Ocmulgee National Monument 5

Ocmulgee National Monument 5

Nothing has been said about other distinctive features of this period of

development in Georgia. Projectile points vary from heavy, shapeless

forms with stems to smaller triangular ones without. Flat stones with

two holes through them were once presumed to have been used as gorgets,

i. e., hung upon the chest as a sort of decoration, but they may well

have been atlatl weights or served some other purpose. "Boatstones" and

the prismatic form of atlatl weight are also said to occur, but there is

some disagreement on this and even on the continued exclusive use of the

atlatl in this period at all. In some areas the large numbers of smaller

points may suggest that the bow and arrow were beginning to be used. The

characteristic ax of the period was roughly chipped in a double-bitted

form. Steatite or soapstone was still fashioned into crude bowls and the

perforated net sinkers or pot boilers we have noted previously, as well

as into short tubular pipes which are found in the region of central

Georgia.

 

Just as Mossy Oak and Dunlap in Georgia appear to reflect more

noteworthy developments farther north, so Swift Creek has its more

spectacular parallels, too. These relate to Hopewell, the outstanding

culture of the Middle Woodland period. The Hopewell burial mounds and

other massive and complex earthen structures were accompanied by an

overall artistic achievement in pottery, chipped and polished stone,

bone, sheet mica, and copper which is probably without equal among North

American Indians. These materials were traded far and wide so that

Hopewellian influence is strongly indicated in the neighboring states of

Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. Even Georgia shows some evidence of

Hopewell connections, although in middle Georgia this is confined to the

complicated stamped pottery. Types evidently related to Swift Creek

occur frequently in classic Hopewell sites. In north Georgia, however,

elaborately carved stone pipes are said to denote this relationship, and

it is even more clearly indicated by a number of burial mounds. One of

them, built of stones, contained a burial displaying such typical

Hopewell features as a covering of mica plates and a breast plate and

celt of copper.

 

During the Early Farmer period, then, we feel that the Indians in middle

Georgia must have become more settled. Fragile pottery is not easily

carried in any quantity by wandering bands of hunters. On the other

hand, the technique of gathering wild foods is not likely to have become

suddenly so efficient that this alone could account for the large

increase in population which must be reflected in the more numerous

sites. Knowledge of planting and plant care, too, is likely to have

spread piecemeal rather than as a single unit. Hence, as we have already

stated, this seems the most likely period for the Indians to have begun

learning to raise some of the many plants which not too long afterwards

became so important in their existence.

 

[Illustration: This temple mound is a lasting memorial to the energy of

the Master Farmers, the fourth group to occupy Ocmulgee.]

 

[Illustration: OCMULGEE NATIONAL MONUMENT MACON, GEORGIA. SEPTEMBER 1955

NM·OCM·7002]

 

[Illustration: Early stage in excavation of the ceremonial earthlodge at

Ocmulgee.]

 

In central Georgia, though, we see instead a different side of their

lives. We follow the experiments made by the Indian women of the several

tribes in trying to improve the pottery which had now become such an

important utensil in their homes. Stronger vessels would break less

easily; so paste was improved from time to time, if this end was not

outweighed by other considerations. The attractiveness of the finished

piece, however, was soon a matter of universal concern, at least to the

potters themselves; and as their skill increased and their ideas and

standards became more clearly defined, we can follow a process which

never ceases to astonish us by its workings in our own society. The

whims of fashion surprise and puzzle us today as they are expressed in

our women's clothing, our automobiles, our houses, and our furnishings.

Evidently, however, if we may judge by the variations in his wife's

pottery, they were hardly less a problem to the Indian of 2,000 years

ago.

 

 

 

 

Temple Mounds and Agriculture

 

 

We now come to the period in Ocmulgee history which is the most

plentifully supplied with facts resulting from the excavations. The

_Master Farmers_, which is the name chosen for these people in the

Museum exhibits, were newcomers to Ocmulgee. It may be that their

arrival was strongly resisted by the Early Farmers who had claimed title

to these lands for the past thousand years. About A. D. 900, they moved

into this area, probably from a northwesterly direction, and started to

build villages with some very novel features.

 

[Illustration: Council meeting in Master Farmer winter temple. Museum

diorama.]

