Who were the native people of what is now the state of Georgia when the Early Mississippian Macon Plateau culture appeared?  Vernon J. Knight, Jr., commented in Mississippi Period Archeology of the Georgia Piedmont:  "...almost nothing is known of the immediate background to Mississippian development in the Georgia Piedmont.  This does not only involve the Macon Plateau problem.  The transition between (Late Woodland) Napier/Late Swift Creek and Woodstock also seems anything but clear, not only in the domain of ceramic styles, but also in spatial distribution of sites and in chronology...  The fact is that we cannot yet identify the culture of the Ocmulgee Valley in the vicinity of Macon during the period ca. A.D. 700-900."

In the same publication, Hally and Rudolph state:  "Some of the discussions of the Mississippian invasion into central Georgia leave one with an image of a virtual blitzkrieg overwhelming the nasty and brutish Late Woodland savages.  In fact, the Indians dwelling in the Piedmont at the end of the Late Woodland period were probably not strikingly different from those at Macon Plateau... The most important differences seem to have been either one of scale--more intensive horticulture, greater status differentiation, larger mounds--or one of style--plain, shell tempered vessels versus complicated stamped, grit tempered vessels."

Swift Creek and Napier Complicated Stamp, cordmarked and simple stamped potteries are abundant.  While Weeden Island, Woodstock, Etowah, Savannah and Ft. Walton materials are scarcer in the immediate Plateau vicinity, they are plentiful at sites within a 20-30 mile radius.  Interactions appear evident between the Macon Plateau community and other of these groups that may prove to be contemporary, since sherds from each of these cultures are found on the Plateau itself.

Williams and Henderson note (The Archeology of the North Macon Plateau," National Park Service, 1974, unpublished):  "Although late Woodland types were present in higher proportions in lower levels of the site (such as levels D and E of the Stratified Village) they never exceeded 15 of the totals.  This means that even in the lowest levels up to 85 of the ceramics were of Macon Plateau origin.  This is believed to be evidence for interaction on some level between the early Macon Plateau occupation and the late Woodland groups in the area...

"One final hypothesis, simply put here to stimulate future research, involves the fact that Napier, Swift Creek, and Mossy Oak ceramics were found on the North Plateau, all in approximately the same proportions, but always in association with Macon Plateau ceramics...  What this means is that all three of these could possibly be at least partly contemporary.  If this is true, we have a situation where three basically hunting and gathering groups were co-existing in the same basic geographical area.  The possibility of some sort of clan relationship may not be too far fetched...  Upon the intrusion of the Macon Plateau people into the Macon area, the groups were forced either collectively or individually into interaction of some type with them.  This type of arrangement could have yielded the observed data from the North Macon Plateau."  

Fairbank's writings support the theory of cultural interaction between Macon Plateau and groups such as Napier which apparently had Piedmont origins:  "In the humus under the earthlodge (on the North Plateau), there were artifacts and pottery of Napier Complicated Stamp, Mossy Oak Simple Stamp and Swift Creek Complicated Stamp types... In the same band of humus were remains characteristic of the Macon Plateau component.  All evidence points to little or no lapse of time between these occupations." ("The Macon Earthlodge," American Antiquity, Vol. 2, 1946)

"With decline of the Macon Plateau focus, the old (Woodland) tradition certainly modified, again became the popular mode.  It reflected Mississippian influences but early manifestations were visible...  Aspects such as house shape and subsistence activities suggest that certain traits diffused to the indigenous inhabitants and were used in future cultural development... If direct contact based on trade or other interpersonal relationships resulted in this diffusion or if the recipient culture only indirectly copied the Macon Plateau focus people from a distance caused this diffusion, cannot at present be interpreted.  In both situations, conditions were present which would favorably influence both modes of diffusion." (A. Wayne Prokopetz, An Analysis of Post Houses, Site 1Bi4, Macon, Ga.," 1974, NPS Contract, Hale G. Smith, Principal Investigator).

This Woodland culture was of considerable time depth in the Ocmulgee region and in central and southern Georgia.  It was named for a mound and village site some 3 miles from the Macon Plateau.

Evidence from the Tunnacunee site in northwest Georgia, Mandeville on the Chattahoochee River, Hartford Mound on the Ocmulgee near Hawkinsville, and the Swift Creek type site at Macon suggests participation, to a greater or lesser degree, in the far-flung and flamboyant Hopewellian sphere. Traded along this network were such artifacts as copper "panpipes," ceramic female figures, mica "cut-outs," and copper-covered cut animal manidbles.  Typical Swift Creek pottery is found at Hopewell sites in Ohio and Illinois and may also have been a popular trade item.  

During Hopewellian times, certain sites appear to have been the locations of periodic social and religious activities, evidently vacant at other times.  Groups may have traveled long distances to meet and bury their dead at these locations where shelters supported by four large central posts and smaller outer wall posts were centered by large pits containing quantities of food remains suggesting the possibility of ritual feasting.  Over time, these structures were covered by mounds.  A structure apparently similar to this type was found under a mound on the Ocmulgee River at Hartford.  Abundant Swift Creek ceramics were found at the site, including one design motif identical to a design from the Swift Creek Mound at Macon.  

Hopewell-related burials in the Piedmont were sometimes placed in pits lined with stone.  The burials were covered with stone or stone and earth mounds and accompanied by a variety of exotic goods.  Other Swift Creek burials were made in conical earth or sand mounds.

