Stallings Island

Last updated

Stallings Island
USA Georgia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Columbia County, Georgia, USA
Nearest city Augusta, Georgia
Coordinates 33°33′39.4″N82°2′47.4″W / 33.560944°N 82.046500°W / 33.560944; -82.046500
NRHP reference No. 66000279
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966 [1]
Designated NHLJanuary 20, 1961 [2]

Stallings Island is an archeological site with a large shell midden, located in the Savannah River near Augusta, Georgia. The site is the namesake for the Stallings culture of the Late Archaic period and for Stallings fiber-tempered pottery, the oldest known pottery in North America. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. [2] [3] Stallings Island pottery found in coastal Georgia was formerly called St. Simons pottery, but is now recognized as Stallings Island. [4]

Contents

Description and history

Stallings Island is located upriver of Augusta, in an area known as the Ninety-Nine Islands, just downriver of the mouth of Stevens Creek. The island was occupied from about 2600 B.C.E. to about 2000 B.C.E., and again from about 1800 B.C.E. to 1400 B.C.E. The site was occupied during the first period by people of the Paris Island (ca. 2500-2200 B.C.E.) and Mill Branch (ca. 2200-1800 B.C.E.) phases, pre-ceramic traditions that harvested large numbers of freshwater mussels. During the second period the site was occupied by people of the Classic Stallings culture, who used decorated pottery. The earliest, undecorated, Stallings ceramics first appeared at other sites while Stallings Island itself was unoccupied. [5] The site represents a transitional period, in which hunter-gatherer culture was gradually replaced by more sedentary village and agriculture-based lifestyles. [6]

The island was identified as an archaeological site in 1861, and has been the subject of several scientific excavations. It has also been subject to extensive looting, and was listed for many years as a threatened landmark. The island was acquired by the Archaeological Conservancy in 1998. [6]

Stallings Island Middle School in Martinez, GA was named after this site.

Pottery

After 2500 BCE, shards of some of the oldest pottery in the region entered the archaeologic record. Known as Stallings Fiber Tempered Pottery, the bowls were tempered with Spanish moss, which left a porous surface after firing. [7] Fragments of the fiber tempered pottery have been found across Stallings Island. These pottery sherds are characterized by the jab and drag designs engraved on the outside of the vessels. These designs were made using a stylus that poked a design through the wet clay then dragged along the exterior until being inserted again. This process is believed to have been executed by women, and the orientation signals whether the creator was right or left handed. [7] The design of Stalling pottery with flat bottoms came from their old ways of cooking, which consisted of using heated soapstone rocks in liquid-filled baskets to make soups/food. [8]

Gender and Pottery

Classic Stallings culture is understood to be female dominant. The prominence of pottery in the Stallings is on trend with the global pattern of women producing and utilizing pottery more than men. There is a theory surrounding the decorating of the pottery and the handedness of the decorators that suggests the skills of decorating pottery were passed down from one generation of women to the next. [7]

See also

Further readings

Kenneth E. Sassaman, Zackary I. Gilmore, When edges become centered: The ceramic social geography of early pottery communities of the American Southeast, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Volume 61, 2021, 101253, ISSN 0278-4165, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101253

Michael S. Smith and Michael B. Trinkley, Fibre-tempered pottery of the Stallings Island Culture from the Crescent site, Beaufort County, South Carolina: a mineralogical and petrographical study, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 257, 1, 119-125, 2006 https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.2006.257.01.09

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etowah Indian Mounds</span> Archaeological site in Georgia, U.S.

Etowah Indian Mounds (9BR1) are a 54-acre (220,000 m2) archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia, south of Cartersville. Built and occupied in three phases, from 1000–1550 CE, the prehistoric site is located on the north shore of the Etowah River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas</span> Pottery produced by Indigenous people of the Americas

Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodland period</span> Period of North American cultures (1000 BCE - 1000 CE)

In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeologists distinguishing the Mississippian period, from 1000 CE to European contact as a separate period. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic term for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalist Mississippian cultures. The Eastern Woodlands cultural region covers what is now eastern Canada south of the Subarctic region, the Eastern United States, along to the Gulf of Mexico.

Fig Island, also known as 38CH42, is an archaeological site on the Atlantic Coast of South Carolina, consisting of three shell rings. Shell rings are curved shell middens wholly or partially surrounding a clear central area or plaza. The site includes one of the largest and most complex shell rings in North America, and one of the best preserved circular shell rings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Village of the Illinois</span> Archaeological site in Illinois, United States

The Grand Village of the Illinois, also called Old Kaskaskia Village, is a site significant for being the best documented historic Native American village in the Illinois River valley. It was a large agricultural and trading village of Native Americans of the Illinois confederacy, located on the north bank of the Illinois River near the present town of Utica, Illinois. French explorers Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette came across it in 1673. The Kaskaskia, a tribe of the Illiniwek people lived in the village. It grew rapidly after a French mission and fur trading post were established there in 1675, to a population of about 6,000 people in about 460 houses. Around 1691 the Kaskaskia and other Illiniwek moved further south, abandoning the site due to pressure from an Iroquois invasion from the northeast.