 

We do not know where this migration had its start; students of the

subject believe that it may have begun in the Mississippi Valley near

the mouth of the Missouri River. We do know, however, that some of their

closest relatives settled in northeastern Tennessee; and perhaps, as the

ancestral group journeyed up the Tennessee River it split apart at the

point of that river's abrupt northward bend in northern Alabama. Then a

succeeding generation, which took central Georgia for its home, settled

in two places near the Ocmulgee River. The smaller village was about 5

miles below the present city of Macon on a limestone remnant known as

Brown's Mount; the larger, with which we are here concerned, was the

"Ocmulgee Old Fields" of the early settlers, across the river from the

modern city and adjoining its eastern limit.

 

The most important feature distinguishing these people from their

predecessors, however, was not their town but their very way of life.

They were farmers; besides tobacco, pumpkins, and beans, they cultivated

the New World staff of life, corn. This way of life enabled them to

settle in one place long enough and in sufficient numbers to create a

large village, and to develop the religious and ceremonial complex which

was expressed in its numerous distinctive structures. They built it on

the rolling high ground above the river, where their square, thatched

houses were scattered among the many buildings connected with their form

of worship. These latter consisted of rectangular wooden structures

which we call temples, and a circular chamber with a wooden framework

covered with clay which was a form of earthlodge. From our knowledge of

the later Indian pattern in this area, we believe that these represented

the summer and winter temples, respectively, of the tribe. Here the

grown men took part in religious ceremonies and held their tribal

councils; and here the chief could render decisions in individual

disputes, or in matters of importance to the tribe as a whole.

 

[Illustration: A log tomb and its central location may indicate the

principal burial in the first stage of the Funeral Mound. The face-down

position could result from the reassembled bones being wrapped in a skin

or mat for burial.]

 

[Illustration: Masses of shell beads must have been valued possessions

of many of the earlier temple mound dignitaries.]

 

Perhaps the single outstanding archeological feature to be disclosed by

the excavations at Ocmulgee is the preserved floor and lower portions of

one of these winter temples. The remains consist of a low section of

clay wall outlining a circular area some 42 feet in diameter. At the

foot of the wall, a low clay bench about 6 inches high encircles the

room and is divided into 47 seats, separated by a low ramp of clay. Each

seat has a shallow basin formed in its forward edge, and three such

basins mark seats on the rear portion of a clay platform which

interrupts the circuit of the bench opposite the long entrance passage.

 

This platform, on the west side of the lodge and extending from the wall

almost to the sunken central fire pit, is the most remarkable feature of

all. Slightly higher than the bench, it forms an eagle effigy strongly

reminiscent of a number of such effigies embossed on copper plates which

are a part of the paraphernalia of the Southern Cult religion, to be

described in a later section. Surface modeling of the tapering body

section may once have been present, but is now so much obliterated that

only a sort of scalloped effect across the shoulders can be made out.

Nevertheless this feature is present on at least two of the plates

mentioned, one from the Etowah site in north Georgia and the other from

central Illinois. Moreover both of these figures, which represent the

spotted eagle, are distinguished by the same, almost square, shape of

the body and wings with only a slight taper from their base toward the

shoulder. Finally, the head of the platform eagle is almost entirely

filled with a clear representation of the "forked eye," which is

presented also, though in smaller scale, on the two figures in question,

and is a distinctive symbol of the Southern Cult. The entire ceremonial

chamber has been reconstructed on the basis of burned portions of the

original which were uncovered by excavation. It forms one of the

principal exhibits of the monument, and represents a unique

archeological treasure.

 

Other structures uncovered included a small circular hut framed with

poles and containing a large fireplace, out of all proportion to the

size of the building. This was evidently a sweathouse where steam was

produced by throwing water on heated stones; but it is not known whether

this common form of purification was related to their religion or merely

a sanitary feature of the village life. At the west edge of the village

the tribal chiefs and religious leaders were buried in great log tombs

where from one to seven bodies, possibly those of wives and retainers,

were deposited with masses of shell beads and other ornaments befitting

their rank. Over the whole was raised a low flat-topped mound with 14

clay steps leading to the summit.

 

[Illustration: Fourteen clay steps, buried under later mound

construction, led up the west slope of the earliest funeral mound to its

summit.]

 

Beside their large and thriving religious center, we can reconstruct

many aspects of their daily lives in which the Master Farmers were

different from their predecessors. This difference is noted in their

tools, weapons, and household utensils. These have survived because they

were made of such durable material as stone and pottery. The many

smaller projectile points now making their appearance suggest that the

bow and arrow were in general use at this time. Greater range and

accuracy have been advanced as possible reasons for adopting this weapon

in place of the spear thrower and dart, which preceded the bow in most

parts of the world. Perhaps equally important was an increase in tribal

unrest and strife which made a larger quantity of relatively small and