The Swift Creek people dug bell-shaped storage pits and used bone and shell tools, sherd hones, stemmed and bifacial knives, and projectile points known as Swift Creek Spikes and beautifully made Hernando Points.  Their characteristic ax was roughly chipped of flint or chert.  It is probable that they were excellent woodworkers.

Swift Creek pottery was stamped with intricate, highly artistic, designs carved on wooden paddle.  There is a possibility that many of the motifs found during the Mississippian Period may have their origins in the numerous stylized Swift Creek forms apparently drawn from nature or aboriginal cosmology.  "The coiled plumed serpent which played an important role in Mississippian and Historic Indian mythology can now be traced back in time for more than 1,200 years through Mississippian shell gorgets and Spiro conch shell engravings to their representations on carved Swift Creek paddles." (Frankie Snow, South Georgia College, unpublished paper)

Mallory McCane-O'Connor ("Prehistoric Ceramics: The Weeden Island Tradition," American Indian Art, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1980) records other possible instances of design motifs continuing over a long period of time:  "Early examples of pottery in Florida, especially dating from before A.D. 100, do indeed exhibit assorted Hopewellian traits such as the use of the hand-eye design and also negative painting..."  These elements were also incorporated in Mississippian culture; the hand-eye being a common Southern Cult symbol.  

Late Swift Creek pottery, called Blakely or Kolomoki Complicated Stamped, is found at some Late Weeden Island culture sites.  It has added elements such as round bases, straight necks and red paint sometimes said to be Mississippian in origin.  

It is now known that Swift Creek groups constructed flat-topped, pyramidal mounds such as those at the Swift Creek type site, Annawakee Creek, Mandeville, and possibly Milamo in Georgia.  These mounds appear to have been acretional in nature.  Old buildings were destroyed, covered with earth, and new buildings constructed on the raised surface.  At the Cold Springs Site in the Wallace Reservoir, the decision to construct platform mounds came at some point in an ongoing village occupation. Both mounds at the site were constructed of brightly colored, clean clay.  Mound A consisted of thick layers, each a contrasting color of yellow, orange and brown.  All debris and construction materials were removed and postholes packed with clay before the addition of a subsequent stage.

"While not as definite as the Standley Mound at Mandeville, the mound architectonics at the Swift Creek site near Macon present some suggestions of contained primary structures.  It is conceivable that the immense 'temple mound' at Kolomoki might well be of multiple construction with much of the earlier building ascribable to a middle Swift Creek occupation, masked by Weeden Island additions.  Hence it seems likely at least that the presence of a pyramidal mound at the Mandeville site of early Woodland provenance is not unique... It seems clearly indicated that truncated rectangular mounds occur in this area long before the classic Mississippian temple mounds... The presence of a truncated pyramidal mound might also be listed as a Crystal River trait, in that sites on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast producing this ceramic series seem to offer the best parallel for other pyramidal mounds." (Kellar, Kelly and McMichael, American Antiquity, Vol. 26, 1961-62, "The Mandeville Site in Southwest Georgia")

In "1989 Excavations of Mound A at the Leake Site (9Br2) in LAMAR Briefs, No. 14, 1989, Jim Rudolph describes plain, check stamped, simple stamped and Early Swift Creek pottery as the only types found associated with a platform mound at this site.  A hearth in which pottery of the same types were found yielded a corrected date of A.D. 160.

There are numerous Swift Creek sites in central Georgia, with considerable use of the Macon Plateau indicated.  "Although no remains of structures from the Swift Creek Period were found, the quantity of pottery indicates a fairly intensive use of Spur 1.  The excavators' notes refer to 'caches composed of pebbles, pottery, charred corn, and flint artifacts.  If have interpreted 'caches' as trash pits dating from the Swift Creek Period... The excavators also reported such pits from the Swift Creek site, the Adkins Mound site, and the Sub-Terrace just to the west of the South Plateau... Macon Plateau Period sherds were found in some quantity on Spur 2, but not on Spur 1."

"Gordon Willey's survey included excavations on the southeastern spurs overlooking Walnut Creek on the Middle Plateau... Macon Plateau as anticipated was the largest (component) at 45 but Swift Creek gave a surprising 35.  Of special interest is a sherd exhibiting a cross (in circle) motif... Two sherds with identical motifs from the Swift Creek site are shown below Plate 34.  Both of these sherds were found in the mound fill between layers 4 and 5, thus suggesting a chronological position for the southeastern spurs occupation relative to the Mound A (Swift Creek) sequence.  Plate 34 indicates a Middle Swift Creek stage of development based on pottery design and rim morphology at Mound a, Swift Creek.  Swift Creek and Macon Plateau materials were intermingled with no apparent stratigraphy...

"Kelly noticed during the excavations of the fill to the dugout (on the Macon Plateau) that some Swift Creek did occur in the basal fill... The 'prehistoric dugouts,' whether considered as extensive defensive systems, as quarries for soils used in mound and house construction, or as 'pit houses' (earthlodges), or perhaps a combination of these, could provide the clues to relations of Late Swift Creek to Macon Plateau and of Macon Plateau to Etowah." (Swift Creek Report, Ocmulgee National Monument Library)

A fully-extended burial at Cathead Creek, a Swift Creek site at Darien, Georgia, produced a AMS (accelerator method) date of A.D. 900 + 80, but Lucy B. Wayne, Environmental Services and Permitting, Inc. ("Swift Creek Occupation in the Altamaha Delta," Early Georgia, Vol. 15, No. 1-2, 1987) felt the date was too late for the Swift Creek Period.

