel, sometime, most likely, between 1795 and 1815.

Figure 3. Scouts from Troop 594 raising “Star Spangled Banner” over Fort Daniel (photo courtesy Robert Coffey).

The land on which Fort Daniel is situated is for sale as are two tracts on the east and west sides (for a total of about 15 acres). In recent months, the Friends of Fort Daniel (FFD) committee has been organized to find ways to save the site from development. Members of the committee, including its chair, are descendents of Major General Allen Daniel or the militiamen who were stationed at the fort. The Georgia Piedmont Land Trust (formerly the Gwinnett Open Land Trust) has enthusiastically agreed to head up the effort to find a purchaser for the 15 acres, and the Archaeological Conservancy has also agreed to help where they can. Other members of the committee include representatives of GARS, the Gwinnett Historical Society, the National Society United States Daughters of 1812, the Gwinnett Preservation Board, and the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. Garrett Silliman, representing the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists, has also been sitting in.

The effort to save 9GW623 includes raising public awareness through public and executive presentations, developing a special use plan for the site, and working to purchase the tracts including and surrounding the site. To officially kick off the effort, GARS and FFD hosted a public archaeology day, BBQ, and flag raising ceremony on Flag Day, June 14. The event was by invitation only and approximately 60 persons attended. A local Boy Scout Troop, including some scouts who have been working on a merit badge at the site, led the flag ceremony. A replica of the 1794-1818 “Star Spangled Banner” was flown over the site, on a crafted pine flag pole, for the first time since it would have last been raised over the fort about 193 years ago (Figure 3).

Tom Gresham talking about rock pile sites at the February GARS meeting.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society has moved their monthly meeting date to the first Wednesday of the month, but is still meeting 7:30 to 9:00 PM in the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Building, 75 Langley Road, Lawrenceville. In February we had a stimulating presentation by Tom Gresham of Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., on north Georgia’s enigmatic rock piles, the epicenter of which, we learned, is Gwinnett County. The March 5 speaker was Jack Wynn who spoke to the group on archaeological methods. For programs and updates on archaeological projects visit our web site at: www.thegars.org.

Work at Fort Daniel resumed in February with an expansion of the site grid onto the adjoining property. Results of metal detection survey on these additional 6000 square feet were meager with only four artifacts that could be from the period. As the tract that contains the archaeological site is again for sale, a committee to “save” Fort Daniel has been formed in cooperation with the Gwinnett Historical Society (GHS), and others. The effort includes descendants of Major General Allen Daniel, a militiaman who served at the fort. The Southeast Region of the Archaeological Conservancy (TAC) will be helping with the effort.

For Archaeology Month, GARS, in cooperation with GHS, will conduct a public archaeology excavation May 3 at the historic Elisha Winn property in Dacula, at the Creekside Rock Shelter. The Winn House will also be open for tours and there will be an exhibit of artifacts from GARS’ survey and excavations on the property.

If you want to have some fun trying to identify mystery artifacts visit our website here.

The BHAS members used the September meeting as an annual planning meeting. Later in the fall we had two programs presented. One was by member Fred Scheidler on October 18th on Michoacan Bells. It started with the metalworking of the Peruvian Vicus culture, through the Moche empire, and then to Mexico. Several bells from Michoacan were shown. Our second program was by Richard Laub of Georgia State University (GSU) on November 15th. He explained the “history” of Historic Preservation in our country and illustrated how it evolved. The movement became more influential with the preservation of Independence Hall, Mt. Vernon, Yellowstone Park, Williamsburg, and many other sites.

