LATER MISSISSIPPIAN DEVELOPMENTS
Macon Plateau's Georgia Contemporaries
The Lamar Mounds and Village, a detached unit of Ocmulgee National Monument at Macon, is the type site for a widespread Mississippian/protohistoric culture. The town covered approximately 21.5 acres and was surrounded by a log pallisade. Two mounds were constructed: Mound A, a 25' high, truncated, rectangular temple mound; and Mound B, a slightly smaller, circular, flat-topped mound ascended counter-clockwise by a spiral ramp. This spiral ramp is the only one now known to exist, though early records describe such a ramp at the now-submerged Rembert Mound in North Georgia and another may once have been located in Alabama. The "spiral mound" at the Lamar Village has never been archeologically tested.
Pottery, as listed in an analysis of a percentage recovered from the Lamar Village during the 1930's and 1940's WPA excavations, presents an almost bewildering array of types spanning the region's entire pottery-making continuum (Stallings Island, Deptford, Swift Creek, Napier, Woodstock, Macon Plateau, Etowah, Savannah, Rood, Weeden Island, Ft. Walton, Dallas, Irene, etc.), and included the ancient cross-in-circle motif - also seen in Swift Creek, Napier, and Savannah pottery.
The Lamar Village is the type site for the widespread Mississippian culture that blanketed Georgia and parts of surrounding states when the first Europeans arrived. As with the beginnings of the Macon Plateau Culture, the initial phases and spread of the Lamar Culture are shrouded in mystery. Its traits are apparently first found mixed with Early Mississippian artifacts at Macon (Stubbs Phase A.D. 1200-1350) at a time when the Etowah/Wilbanks, Savannah/Irene, Hiwassee Island/Dallas, Rood, Ft. Walton, and other Mississippian cultures were evolving in surrounding regions.
For years, much of the literature on the subject suggested that Macon's Early Mississippians mysteriously disappeared, leaving the great town and possibly the entire central Ocmulgee area abandoned post A.D. 1100. After a hiatus lasting until approximately 1350 A.D., a new town (the Lamar Mounds and Village) was said to have sprung up 2-1/2 miles downriver from the Macon Plateau. This new town became known as the Lamar Mounds and Village. The culture of ts inhabitants combined Mississippian traits with those of their indigenous Woodland predecessors. During this theoretical period of abandonment, Mississippian centers had appeared at many locations outside of the Ocmulgee Fall Line region.
Charles Fairbanks wrote (The Archeology of the Funeral Mound, Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia, National Park Service, 1956), "The Etowah period of northern Georgia and the Kolomoki (Fort Walton?) period of southwest Georgia both combine Mississippian elements with traits of the old Southeastern stamping tradition. They both fall just after the general time bracket of Macon Plateau with stylistic grounds as the basis for believing them somewhat later... Etowah, Kolomoki, and Savannah are all absent from the Macon chronology and these periods represent a gap in the occupation of the area. This gap occurs at the end of the Macon Plateau occupation and may represent a hiatus due to such social attitudes as awe of previous occupations, and such political elements as conquest of the Macon Plateau by other peoples..." This interpretation is presently open to question, since the Macon Plateau Culture may have lasted longer, and the Lamar Culture may have originated earlier, than once believed.
Jerald T. Milanich ("Georgia Origins for the Alachua Tradition," Florida Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties, Bulletin No. 5, 1976) notes, "The Wilmington Culture, influenced both by Weeden Island cultures to the south and by Mississippian people to the west and northwest in the Piedmont, evolved into the Savannah and then the Irene-Pine Harbor cultures; if, indeed, Irene is not a direct movement to the coast by Lamar people... Following the Savannah period when central Georgia was apparently uninhabited, it was again occupied by a group using complicated stamped pottery. This group was responsible for the extensive Lamar remains, fortified and open towns scattered both widely and thickly in central Georgia. In fact, the Lamar culture in general can be said to blanket Georgia and portions of neighboring states from about A.D. 1350 until at least A.D. 1650. Lamar is a hybrid material culture embodying elements of the ancient southeastern complicated stamping tradition and such late Mississippian traits as incising and cazuela bowls. That it actually represents a fusion of peoples remains to be proved."
(McMichael and Kellar, "Archeological Salvage in the Oliver Basin," University of Georgia Lab Series No. 2, 1960) state: "As a hypothesis we suggest that the initial Mississippian invasion bypassed, or at best only briefly stopped on the Chattahoochee and moved to the Macon Plateau, creating there an involved outlying ceremonial center. Eventually, though there was a retreat to the Chattahoochee River which made the Mississippian group less isolated from their fellows. With this retreat the Rood's Focus begins... The present conception of Lamar is to consider this as a widespread culture which is a result of a mixture of invading Middle Mississippian and a resurgent indigenous stamping tradition. What has been called Early Lamar in the Middle Chattahoochee does not conform to this basic pattern, but is a more Mississippian-like culture, with no complicated stamping present."