"Weeden Island" refers to a ceramic series, a period, a culture represented by either a village or a ceremonial ceramic series, a ceremonial complex, and a socio-political-economic complex.  It is often used in a manner similar to "Hopewellian" or "Mississippian."  In time, it seems to fall between them ca. A.D. 500-1000. (Jerald Milanich, "Life in a 9th Century Household...A Weeden Island Fall-Winter Site on the Upper Apalachicola River, Florida," Florida Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties Bulletin, No. 4, 1974).

"Many Weeden Island sites were characterized by round sand burial mounds containing east side deposits of distinctive, zoned-punctated and plain pottery.  Exotic vessels, rarely found in village sites, are recovered almost exclusively from tomb and temple areas.  Although secular items such as domestic and utilitarian pottery differ according to locale, ceremonial life and the resulting material culture appear to have been shared throughout the Weeden Island area." (Mallory McCane-OConnor, "Prehistoric Ceramics: The Weeden Island Tradition," American Indian Art, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1980)  

The distribution of Weeden Island ceramics is now known to extend from the Alabama River to subtropical Florida; North to Monroe County in Central Georgia and Columbus on the Chattahoochee River, and east to the Altamaha Drainage and the Okefenokee Swamp.

The culture was divided by Gordon Willey into Weeden Island I, marked by the presence of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery types (Blakely and Kolomoki Complicated Stamped) and virtually no check stamping; and Weeden Island II, with almost no complicated stamping, except along the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers, and the presence of Wakulla Check Stamped.  Weeden Island II also includes Carrabelle Punctate, Keith Incised, Tucker Ridge Pinched and West Florida Cord Marked.  

Weeden Island Plain pottery is especially noted for its large variety of single and double globed jars, bowls, multi-compartmented or co-joined vessels, and pedestaled, elaborately modeled zoomorphic pottery, some with "kill" holes purposefully included in the vessels before firing (Weeden Island Plain).  Many plain Weeden Island sherds can be identified only by their folded rim or thickened, wedge-shaped rim (often with squared lip) often underlined by an incised line giving the appearance of a fold.    

Other Weeden Island pottery consisted of a variety of jars; globular, cazuela and open bowls (some with rim effigy adornos); a few cylindrical vessels; plates and a variety of unusual forms.  These types were decorated with red paint, punctating and incising in motifs including scrolls, geometric figures, highly stylized animals and plants, etc.

Similarities have been noted between some Weeden Island ceramics and those of other cultures.  "Sears has noted similarities between Weeden Island ceramics and Troyville-Coles Creek wares... Contact between the two groups did occur, and ideas undoubtedly passed in both directions." (Jerald Milanich and Charles Fairbanks, Florida Archeology, Academic Press, Inc., 1980)

It has been suggested that Weeden Island-like incised pottery was the source of Mississippian incising.  "Of the three areas where Weeden Island-like wares occur (Gulf Florida, southern Louisiana, and southwestern Arkansas), the greatest diversity and elaboration of what might be called the central stylistic themes are found in Gulf Florida.  This suggests a Floridian origin and development with a subsequent westward diffusion...

"A hint of contact is seen at Cahokia, Ill., where occasional sherds which are very much like Weeden Island Incised have been found in association with the earlier or Old Village occupation of that site.  All this is, of course, a hypothesis for which most of the evidence is lacking, but the striking similarity between Middle Mississippian bird and human-head rim effigies and those of Weeden Island prompts it when one realizes that the Weeden Island tradition for this sort of thing is considerably the older... There is a very real possibility that Weeden Island ceramic ideas, as represented in effigy modeling, had an influence upon the development of Middle Mississippian styles... but the course of such contact has not been plotted."  (Gordon Willey, "Archeology of the Florida Gulf Coast," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 113)

Weeden Island platform mounds are most common in Northwest Florida.  In peninsular Florida, continuous-use burial mounds were the more frequent type.  Both areas used charnel houses.

Weeden Island sand burial mounds, with their eastside deposits of specialized pottery, are known across a wide area of Florida and Georgia.  Burials were flexed, bundle, and single skull.  Occasionally, burials were arranged around a central burial.

"In northwestern Florida a date of ca. A.D. 400-500 is often accepted for the beginning of Weeden Island, as evidenced by the appearance of Weeden Island styles of incised and punctated ceramics in middens along with late types of Swift Creek ceramics... Brose's work in the Upper Apalachicola River Valley has demonstrated that the Weeden Island peoples in that area were 'Mississippianized' by about A.D. 1000, while to the east in Leon and Jefferson counties this process may have occurred slightly later." (Jerald T. Milanich, Weeden Island Studies - Past, Present, and Future, Southeastern Archeological Conference, Bulletin #22, 1980)

The McKeithen Site in Florida, a horseshoe-shaped village occupied between A.D. 350-500, had three mounds. Mound A was a platform into which were sunk large posts up to 60 cm. diameter. It seemed to have been an area for cleaning bones.  Mound B was a rectangular platform with a 6.9 x 10.2 m. rectangular structure with rounded corners on its summit.  A privacy screen shielded its doorway.  A male approximately 30 years of age was buried extended in a shallow pit dug into the house floor.  He was surrounded by a small tomb of vertical posts with some sort of covering.  Red ocher was beneath his skull.  The house was burned and the remains covered by a circular secondary mound.  Mound C was a circular platform with bundled burials around the edge of the mound and on and beside the Southeast quadrant.  The Aspalaga village site was very similar.