Three of our members, Eric Garris, Erin Andrews and Fred Scheidler assisted Jim D’Angelo at the Fort Daniel dig (see additional information in the GARS update) in September. Our members assisted Jim Langford at the Thompson site on September 29th and at the Northwest Georgia Archaeological Society artifact-wash night at Etowah Mound Park November 8th. When Chip Morgan was unable to attend an artifact identification day at Etowah as first planned, we were able to have Lloyd Schroder come and offer excellent advice Saturday November 10th. Our members attended meetings at GAAS, GARS, GMAS, NWGAS, and the SGA fall meeting. Three members, Betty Wilkinson, Carol and Fred Scheidler went to Kennesaw State University (KSU) and heard Dr. Constanza Cerruti on September 26th present on three mummies of Inca children they found high in the Andes. She explained the harsh conditions of recovery and the likely significance the practice had to the Inca. She is the only trained woman High Altitude Archaeologist of four people in the world. This was in National Geographic November 1999. Two of our members went to KSU on November 13th and heard Rick Snow, State Forensic Anthropologist for Georgia. He shared how his Georgia Bureau of Investigation department investigates possible unnatural deaths, and illustrated field methods with recent case studies. Fred Scheidler volunteers at the Fernbank Museum Archaeological Laboratory. Erin Andrews is now working on her Masters at GSU.

BHAS meets in the “Cottage” at Bulloch Hall in Roswell on the 3rd Thursday each month, at 7:30 PM. We welcome you to visit.

Figure 1. English leaded crystal from Fort Daniel.

GARS continues its study of the Fort Daniel site (9GW623) in Gwinnett County, having completed the first phase of investigations on November 9 after 16 weekends in the field. Results of the investigations to date were presented at the Fall SGA meeting. A PowerPoint presentation in PDF format is available on the GARS website at www.thegars.org (see also The Profile No. 135 Fall 2007 pp.6-8).

Several “partners” have helped in these investigations including the Gwinnett County GIS Department. Our collaboration with them was featured in a poster for the National Geography Day event November 14 held at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. GARS is also collaborating with the Gwinnett Historical Society and others in an effort to save the site from destruction by means of purchasing the tract.

GARS Historian Shannon Coffey continues to work on artifact cleaning, cataloguing and—her special area of interest— analysis of ceramics and glass. In addition to wonderful examples of (early) hand-painted polychrome pearlware (a bowl and accompanying pieces, probably teacups, dating to 1795- 1820), possibly English-made banded annular ware (a mug dating to 1785-1840), and brown transfer ware featuring an Asian pastoral scene dating ca. 1810, we have also recently recovered several sherds of imported English wheel-etched leaded crystal (Figure 1). The sherds suggest a tumbler, perhaps monogrammed, that is tentatively dated to about 1760.

Figure 2. Nail from Fort Daniel in relation to published type illustration.

We have jokingly concluded that the area this glass came from must have been the officer’s quarters. In any case, the presence of fine table ware, including a complete, bone-handled table knife with incised decoration (mid 1700s), suggests that life on the Georgia frontier was not without its amenities. TRC lab director, Tommy Garrow, has been helping with the cleaning and stabilization of metal artifacts including a great number of nails and nail fragments. One surprise was the presence of machine cut nails on the frontier. Could they point to a later structure on this site?

Machine cut nails in the industrialized north begin to appear after 1790, and they gradually replaced the far more expensive hand wrought nails, which by 1815 were pretty much relegated to the specialty market. While the majority of nails so far recovered at Fort Daniel are hand-wrought, as would be expected for an 1813 fort that replaced 1790s fort, there are also a large number of machine-cut, hand-headed nails exhibiting very distinct diagnostic attributes. According to Edwards and Wells’ Historic Louisiana Nails: A Guide to Dating of Old Buildings, the Fort Daniel machine nails would be a “Type 3d,” manufactured by a short-lived process that can be narrowly dated to 1805-1810, though the authors suggest that they might have been around to about 1815 (Figure 2). The period of manufacture and use of this particular nail fits well with the date of the construction of Fort Daniel, so we believe that these nails, as well as the hand-wrought nails, are credibly associated with Fort Daniel.

A technical report with contributions by several GARS members will hopefully be completed before the spring. Except for completing excavation of features, so far only partially excavated, no new excavations will be carried out at Fort Daniel until this report is completed. Hopefully, if preservation efforts are not successful, additional work can be carried out before the property is sold and developed.

In Fall 2007, SGA met at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center, 2020 Clean Water Drive (near The Mall of Georgia), Buford.