The Ocmulgee/Altamaha River likely served as a prehistoric highway for the movement of ideas, goods, and people between Central Georgia and the coast. "The Wilmington Culture, influenced both by Weeden Island cultures to the south and by Mississippian people to the west and northwest in the Piedmont, evolved into the Savannah and then the Irene-Pine Harbor cultures; if, indeed, Irene is not a direct movement to the coast by Lamar people." (Milanich, "Georgia Origins for the Alachua Tradition," Florida Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties, Bulletin No. 5, 1976)
Construction of the Irene Mound (for which the succeeding coastal cultural period was named) began during the Savannah period when it was composed of a platform mound, a burial mound, several houses, and a number of post 'enclosures.' During the Irene cultural period, the platform mound was covered with a thick cap that transformed the former platform mound into a large, rounded mound with no apparent occupation surface. The burial mound continued to be used, but a mortuary structure containing numerous burials was constructed to the South of the burial mound. A large rotunda was also constructed to the South of the large mound. (Description from dePratter, "Irene Manifestations on the Northern Georgia Coast).
Irene ceramics at first included complicated stamped (designs consisting entirely of filfot cross and figure-nine motifs), plain, and burnished plain types that were developments from earlier Savannah forms. Later, Irene paste became more gritty textured and more elaborate rim treatments with applique rim strips, nodes, punctates and folds were added. Finally, incising was added as a decorative technique. The end product seems to be a variation of Lamar.
In his analysis of material from the Stubbs Mound Site at Macon, Mark Williams identified an early period of Lamar Culture development, which he designated Stubbs Phase beginning around A.D. 1100. The later Cowarts Phase, post A.D. 1350, defined the classic Lamar occupation. Macon Plateau material was found in association with the early phase, along with pottery showing an evident mixture of Swift Creek and Lamar traits. The Lamar Village was occupied during both the Stubbs and Cowarts time levels, and the clay caps of a small Macon Plateau mound were found beneath below the Lamar levels of Mound A at the site.
At the Stubbs Mound site, a rectangular earthlodge, similar in plan to the Macon Plateau Culture structure excavated on Brown's Mount, was uncovered. The building is described as follows: "Structure 2 was the most unusual of the Stubbs Mound structures. It was completely burned; the floor of the structure was 25 x 30.' All indications are that this structure was a rectangular, red clay-covered earthlodge. Two rows of large deep posts were on the floor inside the outer wall posts. The center fire pit is very similar to the one at the famous Macon Earthlodge. The entrance to the structure was a wall-trench and post passaage on the west side." (J. Mark Williams, SEAC Bulletin #19, "WPA Excavations at Stubbs Mound," 1976). Indications of a similar lodge lay beneath the excavated structure at Browns Mount. The lodge was later covered by an acretional-type mound, i.e., a large accumulation of midden and house floors. Another structure at Stubbs measured 20x26' and was constructed of single-set posts. It had a partially overlapping southeast wall, apparently a doorway, and was very similar to a building of about the same size located on the Middle Macon Plateau. Williams noted that the structures appeared after a considerable amount of midden had been deposited.
A total of 42 human burials were located during the Stubbs excavations. Grave goods consisted of shell beads, conch columella ear pins, copper-covered wooden ear spools, celts, a human effigy pipe, ceramic disks, and a wide array of projectile points.
Bibb Plain pottery was found at Stubbs, along with the decorated form Marsh Island Incised, which is rare on the Macon Plateau. Loop handles pictured in the report were identical to types found on the Macon Plateau, at Brown's Mount, and at early Rood Phase sites on the Chattahoochee River. Effigy adornos, evidently an owl and an alligator, were associated with the Mississippian occupation. Other sherds were decorated with nodes and one form was similar to stylized 'frog legs' forming the ears of hooded blank-face water bottles. Bowls with notched lips and others four-peaked rims, each with a node, were indicated. Both plain and decorated pottery disks were produced, but are smaller on the average than those from the Lamar Village.
Intermixed with this pottery and the usual Lamar ceramics was a type of complicated stamped ware showing the attributes of both Lamar and Swift Creek. Williams designated this early, evidently transitional type Lamar variety Tobesofkee. He noted: "The interaction revealed by the ceramic data gives hints of the origins of what has been traditionally called Lamar in central Georgia." It may also be noted that many of the Swift Creek sherds recovered from the Tuft Springs Site at Macon are described as having Lamar-like paste. Pipes at Stubbs were of both the Macon Plateau elbow type and the more elaborate Lamar styles. Two of the latter showed the 'weeping' or 'forked' eye motif on a human face.