The Weeden Island culture was associated with Late Swift Creek in some areas of central and south Georgia.  "Three of the sites had ceramic collections dominated by Late Swift Creek and Weeden Island ceramics alone (Uchee $4, 1Ru58; Quartermaster Site, 9Ce42; Averett Site, 9Me158)." (Thomas, Campbell, Swanson, Atschul and Weed, An Intensive Survey of a 2,200 Acre Tract Within a Proposed Maneuver Area at the Fort Benning Military REservation, Chattahoochee County, Georgia, National Park Service, 1983)  There are indications that pre-Mississippian maize horticulture and temple mound construction were present in Georgia by this time.

Many mysteries surround the huge Kolomoki Site (now a state park) near Blakely, which is thought by some archeologists to be of Swift Creek-Weeden Island construction.  "Data from Kolomoki, a site in Georgia, on differential status of individuals as reflected in burial practices, and ethnographic analogies suggest that the Weeden Island society occupying that site was organized into a chiefdom." (Gerald T. Milanich and Charles H. Fairbanks, Florida Archeology, Academic Press, 1980)

Origins of the platform mound at the Kolomoki Site have long been disputed.  Some archeologists suggest that the major building stage at Kolomoki, with its huge flat top mound with projecting ramp, was constructed during the Late Woodland Period. "The site is in a critical position between the areas of the Swift Creek and Weeden Island complexes, and it is the largest site with a heavy deposit of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery... It seems to be definitely earlier than the other large mound groups like Ocmulgee, Etowah, and Moundville to the north and Lake Jackson to the south." (Charles Fairbanks, American Antiquity, Vol. 4, 1946)

However, in 1965 ("Gulf Complex Subsistence Economy," Southeastern Archeological Conference, Bulletin #4) Fairbanks states:  "Weeden Island represents, in this area, the climax of the burial mound tradition and a mature ceramic tradition whose roots grew in (or whose branches spread into) both the Mississippi Valley and the Georgia Piedmont... In addition, the possibility exists, at least, that Weeden Island communities could have had contact with such agricultural complexes as Macon Plateau to the north... peripheral Weeden Island communities such as Kolomoki certainly did have contacts with the Mississippi Phase as indicated by a number of ceramic features as well as the pyramidal mounds."

In Archeology of the Funeral Mound, Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia, Dr. Fairbanks notes concerning the Kolomoki site:  "Two of the smaller mounds seem to have been pyramidal in shape but not true temple mounds.  Each has a large submound pit with an important burial.  Later burials were made in the primary mound erected over the pit and in the final secondary mound... Burials ran the whole gamut of forms:  Extended, skull burials, cremated, semi-cremated, and just casually deposited in the mound... In many respects, the burial complex at Kolomoki resembles that at the Funeral Mound at Macon more than it does that of any other southern site.  It is, however, even more complex and has the additional elaboration of a very large deposit of pottery vessels."

Milanich records an overlap of Weeden Island and Early Mississippian cultures in the A.D. 900-1000 time period.  He notes that some regions did not participate in the mainstream of economic, social and ceremonial developments due to environmental and cultural factors which inhibited the acceptance or workability of new traits.  In such areas, population growth pressures, complex socio-horticultural production and other phenomena leading to change appear to have been slight or absent until after A.D. 1000 when appreciable changes occurred.  He writes that large ceremonial centers such as Kolomoki were established shortly after A.D. 1000 ("Life in a 9th Century Household:  A Weeden Island Fall-Winter Site on the Upper Apalachicola River, Florida," Florida Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties, Bulletin #4, 1974)

"Weeden Island people began to adopt new models for social organization presented to them by Early Mississippian communities in central Georgia, as at Macon Plateau." (Percy and Brose, 1974)

Chris Trowell's investigations in the Okefenokee Swamp suggest the major occupation there was by Weeden Island people, in marked contrast to Swift Creek and cord marked pottery producing people who lived in the Satilla and Ocmulgee drainages just to the North.  Many of the sites consist of sand burial mounds with eastside pottery deposits, including effigy ware with triangular cut-outs in the vessel walls and ceramics with a thick coat of red paint.  Rims usually showed either large folds or thickened wedge-shaped lips.  A Late Weeden Island component from Cowhouse Island in the swamp was determined to date A.D 995+105, indicating contemporanity with Macon Plateau.

Weeden Island sites were numerous in the area of John Worth's survey along the Flint River below the Fall Line. (Masters Thesis, University of Georgia).  Almost pure Weeden Island sites are documented near Macon in Houston County (Charlie Andrew Site) and downstream on the Ocmulgee River between Macon and Hawkinsville (Keelings Fish Camp, Shelley Mounds).  Minor amounts of Weeden Island ceramics were found on the Macon Plateau, at the Lamar, New Pond, Willis Farm, Scott, Mile Track, Swift Creek, Stubbs Mound and Cowart's Landing sites, as well as in the Ocmulgee Bottoms between the Macon Plateau and the river.  Weeden Island material also occurs in nearby Monroe and Putnam Counties.

