Ocmulgee National Monument 7

Ocmulgee National Monument 7

Early Creeks

 

 

After the mound village at Ocmulgee was abandoned we lose the thread of

Indian history in this area for about 250 years. When we pick it up

again in the _Reconquest_ period, it is at a new village some 3 miles

down the river. Much had happened in the meantime, though; and we are

able to piece together a good bit of the story.

 

In the first place, it is clear that the Master Farmers had been only a

small group which had settled in this one small section of Georgia; and

that the Early Farmers did not leave Georgia when they gave up their

settlements along the Ocmulgee. We cannot say for certain either that

they even quit the valley entirely. Their distinctive pottery seems to

have continued the course of development already outlined, but during

the interval a variety of new influences came in from other regions to

produce a number of striking changes. Noteworthy among these were the

"carinated" bowl form and incised and pinched or punctate decoration

around the shoulder or rim. In its extreme form the first of these may

be described as a shallow bowl with flaring sides which abruptly turn

inward to form a distinct shoulder and inward-sloping rim. The angle

thus produced may be as sharp as 90°, and the shoulder itself may vary

from abrupt to more or less gently rounded. It is this flattened rim

which normally bears the broad, deep incised-line decoration in the form

of scrolls alternating with nested flat-topped pyramids or with inverted

chevrons, all worked into a continuous pattern similar to the Greek

fret. Below the shoulder, the body of the bowl still carries the old

complicated stamping, but gradually the pattern becomes less distinct

and the paddle is applied several times to the same spot. It is even

impossible sometimes to make out any design whatever in the overall

roughening.

 

Another new element is to be found in a series of notches, bosses, or

circular impressions which are applied just below the lip on jars or

bowls with only complicated stamping, or at the point of the shoulder on

"bold incised" vessels. The lip of most vessel shapes, except the

carinated bowl, is thickened by folding or with an added strip of clay,

and it is the lower edge of this band which is often pinched or

otherwise worked to produce a notched or beaded effect. On the carinated

bowls there is commonly a line of circular impressions made with the end

of a piece of cane or other hollow tube situated on the point or bend of

the shoulder to separate the area of incised decoration from the body

stamping below. Circles of this sort are sometimes used in place of the

beading around the rim.

 

[Illustration: Pottery bowl showing carinated shoulder, bold incising,

complicated stamping, and reed punctates typical of Lamar Bold Incised.

Diameter, 16 inches.]

 

[Illustration: Lamar Complicated Stamped jar. Clearly defined stamping

more common in early Lamar period. Height, 9-1/4 inches.]

 

Whether the incised decoration and the carinated bowl form came from the

Florida or the Mississippi Valley area has not yet been settled. Temple

mounds, however, are a definite Mississippian trait; and the Lamar

village below Macon, which has given its name to the archeological

period we are discussing, is typical in possessing two mounds with an

adjacent open court. The larger mound is rectangular, while the smaller

is circular; but the latter is most unusual in its spiral ramp which

leads counterclockwise to the top in four complete traverses about the

mound. Mounds showing this feature have been reported by early

travelers, but this is the only one known to exist today.

 

[Illustration: Lamar mound with spiral ramp, after initial clearing.]

 

The village occupied a low natural ridge of higher ground in the swamp

close to the river. This position may have been chosen for its

inconspicuous and defensible nature, or to be close to good farmland;

but we do know that it was surrounded by a palisade of upright logs some

3,500 feet in length to protect it from enemy attacks. Within the

enclosed area, the rectangular houses were grouped about the mounds and

the nearby court. Their construction consisted of a framework of light

posts interlaced with cane which was plastered with clay and roofed with

sod or some sort of grass thatch. Some of them were raised on low dirt

platforms, evidently as a protection from the periodic overflow of the

river.

 

The life of these late prehistoric farmers was otherwise much the same

as that of their predecessors who had lived on the bluffs up the river.

To be sure, the region was now more thickly settled, and other villages

like theirs could be reached by a short journey in almost any direction.

Farming was doubtless the principal activity; and burned corncobs and

beans have been found, indicating two of the important crops. Hunting,

likewise, continued as a major pursuit; and the small, triangular

projectile points tell us that the bow was now the favorite weapon even

though large, stemmed dart or spear points were still made. Small, flat

celts of triangular outline were used. Shell was extensively worked for

ornament, mainly in the form of large beads, large, knobbed pins which

seem to have dangled from the ears, and circular gorgets bearing designs

of the Southern Cult, to be discussed presently.

 

[Illustration: Pipes in both plain and fancy styles were numerous.]

 

[Illustration: Gorgets were made of the outer shell, and large beads and

these knobbed "ear bobs" from the inner whorl of the marine whelk, or

conch. "Ear bobs" about 5 inches long.]