The Search For Fort Daniel
Jim D’Angelo, TRC and Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society

The traditional location of one of Georgia’s early frontier forts, Fort Daniel, has been marked with a roadside historical sign for many years, but there has never been any physical evidence to support the supposed location…until now. Archaeological investigations at the Hog Mountain site in Gwinnett County, undertaken by the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS) have confirmed the traditional location of the 1813 Fort Daniel and a 1790s fort that preceded it. Hundreds of artifacts, including wrought and early machine nails, musket shot and flint, ceramics, brick, and intact features are consistent with a military installation dating from this period.

Theory and Limitations of Ground Penetrating Radar: Fort Daniel Results
Sheldon Skaggs, University of Georgia

A brief introduction to the theory of GPR and its use in site detection. Results from the Fort Daniel survey will be presented to show how preconceived ideas and soil conditions can limit the usefulness of any remote sensing technique. Emphasis will be placed on comparing two or more techniques in the decision making process along with the use of post excavation knowledge.

Hardin Bridge: A Look at an Early Middle Woodland Settlement
R. Jeannine Windham, New South Associates, Inc

The Hardin Bridge site is a narrow terrace settlement located on the bank of the Etowah River. The early Middle Woodland component at this site shows a dependence on a localized catchment area that was revisited for a restricted amount of time. This paper discusses the Cartersville occupation revealed during recent excavations. Further, the utilization of the immediate catchment area is explored within the concepts of Primary Forest Efficiency and nascent Woodland agricultural practices.

The History of the Dugout Canoe in Georgia
Leslie Perry, Fernbank Museum

From the penned words of Christopher Columbus upon his arrival in the West Indies, the Arawak word ‚“canoa” has evolved to the English word “canoe”. By interpreting the ethno-historical, historical, and archaeological records, and analyzing those records in the context of the known cultural and physiographical environment, the history and evolution of the wooden dugout canoe in Georgia shall come into clearer focus. Selected samples of dugout canoes have surfaced within Georgia boundaries for measurement and study that lend spatial and temporal data which aids in the research. The initial findings suggest a lowdensity recovery rate relative to the size of the state, but the more important story is not mathematical—the critical importance of this cultural resource lies in its ability to relate part of the story of human life gone by.

The Archaeology and Oral History of a Tenant Farming Community in Randolph County, Georgia
Jennifer Azzarello, New South Associates, Inc.

Investigating and managing tenant farming sites in the Southeast can prove challenging as they tend to be underrepresented, poorly preserved, and lacking in artifacts and architectural remains. Recently, the Georgia Department of Transportation initiated a data recovery and oral history survey of Site 9RH41, which has proven to be a well-preserved tenant farming community in Randolph County, Georgia. This paper presents the data that has been collected from the excavations and the oral history survey then poses questions for future research on how to best interpret and manage these resources.

Age-Related Changes in Mortuary Practices at the King Site
David Hally, University of Georgia

Approximately 250 burials were recovered from the 16th century King site in northwestern Georgia during excavations in the early 1970s and early 1990s. Mortuary analysis of the collection, using single-year composite age estimates of burials has allowed a number of age-related status changes to be recognized.

Georgia Trust Places in Peril 2008: SGA Nominates the Sunbury Site (9Li4)
Terry Jackson, SGA Advocacy Subcommittee Chair

The Society for Georgia Archaeology has nominated the colonial town site of Sunbury in Liberty County to be featured on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Places in Peril List for 2008. SGA will also be submitting a National Register nomination for the Sunbury Cemetery and possibly for a larger archaeological district encompassing other parts of the original town site, which is now rapidly being lost to residential development. SGA will offer opportunities to the new community at Sunbury to study and save parts of their historic past.

Ocmulgee River Basin Archaeological Project
Stephen A. Hammack, Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (SGA)

Preliminary information on work already completed and work planned for the future will be presented. There are several different components of the project, including: 1) contacting artifact collectors in an effort to document their collections; 2) visiting archaeological sites with landowners and collectors in order to obtain UTM coordinates, gathering preliminary information on site size, and completing site forms to be submitted to the Georgia Archaeological Site File; 3) mapping underwater and/ or maritime sites such as prehistoric sites that have eroded into the river, steamboat and barge remains, and prehistoric and historic fish weirs; and 4) locating the lost Creek Indian towns that were situated along the banks of the Ocmulgee River and its tributaries between 1685 and 1715, and 5) conducting excavations at the Waterworks Park in Macon this fall and winter on 9Bi155, a potentially eligible site that is expected to yield information and artifacts that may be interpreted in a permanent Macon History exposition.

The Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS) has been conducting an archaeological investigation at the traditional site of one of Georgia’s earliest frontier forts, Fort Daniel, in Hog Mountain (Hamilton Mill), Gwinnett County, Georgia.

New study of old documents shows that Fort Daniel was not original to the site, but rather constructed in late 1813 to replace an earlier fort dating to at least 1799 and perhaps earlier, when we know there was a militia at Hog Mountain. The traditional site of the second fort, and probably the first fort as well, is located on a 4-acre parcel of private land that is currently for sale and may be subject to commercial development. With the owner’s permission, GARS has been working at the site to establish the existence of archaeological remains dating from this period, and to determine what those remains represent.

The research design for this investigation included several phases, which have been carried out in succession: clearing the project area of underbrush, saplings and dead trees; laying out a 200×160-foot grid over the approximately 0.8-acre area to be investigated (Figure 1); shovel testing to characterize the soils at various points on the grid; creating a local 1-foot interval topographic map and mapping all surface features; carrying out an intensive metal detection (MD) survey of the upper approximately 1-foot of soil (Figure 2), followed by a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey (Figure 3); and, based on the results of those surveys, carrying out limited archaeological excavations including mechanical stripping and hand-excavated test units (Figure 4). All excavated soil from two 20×20-foot units (a total of approximately 1200 cubic feet) is being screened (Figure 5), and soils from stripping in four other units has been replaced (and seeded) without screening. All recovered artifacts have been provenienced and registered in the field before being sent on for cleaning, stabilization, and curation. The results of this investigation along with historic research that is being conducted concurrently will then be published in a technical report as soon as possible.

Partnering with GARS in this ambitious project were members of the Gwinnett Historical Society; TRC (Norcross), whose Lab Director, Tommy Garrow, is cleaning and stabilizing metal artifacts; local members of a metal detecting club who ably assisted with the MD survey (and came away with a new appreciation of archaeological context); the Student Association of Archaeological Sciences (SAAS), a student-run organization loosely associated with The University of Georgia that conducted the GPR survey; the Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation Division, which provided machinery and an operator for clearing of push piles and mechanical scraping; and the Gwinnett County GIS Department, which has provided a Digital Elevation Map and rectified satellite image of the site and vicinity, and has offered continued support for developing a project GIS.

The project has yielded a large number of wrought nails of various sizes as well as some early cut nails of various sizes (Figure 6). Several ‚“buck and ball” buckshot balls, two period brass-plated buttons, and a variety of other metal objects have been recovered. There is also some historic pottery dating from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century, and thick green (‚“black”) wine/ale bottle glass.

As expected, given the landform and availability of water nearby, this is a mixed component site. Quartz lithics seem to be ubiquitous across the site and include cores, secondary and tertiary flakes, one Wade-like projectile point, and a white glass bead. According to J. Brain’s schema, this is a Type IA2 glass bead, which might be dated to 1725 based on one excavated example. Brain has no bead data from Georgia. [GARS had previously recovered a similar Type 1A3 blue trade bead from the Creekside Rock Shelter on the Elisha Winn property that, based on several known excavations, is given temporal range of 1650-1833 with a mean date of 1726.]

Ground-truthing of the GPR survey, which was limited to about 25 percent of the site due to time constraints, has so far turned up one linear feature and a possible hearth feature as well as several ‚“post holes” that turned out to be tree or rodent holes. The linear feature exhibits charcoal and hardened burned clay several inches deep. These features will be excavated in the near future. Unfortunately what was thought to be stockade wall trench turned out to be a deep vein of quartz. However, selective stripping in an area not covered by the GPR survey has intersected a north-south, 20-inch-wide trench that may represent the east stockade wall. This also will be further investigated in the near future.

A PowerPoint presentation on ‚“The Search for Fort Daniel,” including results of the GPR survey, will be made at the October meeting of SGA. A poster-board and artifact display will also be presented by members of GARS.