Archeological reconnaissance connected with construction of a water/sewer line through the Monument in 1985 salvaged a cache of 5 large Busycon shells near the Funeral Mound.  a report by National Park Service Archeologists Allen Cooper and John R. Walker covering this work states, "...it might also be noted that, although the majority of the sherds recovered from the water line trench adjacent to the shell cache pit were Macon Plateau types, one was a Carabelle Punctate sherd, a Weeden Island type."

Masses of marine shell beads were buried with the honored dead in the Ocmulgee Funeral Mound and other items were fashioned from Gulf of Mexico marine shell.  It seems reasonable that contacts with people toward the Gulf Coat would explain the abundance of these artifacts at Macon.

In "Ocmulgee Archeology:  A Chronology" (National Park Service, 1988, unpublished), Walker records:  "Early in October, Kelly was given a small collection of sherds from a site near Keelings Fish Camp, which was located in Houston County at the confluence of Big Indian Creek and the Ocmulgee River.  The collection interested him; and, on October 23, he wrote to the owner requesting permission for Willey to test the site.  Permission was refused.  However, because the site was later determined to have a Weeden Island component, it is interesting to speculate how differently segments of Southeastern prehistory might have been interpreted."

There are several multiple mound sites along the Middle Chattahoochee River and its Georgia tributaries that have an Early Mississippian component which has been designated Rood Phase.  Two of these sites (Rood and Singer-Moye) eventually became large villages, however, much of the mound construction seems to have occurred later during Rood II and Lamar-Fort Walton occupations.

"Although Rood Phase and Macon Plateau are impressionistically distinct, the differences are not major.  The cultural baggage is practically identical.  Both have noded-handled jars, hooded bottles, similar burial and substructure mounds, pole spuds, the weeping eye motif, effigy rim adornos, raised-rim fireplaces, 'council houses,' ...A Clear difference, as with other contemporaneous phases, is the presence of salt pan ware at Macon..." (Frank T. Schnell, Vernon J. Knight, Jr., and Gail S. Schnell, Cemochechobee, University Presses of Florida, Gainesville)  

In Rood Phase I, plain jars almost identical to Bibb Plain at Macon appear in the Chattahoochee area accompanied by decorated types such as Pinellas Incised, Lake Jackson Decorated, and Point Washington Incised.  These are related to widespread Mississippian pottery types characterized by decorated "soup plates" and jars with incised designs on collars or shoulders (Ramey, Matthews, O'Byam, Marsh Island, Moundville, Etowah Incised, etc.), which mark the proliferation of Mississippian sites post A.D. 1000.  

In the Bureau of Ethnology's 76th Annual Report (Roberts, 1960) two sites near the Walter F. George Dam on the Chattahoochee River are described.  One on the Alabama side is said to contain "pottery with angular loop handles similar to Bibb Plain." The site on the Georgia side had "flat strap handles with vertical incised decoration" characteristic of Rood Phase.

The Cemochechobee Site was a village with three platform mounds. A short distance to the North were small, related sites that may have been farmsteds.  Both rectangular buildings with central fireplaces and simple circular structures, at least one with a saucer-shaped, dished-out floor, were constructed at the site.  A large post foundation, equipped with a slide trench to one side, extended from the early premound level into the clay subsoil.  Also on this level was a prepared clay hearth with a circular inner rim with a 20 cm. wide 'shelf' between the basin and the outer rim.  A burial covered by charred logs or bark strips was that of a fully extended adult male with a long greenstone 'spud' in his right hand and a fragment of copper near his right shoulder.

Other burials at Cemochechobee were located in large submound pits, some with log or bark covering.  This mortuary area was surrounded by posts, but no determination could be made as to whether it was roofed.  Copper "arrowheads," decorating a headdress in one of these burials, were almost identical to copper "arrowheads" found with Southern Cult burials in the final mantle of Mound C at the Etowah site.  Other burials were placed in the various mound stages.  In Mound A, Stage III, one burial contained a painted 'dog pot' and a painted effigy bottle in the form of kneeling human figure.  An interesting feature was the extreme attrition and reddish-black vegetable dye staining of teeth in many burials at Cemochecobee.  

The terminal mound level at the Late Swift Creek Mandeville site has been designated Rood Phase.  "The Mandeville III unit is defined locally as the Mississippian Rood focus... plain ware is overwhelmingly dominant (93.4 of the total Rood focus series).  This plain ware equates with both Bibb Plain (38.3 is shell-tempered) and with Lake Jackson Plain (55.1 is grit-tempered).  The only quantitatively significant decorative feature is an incised series of arcades encircling the upper portion of the pottery vessel, usually with punctates along the upper margin of the incised line.  This may be assimilated to Griffin's Pinellas Incised, Subtype A, but has generalized resemblance with Early Mississippian material in North Alabama, Tennessee, and even the Old Village Cahokia material.  The only other type of decoration of any numerical significance is a fine-lined incised type.  A very few of the check-stamped sherds are probably Wakulla Check Stamped, and may well represent contact with late Weeden Island II peoples on the part of the Rood focus inhabitants...

"Vessel shape is restricted to a few well-defined types.  A large, short-necked, flattened bowl is most frequent, with the neck usually thickened... Strap handles occur frequently on these bowls with nodes at the top and bottoms of these handles.  Especially common is a tri-noded form at the rim attachment, a feature reminiscent of Macon Plateau... A few effigy adornos were noted, including a duck head and other birds heads.  Occasional flat horizontal lugs occur... Pottery elbow pipes... (and) pottery discs, made by rounding sherds, also occur.

