Ocmulgee National Monument 6

Ocmulgee National Monument 6

The pottery obtained in excavation has already been studied in

considerable detail because of the recognized importance of this time

marker to the archeologist. It is here that we find one of the most

noticeable differences between these people from the Mississippi Valley

and the native Georgia tribes whose pottery had developed along very

different lines for some thousand years or more. Now, in place of the

many forms of surface roughening which marked the history of the latter,

plain surfaces become the rule. Jar forms have rounded bottoms, are

often as broad as they are tall, or broader, and show a tendency toward

constricted openings. One common form has a straight sloping shoulder

which turns in from the rounded body contour of the pot rather suddenly.

Its slope may continue without change to the rim, but more often it will

turn upward again to form a slight lip or even a short neck. These

contrast with the deep jars of the preceding period in which the mouth,

regardless of neck or rim treatment, tends almost to equal the largest

diameter, and in which the base is conoidal, i. e., rounded to at least

the suggestion of a point.

 

[Illustration: The clay figures which often adorned the rims of open

bowls represented all manner of creatures both real and imaginary. About

one-third actual size.]

 

Of course the Master Farmers made other types of pottery, too. Some were

open bowls, and others had an incurving rim which gracefully repeated

the curve of the lower portion just below the belly. There were also

deep, straight-sided jars with extremely thick walls, and big shallow

bowls several feet in diameter which have been called salt pans from the

belief that the type was sometimes used in the making of that substance.

Actually they were probably the large family food bowl in common use

also in later times. Impressions of a twined cloth fabric on the outer

surfaces of the latter, some cord marking, and crude scoring or other

treatment of the sides of the former were exceptions to the general rule

of smooth surfaces during this period.

 

In place of surface decoration, however, we find another form of

elaboration which is somewhat less common but equally distinctive. This

is the attempt to depict some form, either natural or supernatural, in

the body of the vessel or attached to it in some way as an independent

figure. Small heads suggesting a fox or an owl or some night creature

with big staring eyes grow out of the rim of a bowl and peer into it.

The small handles which are fairly common on the straight-shouldered

jars often have two little earlike knobs at the top; and knobs and

bosses with more or less modeling of the body of the pot are frequently

used to represent gourds or squashes or some other vegetable which is

not easy to identify. One curious style of jar has a neck which is

closed at the top, something like a gourd, but has an opening about an

inch in diameter below this on the side. Modeling at the top suggests

ears, a style of hair arrangement, or some other human or animal feature

that gives rise to the name, "blank-faced effigy bottle."

 

[Illustration: Effigy bottles were usually a finer grade of pottery and

generally accompanied burials. The hole in the human figure is in the

back of the head; the face is painted white, the body red, and the hair

the natural brown of clay. Diameter of bottle, 5^5/_1_{6} inches.]

 

In time, other changes began to mark the village of the Master Farmers.

The temples, built originally at ground level, were rebuilt

occasionally; and with the leveling of the old building to make way for

the new the surrounding ground surface was raised at first into a small

platform. Gradually this platform was increased in height and size until

the mound at the south side of the village was some 300 feet broad at

the base and almost 50 feet high. The other temple mounds grew in a

similar fashion but were either started later or were less important and

so never achieved as great a size. The earthlodges, too, were sometimes

rebuilt and often on the same site; but no attempt was made to increase

their elevation. The funeral mound, however, followed the pattern of the

others; and in each new layer of the seven there were fresh burials of

the village leaders, and on top of each a new wooden structure which may

have been connected with the preparation of the dead for their final

rites. In the later stages, too, the flat summit area was surrounded by

an enclosure of wooden posts.

 

[Illustration: The structure atop the funeral mound may have been for

preparing corpses for burial. From Museum exhibit.]

 

At the northwest corner of the village lay a cultivated field which

surrounded the site of one of the earlier temples. This was no ordinary

field since most of these must have lain in the bottom land below the

village. From its position, then, could we infer some sacred purpose,

possibly to create an offering to the spirits, or by the power in its

seed absorbed from the surroundings to increase the yield of the

villagers' crops? In any case, the mounds for succeeding structures were

gradually raised above it; and by this act the rows were buried and thus

preserved as conclusive proof of the advanced state of culture which the

Master Farmers had achieved.

