University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology Series Report No. 30 Georgia Archaeological Research Design Paper No.7 HISTORIC PERIOD INDIAN ARCHAEOWGY OF NORTHERN GEORGIA By Marvin T. Smith Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of South Alabama April, 1992 Acknowledgments I am particularly grateful to Morgan R. Crook, Jr. for the opportunity to write this . synthesis. The contact period has been my research interest practically from my earliest field work. David J. Hally provided encouragement and assistance, and he provided access to the State Archaeological Site Files and collections housed at the University of Georgia. Many people contributed their thoughts and unpublished information. Eric Poplin provided information on his ongoing analysis of the Dog River sites, Jerald Ledbetter provided much information from his work on the Oconee River, James Hatch provided information on his work at the Lindsey Site, and Mark Williams provided advance copies of his excavation report on the Shinholser site as well as his thoughts on the Oconee River area. Tim Mistovich provided information about his work on the McIntosh Reserve. Tom Gresham provided data about bells recovered from Stallings Island, and Chuck Cantley provided information on his work in the West Point Reservoir. Charlotte Smith provided preliminary computer runs listing historic aboriginal sites in the State Archaeological Site Files. Jolee Gardner of Georgia Power Company provided a copy of Dennis Blanton's report on 9GP-HK-OB. Vernon J. Knight has increased my knowledge of the Creeks, especially those groups on the Chattahoochee, and Gregory Waselkov has proved most helpful with his insights of Creeks in Alabama. Charles Hudson and Chester DePratter have had important impacts on my views of sixteenth-century Georgians. Robert C. Wilson, Mark Corey, and Bruce L. Manzano of the National Park Service provided information about early excavations in the Macon area and at the Ennis Site. Louis De Vorsey, Jr. provided much help with early map sources. His patient assistance was much appreciated. Thomas Camden of the University of Georgia Libraries, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, provided permission to publish the Herbert-Hunter map of 1744. Dr. Douglas Wilms provided permission to reprint his map of Cherokee population distribution which appeared in his doctoral dissertation. Jack Wynn provided an advance copy of his Mississippi Period Archaeology of the Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains which greatly facilitated the transition to the historic period in this area. Julie Barnes Smith produced the graphics. David Hally, Chip Morgan, Mark Williams, and Ray Crook read an early draft of this report, and their comments were much appreciated. Williams granted permission to include the drawing of Bell phase vessel forms from his dissertation. 1 The author wishes to thank each of these colleagues for their assistance in the completion of this report. Any mis-use of their data and interpretations remains his responsibility. This project has been financed in part with Federal funds from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior or the Department of Natural Resources, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by either Department. ii -- --- ------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i. TABLE OF CONTENTS 111. LIST OF FIGURES iv. LIST OF TABLES V. I. INTRODUCTION 1. II. ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND 3. III. PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH 9. Important Archaeological Projects in Northern Georgia 9. IV. THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY 21. Historical Background 21. Archaeological Sites 23. V. THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY 27. Historical Background 27. Archaeological Sites 29. VI. THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY 34. Historical Background 34. Archaeological Sites 39. VII. THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY 49. Historical Background 49. Archaeological Sites 51. VIII. SUMMARY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE 56. Ceramics 56. Domestic Architecture 68. Public Architecture 70. Subsistence 73. Mortuary Practices 75. Waste Disposal 77. Community Plan 78. Settlement Pattern of Polities BO. IX. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND MANAGEMENT CONCERNS 81. Resource Significance 85. Preservation Concerns 89. Sources of Impact 91. APPENDIX I. Historic Aboriginal Sites in Northern Georgia. 92. APPENDIX II. Sixteenth-Century European Artifacts. 100. REFERENCES CITED 102. iii LIST OF FIGURES Fi~re ~ 1. Physiographic zones of Georgia. 4 2. The study area showing drainages and major sites. 5 3. The route of Hernando de Soto (after Hudson). 