 

[Illustration: Some of the important beings of the Southern Cult as

depicted on shell or copper: Puma, Woodpecker, Deer Man, Rattlesnake.]

 

Finally, smoking appears to have become so habitual that it may have

been released from the religious implications which everywhere seem to

accompany the use of tobacco in aboriginal America. Pipes in an

astonishing variety of skillfully executed shapes, principally of clay

but also in stone, have been found scattered throughout the village

refuse. Human heads with great goggle eyes, bird and animal heads, boats

(?), and a stylized representation of a hafted celt are common.

 

DeSoto probably encountered some distant towns of these people when he

explored Georgia in 1540, and they were undoubtedly the ancestors of

various historic Creek Indian tribes of this State. We have suggested

that their culture was a mixture of very old elements in the region,

such as complicated stamping, with newer ideas coming in with the Master

Farmers or even later, such as temple mounds and incised decoration. We

know from work in other areas that the Early Farmer bearers of the Swift

Creek tradition had continued their existence uninterrupted save only in

the immediate vicinity of Macon. Therefore, despite the admixture of

many outside influences, we see in the reappearance here of one of their

major cultural elements, the old paddled pottery surfaces, proof that

the basic culture and presumably the people themselves were still the

same. In effect, an actual reoccupation of the area seems indicated; and

it is this fact that the museum exhibits recognize in the name

"Reconquest" given to the period we are discussing.

 

The culture represented at the Lamar site just described, which is the

type site for this archeological period, covered a very wide

geographical range and lasted in some locales into the historic period.

Typical Lamar pottery is found on numerous sites in regions as widely

separated as Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, and even parts of

Tennessee. We know that it was made by the historic Cherokee, which

accounts for the persistence of complicated stamping into historic times

mentioned earlier, and possibly also by some Siouan-speaking tribes in

the Carolinas, as well as by the early Creeks. While not all elements of

the culture were uniformly shared in all of these areas, there can be

little doubt that the material aspects of the lives of these different

groups were surprisingly much alike. This may appear the more remarkable

when one considers the difference in language and even the active

hostility of such historic tribes as the Creek and the Cherokee.

Nevertheless, one has only to consider the diversity of modern European

nations sharing a single culture which we know as "Western Civilization"

to realize that language, nationality, and culture are not mutually

interrelated on any one-to-one basis.

 

Mention has been made of the Southern Cult. Briefly, this is the name

given to the religious idea behind a group of frequently recurring

symbols, and the paraphernalia on which they are depicted, which have

been found all the way from Oklahoma and the Great Lakes to Florida and

the gulf coast. These unusual articles occur in association with the

platform mounds, and at some sites appear to be limited to the graves of

an important class of personages who had the unique privilege of burial

within the sacred structures atop the mounds.

 

The objects themselves appear to be symbols of office or religious

vessels or regalia of diverse sorts. They include engraved circular

gorgets of shell, engraved copper plaques, hafted ceremonial axes made

of copper or from a single piece of stone, as well as stone axheads

either so finely made or of such soft material that they could not have

been put to practical use. A ceremonial atlatl looks to us more like a

mace or sceptre; both this form and that of the hafted ax are reproduced

in beautifully chipped flint, and these are found in association with

long blades and reproductions of other elements of the cult in the same

material. Vessels include conch shell cups and pottery bottles of

various forms.

 

Of perhaps even greater importance than the physical apparatus just

described are the symbols pictured on some of these specimens, and

representations of these and other objects being worn or carried by

god-animal beings, mythological creatures, or their impersonators.

Important figures of the mythology or the religious pantheon include the

eagle, ivory-billed woodpecker, and turkey; various forms of the

rattlesnake, the cat or mountain lion; and the human chunkee player.

These are depicted most clearly on some of the engraved copper plaques

like that of the Eagle Man from the Etowah site, which is reproduced in

the Ocmulgee Museum in the colors most likely to have been used in the

original costume. They are also engraved on shell cups, masks, and

gorgets and on pottery vessels. Among the important symbols occurring

alone or as ornament on these figures are the cross, swastika, sun

circle, bi-lobed arrow, forked eye, hand and eye, and death head. The

figures are also shown brandishing the ceremonial atlatl, holding a long

flint knife, or throwing the chunkee stone; and some wear the bi-lobed

arrow as a hair ornament. The forked eye, sun circle, and other symbols

are shown painted on these figures or on their regalia.

 

[Illustration: Museum exhibit portraying eagle-costumed figure embossed

on copper plate from the Etowah site, north Georgia. Original about 20

inches high.]

 

[Illustration: Ceremonial ax from burial near Funeral Moun