Williams continued, "The ceramics from Stubbs Mound showed an interesting admixture of traditional Southern Appalachian (indigenous) complicated stamped wares with classic Mississippian plain ware. These types are in direct association with each other in both midden levels and other features. In addition, the stamped ware appeared to be an evolutionary intermediary between Late Swift Creek Stamped and Lamar Complicated Stamped... It is apparent that members of both sexes from both Mississippian and South Appalachian populations were interacting on a day-to-day basis at Stubbs Mound... It is believed that the type of activity seen at the Stubbs Mound site is typical of the cultural processes that led to what is classically known as Lamar in central Georgia...
"Basically, the concept of the Lamar period is pushed back in time to about A.D. 1100... (This) is the time of acculturation which eventually resulted in full-blown Lamar... In terms of overall trends, however, the peoples of the Swift Creek period remained in central Georgia during and after the initial Mississippian intrusion and settlement. The type of acculturation represented at Stubbs Mound is possibly a result of the interaction of the traditional Swift Creek indigenes with the early Macon Mississippian intruders as well as later intereactions with people at Chattahoochee Mississippian centers such as Rood's Landing."
The report lists six other sites in Central Georgia where Stubbs Phase material has been documented. These are 1TR1 (Neisler Mound in Taylor County), 8TA8 (Talbot County), 16Bi22 (Scott Site, Macon), 29Bi35 (Marshall Mill, Macon), 10Bi16 (Horseshoe Bend, Macon) and 1Bi7 (Lamar, Macon). It may exist at other sites where it has not yet been officially recognized.
Ocmulgee National Monument's Historic Resources Management Plan (1977) states: "(The Stubbs Mound and Village Site) is important because it gives evidence of ceramic evolution suggesting an origin for Lamar involving social interaction between two different groups in central Georgia sometime after 1000 A.D."
"At Stubbs the conjunction of Swift Creek, Macon Plateau and Lamar complicates the problem. The theoretical implications have been heightened by Roy Dickens (1974) in his rationale of the hypothetical connection between platforms (mounds) and complicated stamped pottery. Also Mark Williams in a recent study of the Statified Village on the north Macon Plateau reveals a critical minority component of late Swift Creek and Napier intermixed with the dominant Macon Plateau materials. If Macon Plateau and Napier survived to syncretize, the architectural modes may also become confluent." (A. R. Kelly and Betty A. Smith, The Swift Creek Site, 9Bi3, Macon, Georgia, 1975)
Comments by the National Park Service Southeast Archeology Center staff regarding a sentence proposed for inclusion in an exhibit at Ocmulgee National Monument's museum note: "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 and Ocmulgee Fields as well as during 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 Plateau."
They note that the Stubbs Mound Report by Williams offers the best explanation based on available data and also state: "Based on the Etowah Complicated Stamped and Marsh Island Incised-like pottery recovered from the Macon Plateau, about A.D. 1200 seems a reasonable guess-date for its abandonment. It should be noted, however, that the whole of the park was not abandoned by that time because almost twice as much Lamar pottery as Macon Plateau pottery was recovered from the Ocmulgee Bottoms excavations."
In a 1972 letter, National Park Service archeologist John R. (Jack) Walker wrote, "I definitely do not accept a hiatus between Macon Plateau and Lamar in Middle Georgia, and I question a hiatus for the Macon Plateau." He later affirmed that conviction in a number of personal communications.
During 1988-89, a group of 23 low "house mounds" at the Bullard Mounds site, a late Lamar Culture village in Twiggs County downriver from Macon, was partially excavated by Mark Williams under the auspices of Mercer University. "The floor (in Mound U) appears to be that of a standard, rectangular Mississippian house, about 24 feet square and with very rounded corners. Only a small portion of the structure was burned and there were very few artifacts on the floor, primarily small clusters of postsherds. All evidence continues to support the hypothesis that this house, and all the others at this unplowed site represent the remains of collapsed earth-covered buildings." ("Bullard's Excavations," LAMAR Brief, No. 13, 1989).
Like the Lamar Village, this settlement is believed to have occupied at the time of Hernando deSoto's expedition in 1540 (Mark Williams, personal communication). If these structures are earthlodges, then the Bullard Mounds site brings at least one aspect of Macon Plateau Culture into historic times along the Ocmulgee River.
There are many, often contradictory, theories that attempt to explain the origin and spread of Mississippian lifeways and to prove that the Macon Plateau Culture was either intrusive or developed in situ. No matter which theory is correct, it seems illogical to believe that all elements of this culture were disdained by contemporary populations in the surrounding regions for over two hundred years, while identical ideas were borrowed from more-remote sources. That these people acquired additional Mississippian traits over time through trade and other interactions, population movements, or even created them locally, fails to diminish Macon Plateau's importance as a source of cultural inspiration.
Text by Sylvia Flowers
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