Location | Greensboro, Georgia, Greene County, Georgia, ![]() |
---|---|
Region | Greene County, Georgia |
Coordinates | 33°35′35.95″N83°16′15.6″W / 33.5933194°N 83.271000°W |
History | |
Founded | 1100 |
Abandoned | 1600 |
Periods | Lamar phase |
Cultures | South Appalachian Mississippian culture |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1969 |
Archaeologists | Chester DePratter |
Architecture | |
Architectural styles | platform mound, plaza |
Architectural details | Number of temples: 1 |
The Dyar site (9GE5) is an archaeological site in Greene County, Georgia, in the north central Piedmont physiographical region. [1] The site covers an area of 2.5 hectares. [2] It was inhabited almost continuously from 1100 to 1600 by a local variation of the Mississippian culture known as the South Appalachian Mississippian culture. Although submerged under Lake Oconee, the site is still important as one of the first explorations of a large Mississippian culture mound. [1] The Dyar site is thought to have been one of the principal towns of the paramount chiefdom of Ocute, perhaps Cofaqui. [3] [4]
The platform mound located at the site was described in 1975 as being in the shape of a truncated cone approximately 10.3 metres (34 ft) high and with a base 52 metres (171 ft) in diameter. On the eastern edge of the mound in the central area of the site was a plaza surrounded by domestic structures making up an oval shaped village of 2.13 hectares. [1]
Platform mounds are built up in a series of stages that can span generations. The Dyar mound itself began during the Stillhouse Phase with a large civic structure with a sand floor and built with single set post construction. Over this a layer of 70 centimetres (28 in) thick blue-black clay was added. On top of this was added a 40 centimetres (16 in) layer of grey clay loam and on which another structure was added. Stillhouse Phase Etowah Complicated stamped pottery sherds were found at this layer. Stage II begins with another layer of 30 centimetres (12 in) grey clay loam added. Stages III, IV, V, and VI are in sequence 35 centimetres (14 in) of dark and then white clay, 45 centimetres (18 in) red and grey clay, 70 centimetres (28 in) of grey and tan clay, and 37 centimetres (15 in) of dark grey and reddish tan clay, each stage with its own structure. Stage VII consists of 25 centimetres (9.8 in) of grey and orange and 25 centimetres (9.8 in) of yellow clay. A step up on the western side of the summit indicates that this stage was the first to have multiple levels and multiple structures, possibly two large structures on the western side and a smaller one on the eastern side which was found to have had a burned floor. Stage VIII was a layer of brown clay 14 centimetres (5.5 in)to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) thick. The eastern side at this stage is 40 centimetres (16 in) lower than the western side and covered by a layer of construction debris thought to have come from the razing of an old structure on the western side. Stage IX is 80 centimetres (31 in) of brown and grey clay with the multiple levels continuing. Pottery sherds from this layer are thought to date from the Duvall Phase. Stage X is a thin 10 centimetres (3.9 in) layer of light grey clay followed by Stage XI which is another thick 57 centimetres (22 in) layer of gray and tan clay. Stage XI is thought to date from the Ironhorse Phase. All stages above this date to the Ironhorse and Dyar Phases. Stage XII is a 60 centimetres (24 in) layer of yellow and grey clay. The structure at the western side has a semi-subterranean floor cut into its surface, the first seen on the mound. At this stage the difference between the eastern and western levels is 40 centimetres (16 in) to 50 centimetres (20 in). Stage XIII was a layer 62 centimetres (24 in) of yellow-orange and grey clay. The eastern level has a 10 centimetres (3.9 in) to 18 centimetres (7.1 in) cap of yellow clay. This stage and Stage XIV, an indeterminate layer of gray sandy clay, were not found to have structures. It is not known if they did not have structures at this time or if the evidence for these structures or subsequent layers has been lost. [1]
The western level from stages VII to XIII had two large structures with specially prepared clay floors that were kept meticulously clean. The floors on these structures was very deeply entrenched into the mound. This feature was noted by the first European observers of the mound. Without the structures over them, they assumed the deep enclosures were walls. The two structures may at times have been connected by a passageway, although this is not certain. It is also not certain if all stages had both structures. These structures were also rebuilt multiple times during the last phases of construction, more often than the layers of new mound fill were added. The function of northwestern of the two cannot be determined, but the southwestern structure has archaeological remains relating to ritual activities such as the sacred fire and the black drink ceremony. The final structure at the southwestern position was burned and radiocarbon dating of its remains have placed it at 1555. The eastern structure was domestic in nature and was used for food preparation, cooking and possibly feasting. Except for a short time in the 14th century the Dyar mound and its accompanying structures were regularly rebuilt for over five centuries. [1]
Archaeologists use changes in ceramic styles across multiple sites to determine timelines for entire regions. The ceramics found at the Dyar site show that it was abandoned for a time during the Scull Shoals (1250 - 1375), but was again inhabited from the Duvall Phase 1375 - 1450 until the time of European contact.
