ALABAMA MUSEUM })I(l ~ p .....-w-~ ..._,.. ~ ))O~ ALABAMA MUSEUM of Natural History e • Nlunber 15 January 31, 1993 Archaeological Survey and Excavations in the Coosa River Valley, Alabama edited byVernonJames Knight,Jr. Introduction: Archaeological Research in the Middle Coosa Valley, Alabama by Vernon James Knight, Jr. Archaeological Research in the Logan Martin Basin: Final Report of Investigations by L. Ross Morrell Lamar in the Middle Coosa River Drainage: The Ogletree Island Site (1 Ta238) , A Kymulga Phase Farmstead by Richard Walling The Milner Village: A Mid-Seventeenth Century Site Near Gadsden, Alabama by Marvin T. Smith, Vernon]. Knight, Jr., Julie B. Smith, and Kenneth R. Turner Seventeenth Century Aboriginal Settlement on the Coosa River by Marvin T. Smith THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA January 31,1993 Introduction: Archaeological Research in the Middle Coosa Valley, Alabama Vernon James Knight, Jr. Department of Anthropology The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa 35487-0210 My chief purpose in drawing together the four essays Dejarnette, Kurjack, and Keel in 1973 in two issues of the contained in this volume is to make available some pri­ Journal of Alabama Archaeology (Dejarnette et al. 1973). mary reference material on the archaeology of the Coosa Subsequent to the Weiss Basin work the emphasis shifted River Valley in Alabama. These contributions are not syn­ to the Logan Martin and Neeley Henry (formerly called theses. They are, rather, presentations and interpretations Lock 3) reservoirs to the south. For the Neeley Henry of field data collected at intervals during the last several reservoir, in St. Clair, Etowah, and Calhoun Counties, the decades. Nor is the coverage comprehensive, so we can results of the 1962 season at the Woods Island site were hardly make any claims about special status for this volume published by Ross Morrell in a monograph in Florida State as a summary of the archaeology of this region. However, University's Notes in Anthropology series (Morrell 1965). I believe that there is justification for bringing out such a The 1964 excavation season in the Neeley Henry Basin was volume at this time. In this introductory essay I want to use the subject of a master's thesis by J. Bennett Graham this opportunity to outline some advances in archaeologi­ (Graham 1966), and the results are available in that form. cal knowledge that have been made through limited sur­ A number of sites in the Logan Martin Basin, Talladega vey and excavations over the last few years. and St. Clair Counties, were excavated between 1961 and It has now been over a quarter of a century since a 1963 by Ross Morrell. His Final Report of Investigations for m3Jor archaeological field project has been mounted in the Logan Martin basin project has now been edited for the central Coosa Valley. Beginning in 1957, and continu­ publication and is presented as the first paper in this ing through 1965, the University of Alabama conducted volume. This in effect is the final installment in a series extensive salvage excavations in three basins to be inun­ documenting the archaeology of these three river basins dated by Alabama Power Company reservoirs. This work as known in the early 1960s from the annual projects was directed by David L. Dejarnette, who in 1948 had also sponsored by the Alabama Power Company. directed the excavations at the Childersburg site, a puta­ Two sites excavated during this salvage program tive location of De Soto's Coosa and an important historic present special problems for current interpretation. One Upper Creek site in Talladega County (Dejarnette and is the early historic Woods Island site, which we now Hansen 1960). The river basin salvage projects were believe was occupied by Coosa/Abihka and Koasati Indi­ funded in a cooperative program with the Alabama Power ans during approximately A.D. 1670-1715. This important Company. The first of these reservoirs was the Weiss Basin, site, now destroyed, was located on an island at the Neeley in Cherokee County, completed in 1960. The results of the Henry dam axis in St. Clair County. It was excavated in Weiss Basin archaeological project were published by three separate episodes-1962, 1964, and 1965-each Bull. Alabama Mus. Nat. Hist 15:1-6 January 31,1993 2 BULLETIN 15 January 31, 1993 under the direction of a different field supervisor. The time. The question must arise: why resurrect this obviously problem is that no effort was made to coordinate the three dated manuscript for publication more than 25 years after seasons of work, so that no comprehensive statement the fact? One answer to this question has been already about the site was ever produced. As noted, the first stated. The appearance of this report complements those season's work was published as a monograph by Ross already available for the Neeley Henry and Weiss Basins, Morrell. The second season's work was reported by completing a basic corpus of materials documenting the Bennett Graham in his master's thesis. The third season, University of Alabama's nine-year program of archaeologi­ under direction of Joseph Benthall, was very rushed be­ cal research in the Alabama Power Company's Coosa Val­ cause of active construction of the Neeley Henry Dam ley reservoirs. during the excavations. This final season's work, the most More specific reasons may be stated. For one, Morrell's extensive of the three, has not yet been reported. In all, report contains detailed descriptions of two excavated some 48 burials and 7 houses were excavated at Woods sites bearing a local expression of Alexander culture (ca. Island. 