The Glades culture is an archaeological culture in southernmost Florida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly after European contact. Its area included the Everglades, the Florida Keys, the Atlantic coast of Florida north through present-day Martin County and the Gulf coast north to Marco Island in Collier County. It did not include the area around Lake Okeechobee, which was part of the Belle Glade culture.

The Saladoid culture is a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of territory in present-day Venezuela and the Caribbean that flourished from 500 BCE to 545 CE. The Saladoid were an Arawak people. Concentrated along the lowlands of the Orinoco River, the people migrated by sea to the Lesser Antilles, and then to Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site</span> Archaeological site in Illinois, US

The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site c. 1050–1400 CE, is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the southern tip of present-day U.S. state of Illinois, along the Ohio River. Kincaid Mounds has been notable for both its significant role in native North American prehistory and for the central role the site has played in the development of modern archaeological techniques. The site had at least 11 substructure platform mounds, and 8 other monuments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winterville site</span> Archaeological site in Washington County, Mississippi, United States

The Winterville site is a major archaeological site in unincorporated Washington County, Mississippi, north of Greenville and along the river. It consists of major earthwork monuments, including more than twelve large platform mounds and cleared and filled plazas. It is the type site for the Winterville Phase of the Lower Yazoo Basin region of the Plaquemine Mississippian culture. Protected as a state park, it has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accokeek Creek Site</span> United States historic place

Accokeek Creek Site, also known as Moyaone, is an archaeological site in Prince George's County, Maryland, located along the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon in today's Piscataway Park, which was inhabited intermittently since 2000 BC. Accokeek Creek Site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

The Schultz site, also known as Mira Creek site, and designated by archaeologists with the Smithsonian trinomial 25 VY 1, is a major prehistoric archaeological site near North Loup, Nebraska. It is the largest Middle Woodland period site in the state, covering 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2), with layers suggestive of repeated occupation. It is one of the oldest sites in the state exhibiting evidence of pottery manufacture. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deptford culture</span> Archaeological culture in the United States of America

The Deptford culture was an archaeological culture in southeastern North America characterized by the appearance of elaborate ceremonial complexes, increasing social and political complexity, mound burial, permanent settlements, population growth, and an increasing reliance on cultigens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Towosahgy State Historic Site</span> Archaeological site in the U.S. state of Missouri

Towosahgy State Historic Site (23MI2), also known as Beckwith's Fort Archeological Site, is a large Mississippian archaeological site with a Woodland period Baytown culture component located in Mississippi County, Missouri, United States. It is believed to have been inhabited from c. 400–1350 CE. The site is maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as a state historic site. The name Towosahgy is an Osage word which means "old town". It is not known if members of the historic Osage people, who dominated a large area of present-day Missouri at the beginning of the 19th century, ever occupied the site. The site was acquired by the Missouri state park system in 1967 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as NRIS number 69000113.

The Tchefuncte site (16ST1) is an archaeological site that is a type site for the prehistoric Tchefuncte culture period. The name is pronounced Che-funk'tuh. It is located in the southeast section of Fontainebleau State Park near Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shell ring</span> Type of shell mound

Shell rings are archaeological sites with curved shell middens completely or partially surrounding a clear space. The rings were sited next to estuaries that supported large populations of shellfish, usually oysters. Shell rings have been reported in several countries, including Colombia, Peru, Japan, and the southeastern United States. Archaeologists continue to debate the origins and use of shell rings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Summer Island site</span> Archaeological site in Michigan, United States

The Summer Island site, designated 20DE4, is an archaeological site located on the northwest side of Summer Island, in Delta County, Michigan. It is classified as a stratified, multi-component site with Middle Woodland, Upper Mississippian and Early Historic/Protohistoric occupations. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

The Orange period or Orange culture was a late-Archaic archaeological culture along the eastern side of the Florida peninsula, from about 4,000 years ago to about 2,500 or 3,000 years ago. The Orange period is largely defined by the presence of Orange-series fiber-tempered pottery.

Hiwassee Island, also known as Jollys Island and Benham Island, is located in Meigs County, Tennessee, at the confluence of the Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers. It is about 35 mi (56 km) northeast of Chattanooga. The island was the second largest land mass on the Tennessee River at 781 acres before the Tennessee Valley Authority created the Chickamauga Lake as a part of the dam system on the Tennessee River in 1940. Much of the island is now submerged, leaving 400 acres above the waterline.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Stallings Island". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved May 1, 2008.
  3. Note: A National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination document should be available upon request from the National Park Service for this site (perhaps redacted to remove location information), but it appears not to be available on-line from the NPS Focus search site.
  4. "St. Simons Incised and Punctated". University of Georgia Department of Anthropology. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  5. Sassaman, Blessing, and Randall:539, 540, 551
  6. 1 2 "NHL Network, Spring 1998" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 Pauketat, Timothy; Sassaman, Kenneth (2022). The Archaeology of Ancient North America (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 249–256. ISBN   978-0-521-74627-4.
  8. Saunders, Rebecca; Hays, Christopher Tinsley, eds. (2004). Early pottery: technology, function, style, and interaction in the lower Southeast. Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press. pp. 7, 180. ISBN   978-0-8173-5127-4.