"Mandeville III is one of the more southern representations of the Rood focus... Connections are strong with Macon Plateau and Early Fort Walton." (Kellar, Kelly and McMichael, "The Mandeville Site in Georgia," American Antiquity, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1962)

Wares similar to the Rood type Nunally Incised appear in Central Georgia, apparently after the end of Macon Plateau, and nothing comparable to the beaker form Andrews Decorated is known at Macon.  There seems to be a larger number of animals/birds represented on Rood Phase effigy rim adornos. No form comparable to Macon Thick and (as mentioned earlier) no "salt pan" types occur at Rood Phase sites.    

A few Lake Jackson/Marsh Island/Etowah/Ramey Incised-like traits do appear on the Ocmulgee apparently late in the Macon Plateau sequence or early in the Lamar sequence.  "There was not a hiatus between Macon Plateau and Lamar.  This is based on:  Stratigraphic columns excavated at the Lamar site (occupied during Macon Plateau... as well as Lamar) which did not indicate a break in occupation; analysis of materials from Stubbs Mound which indicated a transitional phase with Marsh Island-like incising (Early Fort Walton) as well as Bibb Plain (Macon Plateau) and Lamar Complicated Stamped; the occurrence of Marsh Island-like incised sherds on the 'North' Plateau; and the finding of one Bibb Plain vessel and one Lamar Bold Incised vessel, both buried upside down, atop Mound A at Macon Platea." (National Park Service, "Ocmulgee National Monument Exhibit Plan," dated 9/6/79)

Frank T. Schnell, Columbus Museum, in the Southeastern Archeological Conference Newsletter, Vol. 12, No. 2, November 1968, notes the finding of two large moats (parallel ditches) and a possible earthlodge mound at the Rood Mounds, a multiple mound ceremonial center located on the edge of the Walter F. George Reservoir.  The summit of the largest mound at this site (for which Rood Phase culture was named) is encircled by a low clay curb similar to that atop Ocmulgee's Great Temple Mound.  There is a slightly raised central platform as at Macon.  A pot was inverted in a small pit dug into this final cap.  While lower levels at this site contain Early Mississippian, Rood Phase I, materials, the last level is definitely a combination of Lamar/Fort Walton culture (Frank Schnell, personal communication).  Jack Walker (personal communication) stressed that he specifically looked for evidence of a Lamar cap during his work on the Great Temple Mound at Macon, but did not find one.  The combination of low curb, raised platform and pots inverted in small pits at these two sites seems a striking coincidence.

At the Singer-Moye site, a Mississippian village with 7 mounds, a 26' square earthlodge was Carbon-14 dated to A.D. 1275+80.  It had standing daub walls and a prepared baked clay floor.  An "altar" was encountered on the west side of the structure, but no prepared fire basin was found.  In the book Cemochechobee, this structure is described as similar in many respects to the square "earthlodge" excavated on Brown's Mount at Macon.  Mound D at Singer-Moye appears to be a terraced ridge rather than a completely artificial tumulus.  Lower levels at the site were Rood Phase; upper levels of the large Mound A included Fort Walton Incised, Lamar Complicated Stamped and Lamar Bold Incised pottery.

According to Schnell, Knight and Schnell in Cemochechobee: "The Tennessee-Cumberland area to the north, with which important Rood Phase comparisons may be made, unfortunately suffers lack of a well-dated Mississippian sequence.  Clay has presented the known dates, concluding that two Mississippian subphases are present:  Jonathan Creek (ca. A.D. 1000) and Tinsley Hill (Kincaid, ca. A.D. 1400-1600).  According to Clay, it is only in the later Tinsley Hill Phase that the decorated types of "typical" Tennessee-Cumberland pottery occur.  On the other hand, Riodan has defined an Angel Phase, ca. 1100-1300, for the Black Bottoms area, noting that it includes both Matthews Incised and some negative painted ceramics, in addition to plain collared jars and salt pan ware.  Similarly Green and Munson have impressionisticly suggested that the Angel Phase begins as early as A.D. 1050.  The Angel ceramic repertoire includes Matthews and O'Byam Incised and Angel Negative Painted, all of which have Rood Phase counterparts.  On the whole, from these suggested dates, the curious implication is that the decorative forms and designs shared by these related phases are earliest in the Georgia-Alabama area.  This thinking is clearly out of line with current (though untested) notions regarding the diffusion of Mississippian ceramic styles..."

Ned J. Jenkins in "Prehistoric Chronology of the Lower Chattahoochee Valley" (Journal of Alabama Archeology, Vol. #24, No. 2, 1978) suggests, "The shell-tempered ware of Rood's Creek I is most like the ceramic assemblage at the Bessemer Site.  The Bessemer Site is also the result of a site unit intrusion into north central Alabama... Therefore, the earliest Mississippian components at both Bessemer and Rood's Creek appear to be the result of the same 'wave' of Mississippian colonies which spread across northern and central Alabama and Georgia around A.D. 900-1000.  Another site unit intrusion is seen at Macon Plateau about A.D. 900; however, this groups appears to have been absorbed by the indigenous Woodland population."    