Phases | Dates | Periods | Pottery styles |
---|---|---|---|
Armour Phase | 950 - 1100 CE | Early Etowah | Before site occupation |
Stillhouse Phase | 1100 - 1250 CE | Late Etowah | Etowah Complicated Stamped, Etowah Red Filmed, Savannah Check Stamped, Plain, Burnished Plain, and Coarse Plain |
Scull Shoals Phase | 1250 - 1375 CE | Savannah | Site abandoned during this period |
Duvall Phase | 1375 - 1450 CE | Early Lamar | Lamar var Plain, var Burnished Plain and var Coarse Plain but not var Incised, Morgan Incised, Etowah Complicated Stamped, and a stamped type which may be Savannah, Wilbanks, or Lamar Complicated Stamped. |
Iron Horse Phase | 1450 - 1520 CE | Middle Lamar | Lamar var Plain, var Incised, var Complicated Stamped, Coarse Plain, and Burnished Plain. The marker for the phase is Lamar Incised |
Dyar Phase | 1520 - 1580 CE | Late Lamar | Similar to preceding phase, which at one time were combined as one "Dyar phase". Incising of var Incised becomes finer over time |
Bell Phase | 1580 - 1640 CE | Historic | There is little evidence for occupation of the site during this period |
While the mound had been described as early as the late 19th century, by C.C. Jones, and subject to undocumented amateur excavations, it was not systematically researched until 1975 when, in a project funded by the Georgia Power Company, it was excavated by a team led by Chester DePratter of the University of Georgia. Although hampered by damage done to the mound by amateurs, DePratter's research found it unique to the area, concluding that it was a large Lamar mound and village site. [1] In other areas, soil evidence indicated plowing from the 19th century and poor farming practices in the area that century and the next. The area does not seem to have been the home of one group or people following one leader. Rather, evidence supports four phases of native occupation, ranging from 1100 to 1600: The Stillhouse phase, the Duvall phase, the Iron Horse phase, and the Dyar phase. Variance in ceramics are a strong indicator of the different phases. Pottery suggests that the area was occupied in the Stillhouse phase by people of the Etowah chiefdom. In the 15th century, after a period when the site was unoccupied, the region seems first to have been settled by Lamar people, as some Lamar artifacts were discovered in those remains. The final two phases are also Lamar occupancy, terminating in approximately 1555. Contact with Europeans may have led to the gradual abandonment of the mound.
Angel Mounds State Historic Site, an expression of the Mississippian culture, is an archaeological site managed by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites that includes more than 600 acres of land about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of present-day Evansville, in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in Indiana. The large residential and agricultural community was constructed and inhabited from AD 1100 to AD 1450, and served as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Angel chiefdom. It extended within 120 miles (190 km) of the Ohio River valley to the Green River in present-day Kentucky. The town had as many as 1,000 inhabitants inside the walls at its peak, and included a complex of thirteen earthen mounds, hundreds of home sites, a palisade (stockade), and other structures.
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park in Macon, Georgia, United States preserves traces of over ten millennia of culture from the Native Americans in the Southeastern Woodlands. Its chief remains are major earthworks built before 1000 CE by the South Appalachian Mississippian culture These include the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches. They represented highly skilled engineering techniques and soil knowledge, and the organization of many laborers. The site has evidence of "12,000 years of continuous human habitation." The 3,336-acre (13.50 km2) park is located on the east bank of the Ocmulgee River. Macon, Georgia developed around the site after the United States built Fort Benjamin Hawkins nearby in 1806 to support trading with Native Americans.
Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park (8LE1) is one of the most important archaeological sites in Florida, the capital of chiefdom and ceremonial center of the Fort Walton Culture inhabited from 1050–1500. The complex originally included seven earthwork mounds, a public plaza and numerous individual village residences.
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal.
The Nacoochee Mound is an archaeological site on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in White County, in the northeast part of the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia State Route 17 and Georgia State Route 75 have a junction near here.
The Pisgah phase is an archaeological phase of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture in Southeast North America. It is associated with the Appalachian Summit area of southeastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and northwestern South Carolina in what is now the United States.
The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. It had a deep history in the area stretching back through the earlier Coles Creek and Troyville cultures to the Marksville culture. The Natchez and related Taensa peoples were their historic period descendants. The type site for the culture is the Medora site in Louisiana; while other examples include the Anna, Emerald, Holly Bluff, and Winterville sites in Mississippi.
Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine shell-tempering agents in the clay paste. Shell tempering is one of the hallmarks of Mississippian cultural practices. Analysis of local differences in materials, techniques, forms, and designs is a primary means for archaeologists to learn about the lifeways, religious practices, trade, and interaction among Mississippian peoples. The value of this pottery on the illegal antiquities market has led to extensive looting of sites.
Fewkes Group Archaeological Site, also known as the Boiling Springs Site, is a pre American history Native American archaeological site located in the city of Brentwood, in Williamson County, Tennessee. It is in Primm Historic Park on the grounds of Boiling Spring Academy, a historic schoolhouse established in 1830. The 15-acre site consists of the remains of a late Mississippian culture mound complex and village roughly dating to 1050-1475 AD. The site, which sits on the western bank of the Little Harpeth River, has five mounds, some used for burial and others, including the largest, were ceremonial platform mounds. The village was abandoned for unknown reasons around 1450. The site is named in honor of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, the Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1920, who had visited the site and recognized its potential. While it was partially excavated by the landowner in 1895, archaeologist William E. Myer directed a second, more thorough excavation in October 1920. The report of his findings was published in the Bureau of American Ethnology's Forty-First Annual Report. Many of the artifacts recovered from the site are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 21, 1980, as NRIS number 80003880.
The Rembert Mounds (9EB1) is an archaeological site in Elbert County, Georgia in the area that is now under the Clark Hill Reservoir on the Savannah River. The last excavation of the site occurred just before the reservoir was built; Joe Caldwell and Carl F. Miller conducted the excavation during a three-week period between January 12 and June 1, 1948. However, they are not the first people to examine the site. William Bartram first described the mounds in 1773 as: "an imposing group of one large and several smaller mounds standing adjacent to some extensive structures [which he called tetragon terraces]." In 1848, George White claimed "the smaller mounds had been nearly destroyed." Then, Charles C. Jones, Jr. stated that "only traces of the smaller mounds remained and the tetragon terraces were no more than gentle elevations." Less than 10 years later, in 1886, John P. Rogan excavated part of the site under Cyrus Thomas and found only the largest mound and one of the smaller mounds still standing. Rogan's excavation was the last before Caldwell and Miller's excavation in 1948. However, there was a flood in 1908 that almost completely destroyed the large mound.
The Little Egypt site was an archaeological site located in Murray County, Georgia, near the junction of the Coosawattee River and Talking Rock Creek. The site originally had three platform mounds surrounding a plaza and a large village area. It was destroyed during the construction of the Dam of Carters Lake in 1972. It was situated between the Ridge and Valley and Piedmont sections of the state in a flood plain. Using Mississippian culture pottery found at the site archaeologists dated the site to the Middle and Late South Appalachian culture habitation from 1300 to 1600 CE during the Dallas, Lamar, and Mouse Creek phases.
Bell Field Mound Site is an archaeological site located on the western bank of the Coosawattee River below the Coosawatee’s junction with Talking Rock Creek. The site itself was destroyed by the construction of Carters Dam in the 1970s. With respect to the dam itself, Bell Field was located in front of the high dam along with the Sixtoe Mound and Little Egypt sites.
The Sixtoe Mound site (9MU100) is an archaeological site in Murray County, Georgia excavated by Arthur Randolph Kelly from 1962-1965 as a part of the Carters Dam project conducted for the National Park Service by the University of Georgia. The site consisted of a low platform mound and an associated village. The majority of the mound was excavated, while the village received little excavation.