22 4 .. Sixteenth-century archaeological sites. 24 5. Seventeenth-century archaeological sites. 3) 6. Eighteenth-century archaeological sites. 4D 7. The Herbert-Hunter Map of 1744. 41 8. Archaeological sites on the Ocmulgee River. 43 9. Cherokee population in the nineteenth-century (After Wilms 1974). m 10. Nineteenth-century Cherokee archaeological sites. 52 11. Seventeenth-century Bell phase vessels (After Williams 1983). 59 12. Eighteenth-century vessels from the Little Egypt site (9Mu102). m iv UST OF TABLES TABLE 1. Ceramic Phases by drainage. 56. 2. Early eighteenth-century ceramics from northwestern Georgia. 62. 3. Creek ceramics from Georgia by percentage. 65. v For Carol I. Mason, pioneer in the study of Georgia's historic Indian archaeology. For over a quarter of a century, her study of the Macon Plateau site has been a model for contact period Indian archaeology. I. INTRODUCTION This report represents a contribution to Georgia's Comprehensive Archaeological Preservation Plan, a portion of the Georgia Historic Preservation Plan (DNR 1989). The archaeological plan was originally conceived as being comprised by 36 archaeological contexts (Crook 1986) defined by six areas of the state and six time periods. As a study of historic aboriginal sites north of the Fall Line, the present report combines three of the originally defined archaeological contexts: historic aboriginal occupation of the Ridge and Valley, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge. "Historic aboriginal" seems a clear enough category, but in practice, there are many problems. The definition utilized in this work limits the study to any aboriginal site which shows evidence of European contact. In many cases, there is no historic documentation for the sites, but European artifacts are found in direct association with aboriginal remains. With few exceptions to be noted, only sites which have yielded actual European artifacts are included. The exceptions include sites which produce aboriginal ceramics which are known to be produced only after European contact. Thus, for example, all sites which yielded the ceramic type Chattahoochee Brushed, are included in the present study. This ceramic type was only produced after European contact in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, although in many of the small collections available from numerous sites, no European artifacts are known. On the other end of the time scale, sixteenth and seventeenth-century Lamar period sites are included in the present study only if they have produced European, presumably Spanish artifacts. More complete information on sixteenth-century Lamar sites can be found in other State Comprehensive Plans for the Mississippian period in the Ridge and Valley (Hally and Langford 1988), Piedmont (Hally and Rudolph 1986), and Blue Ridge (Wynn 1990). Because of the importance of the Fall Line ecotone during the contact period, I have elected to infringe slightly into the Coastal Plain when necessary to understand historic aboriginal settlement patterns. Major populations were concentrated at the Fall Line ecotone; some above the Fall Line (the Piedmont) and some below (the Coastal Plain) and many overlapping into both environmental zones. As a practical matter, I have used county lines as the southern boundary of this study. If a county overlapped the Fall Line, then it was included in the present study. Analysis of such border settlements is brief when 1 the occupied area is primarily below the Fall Line. Settlements below the Fall Line in the Coastal Plain will be the subject of a separate volume in this series. Infonnation for this synthesis was gathered by referring to published sources, by searching the Georgia Archaeological Site Files for all counties north of the Fall Line, and searching the "in process" site fonn file at the University. When the site files led to unpublished manuscript reports or contract reports, they were consulted. Work in the site files was conducted in the summer of 1989, and it is possible that additional sites are now known. The present sample is believed to give a reasonable view of historic aboriginal settlement in northern Georgia. Many colleagues provided information on work in progress to make this synthesis as complete as possible. This report will be organized by century and when possible, by defined archaeological phases. The historic contact period in northern Georgia is poorly known, and it is not the purpose of this report to go on a phase naming spree. After a brief introduction to the environment of the area and a review of major research projects that have provided information on the contact period, sites will be discussed for each century. First historical background will be presented, followed by an overview of archaeological sites. A final chapter will provide an overview of what