By Rood Phase II, A.D. 1200-1400, he notes that the original Mississippian complex had been considerably modified.  Grit or sand tempered pottery, the ware of the indigenous population, had "virtually replaced the intrusive shell tempered assemblage, an indication that the native Woodland culture maintained a degree of dominance while accepting many Mississippian traits."  He states that the Rood III assemblage reflects the indigenous development of Fort Walton and Rood's Incised types as well as strong influences from the Lamar Culture centered in Piedmont Georgia, this blend was termed Bull Creek Phase by McMichael and Kellar.

Carbon-14 dates at Rood's Phase sites are: Cemochechobee (18 dates ranging from the A.D. 900's to 1400's); Spann's Landing (A.D. 1389+100); Cool Branch (1310+280); Singer-Moye (1275+80 and 1390+60).  

This culture appears to be related to Etowah and have interacted with early phases of the Lamar Culture.  Averett pottery was found with both Etowah II and early Lamar pottery at the Alexander Site near Columbus.

In the publication Archeology of the Georgia Piedmont, Halley and Rudolph give the following description:  "This complex has been referred to as a 'quasi-Mississippian' phenomenon, centered in the Chattahoochee Valley near the Fall Line.  It is identified by incised, brushed and undecorated sand and grit tempered vessels, some with applique nodes on the shoulder or rim.  It is sometimes found in association with Etowah Complicated Stamp and even resembles Etowah pottery in paste."

"Curiously, the Lamar type sites of the Rood Focus tend to diminish in number as one moves north from the Steward County area.  Since recent evidence indicates that this early Lamar level was contemporaneous with Averett, such a geographical separation of type artifacts indicates a probable condition of controlled territory by two distinct peoples.  One wonders if their status was one of 'peaceful co-existence.'" (David W. Chase, "A Reappraisal of the Averett Complex," Journal of Alabama Archeology, Vol IX, No. 2, 1963)

Unlike Roods Creek I sites on the Lower Chattahoochee, which are situated adjacent to the Chattahoochee, the Averett Complex villages tend to be located slightly upstream on secondary drainages.  David Chase originally postulated that certain smaller Middle Woodland sites might have been horticulture work stations, based on the presence of charred corn in an Early Swift Creek feature at 1Ru61 (Abercrombie/Kendrick).  Chase's subsequent work has indicated, however, that both the site and the feature should be assigned to an Early Mississippian Averett Complex.

An interesting aspect of the Averett culture is the plain vessels of Woodland-derived shape with applique nodes on their shoulders or rims in multiples of two.  They made small to medium sized, grit tempered, semi-conoidal vessels with everted rims and larger globular bodied jars with rims sharply everted from the shoulders.  The lips were often squared or beveled and surfaces were sometimes lightly brushed with strokes parallel to the rim.  A few pots were incised on the rim and shoulders with a stab and drag technique, with parallel lines incised in the rim vicinity or diagonal lines about 1/2 inch in length applied to the shoulders.  Other artifacts found on Averett sites include conch shell beads, triangular projectile points with concave bases and tapered-poll celts.

In 1988, archeological testing at the Florence Marina State Park on the Chattahoochee River located an Averett component.  Carbon-14 samples yielded a date range of A.D. 860-1020, agreeing with samples from the Carmouche Site at Fort Benning which dated A.D. 900+80 and A.D. 1020+80. "...we must now acknowledge an Averett occupation preceded and overlapped the development of the Rood focus in the northern part of the (Walter F. George) reservoir.  How the Woodland-early Mississippian Averett culture interacted with emergent chiefdoms north and south of this area is an intriguing research problem." (Chad O. Braley, "More Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Mississippian Averett Culture," LAMAR Brief, No. 13, 1989).

In the summer of 1988, Averett pottery (74.6 plain sand/grit tempered, .4 Averett Incised and 3.3 Etowah Complicated Stamped) was found at the Mill Creek Site at Americus, Georgia. "It is significant that Early Mississippian pottery at Mill Creek is predominantly Averett, rather than a cord-marked.  To date Averett has been identified only in the middle Chattahoochee valley.  Cord marking dominates ceramic assemblages in Lake Blackshear... as well as assemblages along the Ocmulgee River... It is likely that Mill Creek is at the extreme eastern edge of Averett influence and may have been an outpost/border settlement.  If the cord-marking culture of the Lake Blackshear-Ocmulgee River is contemporaneous with Averett, one can speculate at length on the nature of the interaction between the two. There is, however, weak stratigraphic evidence at Mill Creek suggesting that the cord marking there precedes Averett." (Thomas H. Gresham, LAMAR Briefs, No. 14, 1989)

"Based on survey work he (Chase) identified a plainware ceramic complex which he designated the Upatoi Complex.  The plainware was the dominant ceramic type on sites located usually on the first terraces immediately above the Chattahoochee River.  This subsequent work at such sites as Oswichee Creek (9Ce66) led to a revision of the temporal placement of the complex and in one paper he postulates that the complex coincides temporally with the Middle/Late Swift Creek transition.

"The actual temporal position of the Upatoi Complex remains unresolved.  Schnell reports plainware sherds similar to Upatoi Plain in association with Averett, Bull Creek and Abercrombie phase occupations, which would place the type in Mississippian context... The continued manufacture of the type into Mississippian times is not unexpected, especially if the type served primarily a utilitarian function."  (Thomas, Campbell, Swanson, Altschul, and Weed, An Intensive Survey of a 2,200 Acre Tract Within a proposed Maneuver Area at the Fort Benning Military Reservation, Chattahoochee County, Georgia, National Park Service, 1983)

This surface roughening technique appears to have had northeastern origins, arriving in Central Georgia during Woodland times.  In many areas of Tennessee and Alabama, it was the major pottery surface application during the Late Woodland Period.  A date of 1050+30 at the Lowe Site confirms that it overlapped the Early Mississippian period, at least in some areas.