 

The construction of all these mounds and earthlodges required a large

amount of material as well as innumerable man-hours of labor. Two series

of great linked pits, averaging about 7 feet deep and 18 by 40 feet in

area, seem to indicate that the earth was obtained immediately outside

the main village limits, for they have been traced around considerable

portions of its north and south borders. They do not enclose the entire

area occupied by the temple mounds, though, because at least three of

these mounds lie outside their confines today; others were destroyed in

the construction of Fort Hawkins and the adjacent portions of East Macon

a little farther to the north. It is not unlikely that the irregular

ditches formed by these pits served also as a protection against raids

on the village; for otherwise, why would their course have outlined the

village area so closely?

 

All the evidence, then, points to the existence here at Ocmulgee of a

town of Indians who lived in a state of culture as advanced in some

respects as any to be found north of Mexico. We see a prosperous

community devoted chiefly to the yearly round of activities designed to

cement its relationship with the powerful unseen forces on which its

well-being depended. Not too much work was required with the abundant

rainfall on this fertile soil to raise the principal food supply for an

entire family. The men, like all later Indians, hunted to supply the

meat for their diet; but they had plenty of free time to devote to the

construction and repair of the town's several temple buildings. Here

they gathered at stated intervals to go through the time-honored ritual

first taught to their fathers by the very spirits themselves, those

spirits which gave man the fish and the game and finally the wonderful

gift of the corn plant. All of these gifts and many more must be

accepted with reverence and treated according to the rules established

for their proper use; otherwise the spirits would be offended, the game

would disappear, and the fields would wither and die.

 

[Illustration: This series of cultivated rows buried beneath the fill of

later mound construction confirms our belief that the temple mound

builders lived mainly by farming.]

 

Of all the annual round of ceremonies the most important was that in

honor of the deity whose gift of corn had the miraculous power to renew

itself every year. The summer temple, then, was the scene of the year's

biggest festival when the new crop was ripe. All the fires of the

village were put out; and after the men had fasted and purified

themselves with the sacred drink, the new fire was lit and offered with

the first of the new corn to the Master of Breath. With this act the

sins of the past year were forgiven, and the town entered upon a new

year with rejoicing. But ever so often the temple needed to be rebuilt,

perhaps at the death of the chief priest, who may at the same time have

been the chief of the town as well. This called for a mound to be built

or the old one to be enlarged and raised higher as a mark of extra

devotion; and every man must have given his allotment of working days to

complete the project, even if several years were required before it was

finished. For the new mound was proof to the divine forces of how much

their gifts had been appreciated, and a plea that their favor might

continue and the town prosper. Also it was proof to all the surrounding

tribes of the wealth and strength of the village which was able to erect

and maintain these large structures and at the same time to live in

plenty and defend itself from its enemies.

 

[Illustration: General view of excavations northeast of ceremonial

earthlodge, showing portion of trench surrounding the village.]

 

Much of this reconstruction depends heavily on our knowledge of the

later tribes of the Southeast and on broader analogies as well.

Archeological proof does not exist for much that we have inferred. Yet

we know that what we find here could not have been built by villagers

living at the level of bare subsistence. Economic surplus was essential,

and we know the Indians had the corn with which to create it. Strong

leadership was needed to carry such large projects to completion; and

with it there must have been a social and religious class system to

organize the economic and priestly functions of such a community. The

temple priests and their assistants and retainers would have formed a

rather numerous class with high status in a society so clearly impressed

with the importance of the physical __EXPRESSION__ of its religious ideas.

Wealth and power may likewise have rested with a specialized warrior

class which controlled the governing function of the group, or it may be

that these were combined with the religious duties of the priestly

class. Whatever the system employed, several hundred unusually important

individuals given special burial in the Funeral Mound attest to the

distinctions which existed. Class differences of this sort are the most

common basis for a high degree of social and political control; and

Ocmulgee is a good example of the real attainments of some American

Indians along these lines.

 

[Illustration: Ungrooved ax, or celt, of the temple mound builders.]

 

In spite of the relatively large amount of information we have about

them, however, we know surprisingly little of the ultimate fate of the

Master Farmers. We do know that these first bearers of an alien culture

from the Mississippi Valley did not persist very long in the area in

terms of its previous history. Within 200 years the busy village was

deserted, only to be visited by an occasional traveling band descended

from the Early Farmers who had lived on in nearby sections. We do not

know even whether the last occupants left here in a body to settle

elsewhere, whether they gradually died off, whether they were absorbed

into the surrounding population, or whether they were finally

exterminated by neighbors who had themselves developed large settled

communities capable of effective military action. Other ideas came to

Georgia from the Mississippi Valley, but Ocmulgee lay silent and was

passed by. Only in the last chapter of Indian history in this State was

the site again reoccupied for a brief time. Here at the end, to be