The Wilbanks Site (9CK5) is a Late Mississippian culture Native American archaeological site in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. The site was located about midway between the towns of Cartersville, Georgia to the west, and Canton, Georgia to the east. It was on the south bank of the Etowah River, but is now submerged underneath Lake Allatoona, under roughly 80–90 feet of water.
The Joe Bell site (9MG28) is an archaeological site located in Morgan County, Georgia underneath Lake Oconee, but prior to the 1970s, it was located south of the mouth of the Apalachee River on the western bank of the Oconee River. The junction of these two rivers could be seen from the site. This site was first visited by Marshall Williams in 1968 at the suggestion of the site’s landowner, Joe Bell, who had discovered various artifacts while the site was being regularly plowed. Because of Interstate construction, Marshall Williams and Mark Williams discovered this site during surface surveys and excavations of the plowed areas. The site was excavated and analyzed by Mark Williams as part of his PhD dissertation. During the 1969 excavations, four areas within the site were designated for excavation. In Areas 1-3 various five foot square units were excavated. No excavations were done in Area 4 in 1969. Large quantities of small potsherds were discovered during these excavations, and they ranged from the Duvall Phase in Area 1 to Bell Phase in Areas 2-4. As part of the 1969 excavations, a road grading machine took off the topsoil of twelve strips on the site. This uncovered Features 1 and 2, and they were completely excavated. In 1977, the site was revisited by Marshall Williams and Mark Williams. Since various plans threatened this site, major excavations took place from June 15, 1977 until September 16, 1977 by Mark Williams. Most of the work centered on Area 2 or the Bell Phase portion of the site. The Bell Phase portion of this site was probably no more the 1.5 acres (1 ha). Because of time constraints, only 17 of 55 features were excavated, and no more than a handful of the 1100 posts were excavated. A few trips were made back to the site the following year with the help of volunteers, and approximately 80% of the area stripped by heavy machinery was mapped. Some of the features were trash features that consisted of a circular pit filled with food residues and pottery sherds. Evidence of a large circular structure or rotunda was found at the site. It was the social, political, and religious center for the inhabitants. A large quantity of the features was small, circular, semi-subterranean structures that were probably used as sleeping quarters on cold nights. Another structure found was warm weather structures. One major trash feature was found that had been deposited in a single episode and was burned during or after deposition. Numerous sherds were found in this pit, and many reconstructable vessels were present. Ethnohistoric literature of the Southeast suggests that this feature was formed during a Busk or Green Corn ceremony. The ceremony has been described as the physical cleansing of the town.
The Punk Rock Shelter (9PM211) was an archaeological site found in Putnam County, Georgia. The site flooded in 1979, putting it 65 feet (20 m) under Lake Oconee. Despite its name, it was not a rock shelter, but instead a jumble of granite boulders or tors. These tors happened to create a shelter-like area. Due to poor land management in the 19th and 20th century associated with cotton farming, the shelter floor area is now underneath at least a meter deep of red clay and silt mud. The Native Americans at the site were most likely Hitchiti in ancestry.
The Chauga Mound (38OC1) is an archaeological site once located on the northern bank of the Tugaloo River, about 1,200 feet (370 m) north of the mouth of the Chauga River in present-day Oconee County, South Carolina. The earthen platform mound and former village site were inundated by creation of Lake Hartwell after construction of the Hartwell Dam on the Savannah River, which was completed in 1962.
The Lamar mounds and village site (9BI2) is an important archaeological site on the banks of the Ocmulgee River in Bibb County, Georgia, several miles to the southeast of the Ocmulgee mound site. Both mound sites are part of the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, a national park and historic district created in 1936 and run by the U.S. National Park Service. Historians and archaeologists have theorized that the site is the location of the main village of the Ichisi encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539.
Long Swamp Site is a 4-acre (16,000 m2) archaeological site in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States, on the north shore of the Etowah River near St Rt 372. The site consists of a South Appalachian Mississippian culture village with a palisade and a platform mound.
Ocute, later known as Altamaha or La Tama and sometimes known conventionally as the Oconee province, was a Native American paramount chiefdom in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. Centered in the Oconee River valley, the main chiefdom of Ocute held sway over the nearby chiefdoms of Altamaha, Cofaqui, and possibly others.