According to a survey of cord marked sites conducted by Keith Stephenson along the lower Ocmulglee River, cordmarked pottery was occasionally found in association with Late Swift Creek and Napier Complicated Stamped sherds.  "Since Napier date estimates range from A.D. 700 to 1000, these data support the contemporaneity of cord marked and Napier ceramics" (LAMAR Briefs, No. 12, December 1988, "Investigations of Ocmulgee Cord Marked Sites).

In the Ocmulgee River Big Bend Region below Macon, cord marked was the predominate type at a number of sites and was often associated with simple stamped and complicated stamped wares.  From extensive surface collections, Frankie Snow has divided cord marked ceramics from this area into a three-part series:

Ocmulgee Cord Marked I (predominate in the Abbeville vicinity on sand ridges in the floodplain) has folded rims, mostly vertically applied cord impressions with a few crisscrossed; no temper or fine sand or low-fired clay temper.  Associated sand mounds were burial sites as well as living areas.  This pottery was found as far north as Hawkinsville.

Ocmulgee Cord Marked II (Abbeville to Jacksonville area) is distinguished by sand temper; a decrease in folded rims to 50; and an increase in the number of sherds with crisscrossed cord applications.

Ocmulgee Cord Marked III (Ocmulgee-Oconee confluence to Jacksonville on high sandy bluffs overlooking the river) has gritty paste, unfolded rims, and crisscrossed markings.  Vessels often have flaring rims and slight shoulders, similar to Mississippian jar forms, and may mark a transitional Woodland-Mississippian period.

Frank and Gail Schnell found cord marked pottery similar to Ocmulgee II and III in a survey of Lake Blackshear in southwest Georgia.  A carbon date of 1225+65 was established for this ware ("An Archaeological Survey of Lake Blackshear:  Unexpected Data from an Unexplored Region of Georgia, Early Georgia Newsletter No. 10, 1974).

Soot from the exterior of a corn marked sherd recovered by Frankie Snow of South Georgia College, and submitted for accelerator mass spectronometry (AMS) by Keith Stephenson, produced confirmed the assignment of Ocmulgee Cord Marked pottery to a period ranging from about A.D. 800-1200.  Thus, cord marked pottery was contemporary with Macon Plateau.  Though cord marking is rare at the site, there is at least one instance of cord marking on Bibb Plain paste and cord marking appears as a minor design element on Macon Thick.

Cord marking is found in Late Woodland context and in considerable quantities on Early Woodland ceramics in other regions, including West Jefferson/Bessemer Phases in Alabama and Hamilton/Martin Farm/Hiwassee Island in Tennessee, and coastal Wilmington/Savannah in Georgia.  It has also been suggested that the Alachua Cordmarked Tradition of North Central Florida originated from an inland cord marked tradition as a result of population expansion brought about through successful horticultural practices.  There is no doubt that Alachua people grew maize since one of their ceramic types, Alachua Corn Cob Marked, is characterized by surfaces roughened or stamped with corn cobs.  This pottery type has been found at Macon.

Napier pottery was named for a site excavated at Macon during the 1930's.  It is a thin, finely-made ware, usually dark colored, with delicate, primarily rectilinear, complicated stamp designs.  These designs show some resemblance to Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery which has primarily curvilinear designs.

While sometimes called a North Georgia type, it has been found as far South as Choctowhatchee Bay, Florida.  It occurs frequently in the Macon area, usually as a minority type in association with Swift Creek Complicated Stamped or Woodstock Complicated Stamped pottery.  Here the type varies from extremely fine paste and design elements to a coarser type that seems to grade in both thickness and design into the type Woodstock Complicated Stamped (especially at the Westlake Site collections owned by Dr. Robert Cramer).  It usually appears in the form of small bowls.  A few sherds stamped with an extremely fine-lined design are very dark brown and black, showing a polished surface.

There are a few sites at Macon where it occurs alone (Southern Drawbridge and Waterworks Sites) or as a majority type (Shellrock Cave, almost 75 Napier; 25 Bibb Plain).  It occurs as a minority ware on the Macon Plateau.

"Mention has already been made to... the Stratified Village on the North Macon Plateau.  At several locations in these extended excavations, a small minority of Late Swift Creek and Napier occur in the stratified deposits.  Two early Macon Plateau period structures with house patterns partially reconstructed gave 112 Macon Plateau as against 12 assignable to Swift Creek and Napier Complicated Stamped... Level D consisted of black midden compacted under the presumed floor section of Level C... Two partial wall continuities and a rounded corner suggest a rectangular structure with rounded corners.  Kelly was impressed with the sudden appearance of a distinctive linear stamped collection (which he called Delta Ware) but final laboratory analysis showed that Macon Plateau still dominated the ceramics (88)..." (A. R. Kelly and Betty A. Smith, The Swift Creek Site, NPS Contract, David J. Hally, Principal Investigator, 1975).

Napier, like Woodstock and Etowah (to be discussed later), was lumped during the 1930's at Ocmulgee National Monument into a class of ceramics with rectilinear motifs that were called Delta Ware.  Future analysis of Macon collections could determine the true extent to which these wares occurred.