700-200 B.C.), constituting the best evidence yet available Because of this situation Marvin Smith has recently for that cultural manifestation in this region. Here we find brought together some basic data on all three field sea­ dense clusters of bell-shaped storage pi ts, and an artifact sons, including a burial inventory and the preparation ofa assemblage containing such items as Alexander decorated master map showing the location of all mapped cultural pottery, greenstone "spades," Copena-like triangular pro­ features (Smith 1989b). Deriving the composite site map jectile points, small stemmed and side notched Coosa was made difficult because three different grid systems points, and distinctive grooved net sinkers. Traces of this were used during the work, each unrelated to the others. Alexander complex were found also in the Neeley Henry Smith's work is an important beginning towards under­ Basin to the north (Graham 1966), but in the Weiss Basin standing the site structure and internal chronology at the same period is occupied by the Cedar Bluff phase Woods Island, and yet, as he notes, most of the remains still (Walthall 1980:141-143), which is characterized by lime­ await a complete analysis. Such an analysis, still badly stone tempered fabric marked pottery. To the south of the needed, is the largest missing piece in the reporting of the Logan Martin Basin, Walling and Schrader (1983) have Alabama Power Company river basin research on the defined the Dry Branch phase of Alexander culture, a Coosa River. phase which has many similarities to the contemporane­ A second site, Ogletree Island io Talladega County, was ous complex reported here. There are also some differ­ excavated during 1961 and 1962 by Ross Morrell as part of ences in both the artifacts and in site characteristics, and the Logan Martin Basin project. Now inundated, the site these should be investigated further. There is much yet to was on an island at the mouth of Choccolocco Creek. This be learned about Alexander culture on the Coosa, and early historic aboriginal site is noteworthy in part because these sites offer a beginning basis for discussion. it yielded evidence of Spanish contact during the early Likewise, Morrell's Logan Martin report contains im­ sixteenth century, the period of the De Soto expedition. portant results from the excavation offour sites belonging The presence here of a Nuevo Cadiz Twisted glass bead to the transitional Woodland-Mississippian period. These was briefly reported by Morrell in an article published in are compact riverine settlements with evidence of circular the Florida Anthropologist (Morrell 1964). This artifact houses and with numerous large storage pits. The material along with other metal items was found in association with culture and settlement characteristics bear a striking re­ aboriginal house floors and a pottery assemblage that we semblance to those of the West Jefferson phase Uenkins would now consider assignable to the Kymulga phase, a 1978) of the upper Cahaba and Black Warrior river valleys local manifestation showing a composite of Lamar and to the west. Because Morrell did not know of the existence Late Dallas pottery types. of the West Jefferson phase at the time of his writing, he The Ogletree Island site received only a sketchy ac­ used the Tennessee Valley type name McKelvey Plain for count, without a site map, in Morrell's Final Report in­ the clay-tempered ware that dominated his Coosa Valley cluded in this volume. Because of this situation and the collections. In modern perspective this same pottery importance of the site, not only for its rare evidence of could easily be classified as WestJefferson Plain. early Spanish contact but also for its value as the only Although this material is much like WestJefferson in its excavated example of a Kymulga phase farmstead, Rich­ clay tempered pottery, its Mississippian vessel forms with ard Walling has re-analysed the site materials and has loop handles, its small proportion of shell tempered pot­ produced an updated, comprehensive site report. This re­ tery, its long stemmed pipes, and other minor traits, there analysis was done as part of Walling's master's degree are nevertheless some differences which prevent its out­ studies at Memphis State University.