Wilbanks Site

Last updated
Wilbanks Site
9 CK 5
Location Cartersville, Georgia,  Cherokee County, Georgia, Flag of the United States.svg  USA
Region Cherokee County, Georgia
History
Periods Late Mississippian period
Cultures Mississippian culture
Site notes
Excavation dates1948
Architecture
Architectural styles platform mound

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. [1]

Contents

Excavation

The site was dug in poor weather in November and December 1948, preceding the impending flood waters of the reservoir. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia, under the direction of William H. Sears conducted the excavation, and Sears wrote a site report as part of the Bureau of American Ethnology's River Basin Survey project. According to Sears's survey, at the site's population peak, the area of occupation would have been a village of approximately eighty acres. The site was dominated by one large mound, approximately 220 feet in diameter and six feet tall which was only a few yards from the original riverbank. This mound, as was typical of middle 20th century reservoir archaeology, was the focus of the excavation. Sears's was desirous of finding more "Southeastern Cult" artifacts, of the type excavated at Etowah, in a tight archaeological context. His hopes were not realized, but the site did yield more information about the Southeast's ceramic sequence and the Etowah culture's ceremonial structures. [2] There were also several middens nearby which were unearthed and excavated. Sears noted that the site was used by three distinct cultures at different times, but was dominated by the early Etowah culture. The other two cultures which were present at the site were the Wilbanks and Lamar cultures. It is the type-site for the Wilbanks cultural period. These culture groups were distinguished by differing ceramic styles. All three cultural occupations, however, fall within the "Late Mississippian" time period.

Earth lodge controversy

There is some controversy over the interpretation of the mound structure which dominated the site. Sears, in his initial report, stated that he believed the mound to be a collapsed earth lodge analogous to the type found at the Macon Plateau site. He supported this claim by describing his discovery of horizontal molds of poles ranging in diameter from 4 to 6 inches and rocks scattered about the floor of the site underneath a layer of clay. He concluded that these had been rafters supporting a sod or earthen roof. He then speculated as to the method of construction which had been used to make such an "earth lodge" discussing the use of much wider support beams, a ridge pole, further rafters, and finally presenting a pen & ink artist's rendering of how he believed the site would have appeared in cross section. Lewis Larson in his "The Case for Earth Lodges in the Southeast" disputes Sear's claims. Larson hypothesizes that the mound at the Wilbanks site was not an earth lodge, but simply some sort of ceremonial mound, and that Sears misinterpreted the excavation. The absence of large support beam, ridge poles, or a hearth in Sears's report indicated to Larson that the structure excavated was not an earth lodge. Larson also noted that the absence of platform or bench seating made of either timber or clay also indicated that there was most likely not an earth lodge present at the Wilbanks site. Finally, the overall rarity of earth lodges in the Southeast and the seemingly general insignificance of the site in the region also points, in Larson's opinion, to an error in the interpretation of the site as an earth lodge.

See also

Related Research Articles

Etowah Indian Mounds United States historic place

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 AD, the prehistoric site is located on the north shore of the Etowah River.

Angel Mounds United States historic place

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.

Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park Park in Tallahassee, Florida

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.

Platform mound Earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity

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.

Town Creek Indian Mound

Town Creek Indian Mound is a prehistoric Native American archaeological site located near present-day Mount Gilead, Montgomery County, North Carolina, in the United States. The site, whose main features are a platform mound with a surrounding village and wooden defensive palisade, was built by the Pee Dee, a South Appalachian Mississippian culture people that developed in the region as early as 980 CE. They thrived in the Pee Dee River region of North and South Carolina during the Pre-Columbian era. The Town Creek site was an important ceremonial site occupied from about 1150—1400 CE. It was abandoned for unknown reasons. It is the only ceremonial mound and village center of the Pee Dee located within North Carolina.

The Phipps Site (13CK21) is a Late Prehistoric Mill Creek culture archaeological site near Cherokee in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States. Its principal feature, a refuse midden, has yielded important information on the formation of middens in the region. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

Leake Mounds

Leake Mounds (9BR2) is an important archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia built and used by peoples of the Swift Creek Culture. The site is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the well-known Etowah Mounds on the Etowah River. It predates that site by hundreds of years.

Mississippian stone statuary Polished stone artifacts found in the Midwest and Southeast, US

The Mississippian stone statuary are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines made by members of the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. Two distinct styles exist; the first is a style of carved flint clay found over a wide geographical area but believed to be from the American Bottom area and manufactured at the Cahokia site specifically; the second is a variety of carved and polished locally available stone primarily found in the Tennessee-Cumberland region and northern Georgia. Early European explorers reported seeing stone and wooden statues in native temples, but the first documented modern discovery was made in 1790 in Kentucky, and given as a gift to Thomas Jefferson.

Garden Creek site

Garden Creek site is an archaeological site located 24 miles (39 km) west of Asheville, North Carolina in Haywood County, on the south side of the Pigeon River and near the confluence of its tributary Garden Creek. It is near modern Canton and the Pisgah National Forest. The earliest human occupation at the site dates to 8000 BCE.

Beasley Mounds Site

The Beasley Mounds Site (40SM43) is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the confluence of Dixon Creek and the Cumberland River near the unincorporated community of Dixon Springs in Smith County, Tennessee. The site was first excavated by amateur archaeologists in the 1890s. More examples of Mississippian stone statuary have been found at the site than any other in the Middle Tennessee area. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Brick Church Mound and Village Site

The Brick Church Mound and Village Site (40DV39) is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Nashville in Davidson County, Tennessee. It was excavated in the late nineteenth century by Frederic Ward Putnam. During excavations in the early 1970s the site produced a unique cache of ceramic figurines very similar in style to Mississippian stone statuary which are now on display at the Frank H. McClung Museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on May 7, 1973 as NRIS number 73001759 although this did not save the site from being almost totally destroyed by residential development.

Fewkes Group Archaeological Site

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.

Pocahontas Mounds

Pocahontas Mounds is an archaeological site from the Plaquemine Mississippian culture in Hinds County, Mississippi, dating from 800 to 1300 CE. Two mounds from the site were added to the NRHP on two separate occasions, Pocahontas Mound A on November 25, 1969 as NRIS number 69000365 and Pocahontas Mound B on April 11, 1972 as NRIS number 72000694. The mounds are listed on the Mississippi Mound Trail.

The Summerour Mound Site (9FO16) is an archaeological site located in Forsyth County, Georgia. It was formerly on a floodplain of the west bank of the Chattahoochee River in northern Georgia. It is now flooded under the Buford Reservoir, also known as Lake Lanier.

Chauga Mound Archaeological site

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.

Lamar Mounds and Village Site

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.

Mississippian copper plates

Mississippian copper plates, or plaques, are plain and repousséd plates of beaten copper crafted by peoples of the various regional expressions of the Mississippian culture between 800 and 1600 CE. They have been found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. The plates, found as far afield as Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, were instrumental in the development of the archaeological concept known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Some of the more notable examples are representations of raptorial birds and avian-themed dancing warriors.

Long Swamp Site

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.

References

  1. Sears 1958: 138
  2. Sears 1958: 138