Macon Plateau's Georgia Contemporaries

Related Cultures Elsewhere

Later Mississippian Developments

During the 1930-40's, archeological excavations at Macon identified many new pottery types and cultures.  They uncovered a continuum of people stretching unbroken from the Ice Age to the present.  A number of the so-called 'Young Turks' who participated in this work went on to become prominent in their field.  They became mentors of many professionals who are now training a third generation of archeologists.  

The intervening years have left the Macon area lagging archeologically behind much of the Southeast.  The great Early Mississippian ceremonial center has almost been eliminated from the contemporary archeological picture.  Yet, it illogical to assume that this site, probably the largest in the Southeast from A.D. 900 to 1150, existed in a vacuum.  Central Georgia's artifact collections and remaining archeological resources may be vital to understanding and interpreting the the Early Mississippian Period in Georgia and later spread of the Lamar culture.  

The information presented here summarizes some of the existing data in an attempt to stimulate renewed interest in the prehistory of an area that has been called the cradle of Southeastern archeology.  Mention of Creek migration legends, early confederacies, known population movements, and other non-archeological references have been purposefully avoided.  Questions pertaining to the Macon Plateau culture cannot be answered by historic records.   The answers are hidden in artifact storage boxes, lost in private collections, scattered in archeological research reports, and still-buried in the soil of Middle Georgia

The eroded remnants of an ancient plateau sweep down to meet fertile bottomlands along the Ocmulgee River at Macon, Georgia.  These gentle hills mark the Georgia Fall Line where two great environmental zones overlap.  Upstream, rocky shoals mark the southern limits of the Piedmont, beckoning toward the Appalachian Mountains.  Below Macon, the river meanders through verdant Coastal Plain swamps rich with wildlife.  Eventually, it merges with the Oconee at a juncture known as "The Forks."  Together, they become the mighty Altamaha, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean amid Georgia's coastal islands.

Over a vast span of time, this area of varied natural resources was a haven for Native Americans.  It has been archeologically proven that the square mile of the Macon Plateau now protected within Ocmulgee National Monument was occupied by an unbroken continuum of cultures from the Ice Age until the present.

Nomadic Paleo Indians and Archaic hunter-gathers left stone spearpoints and tools on the Plateau.  Nearby, earthen mounds once marked the sites of Woodland Period villages along the river and its tributary creeks.  On the Plateau, highly skilled craftsmen left quantities of pottery sherds stamped with intricate, artistic designs carved into wooden paddles.  Historically, people called of the Creek Confederacy built a large village near a British trading post on the site.

One of the most mysterious and least-understood people to live in Central Georgia were those of the Early Mississippian "Macon Plateau" culture.  Most literature on the subject describes them as an intrusive group who arrived in the area around A.D. 900 interrupting the centuries-long Woodland Tradition.  They brought new ideas, including a sociopolitical system based on intensive agriculture.  A bird-shaped raised clay platform in their unique earthlodge is marked with a "forked-eye," the first known symbol of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (the so-called "Southern Cult").  Their way-of-life is called "Mississippian" because many archeologists believe it originated in the Mississippi River valley.

The Macon Plateau town has been described as an unsuccessful colony - an outpost with ties to Cahokia in the "American Bottoms" of the Mississippi River.  According to theories formed during large-scale archeological excavations undertaken on the Macon Plateau during the 1930's, these newcomers either drove out the indigenous Woodland people or filled an existing void in the area.  They established an extensive ceremonial center with a large satellite community a few miles downstream on Brown's Mount, an eminence partially encircled by limestone bluffs dropping sharply into the river swamps.  

Because little archeological work has been undertaken on the Plateau in recent years, many archeologists continue to believe that the Early Mississippians at Macon thrived for 200 years then vanished, leaving the area abandoned until around A.D. 1350 when Late Mississippians built the Lamar Mounds and Village some 2-1/2 miles down-river.  The people of the Macon Plateau are usually credited with having little impact on contemporary cultures and leaving no legacy to later Mississippian populations.

"A final point that has not been made often enough is that the Macon Plateau culture failed.  Whether it was an indigenous development or an invading population, it appears to have had little interaction with surrounding groups and seems to have contributed few if any lasting elements to succeeding cultures... the few Mississippian attributes that appear during the Middle and Late Mississippi periods probably were introduced from Tennessee and Alabama rather than from Macon."  (David Hally and James Rudolph, Georgia Laboratory of Archeology Series, Georgia Archeological Research Design Paper No. 2, Mississippi Period Archeology of the Georgia Piedmont. 1987)

Recent advances in the field of Southeastern archeology further cloud the picture.  The publication noted above also states:  "The distinction between the Mississippi period and Mississippian culture (cf. Wauchope 1966) is especially useful in the Georgia Piedmont, because the extent to which particular late prehistoric cultures were 'Mississippianized' ranges from minimal to complete.  This is most noticeable during the Early Mississippi period, which dates from A.D. 900 to A.D. 1200...  The Macon Plateau culture is a full-fledged Mississippian phenomenon whose distinctiveness in the Piedmont and similarity to the Hiwasee Island culture in Tennessee have raised important issues about the development and spread of Mississippian culture into the region...  Perhaps as our knowledge of Mississippi period economic and political organization improves, we will recognize certain lasting contributions (made by the Macon Plateau culture)."

David Anderson, in the same publication, asks important questions:  "What precisely is the temporal range of Macon Plateau, and what are its closest cultural affinities?  If it is an example of site unit intrusion, could its appearance (if early enough) have triggered a wave of secondary chiefdom formation over the surrounding area?"  

INTRUSION vs. IN SITU DEVELOPMENT: 

On the Fall Line at Macon, where two great environmental zones overlap, a look at the archeological record shows that a number of important Late Woodland cultures evidently coexisted in the area, making it a "melting pot."  At this important juncture, the Macon Plateau culture appeared, seemingly without precedent.

"Another site unit intrusion is seen at Macon Plateau about A.D. 900, however, this group appears to have been absorbed by the indigenous Woodland population.  After the initial intrusion of these small Mississippian colonies with their advanced maize agriculture, there followed a very swift period of acculturation of the indigenous Woodland groups into the Mississippian lifeways, except at Macon Plateau... (at other locations) the native Woodland culture maintained a degree of dominance while accepting many Mississippian traits." (Journal of Alabama Archeology, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 1978)

The "failed outpost" and lack of interaction interpretations are primarily based on pottery type identifications and papers resulting from the archeological excavations conducted in Central Georgia during the 1930's and statements made in Fairbank's 1956 Archeology of the Funeral Mound.  It should be remembered that Late Woodland Swift Creek, Napier and Mossy Oak ceramics were identified and named at Macon during the 1930's.  These people were thought to have lived in the Ocmulgee area at an earlier time or to have been pushed out by the Macon Plateau intrusion.   

Pottery representing a number of other important cultures that were possibly contemporary with Macon Plateau, either at its early or late ends, had not yet been formally described as separate entities or had not been recognized in the Macon area.  Missing from the early tabulations were a number of important cultures, including Weeden Island, Woodstock, Rood Phase, Etowah and Savannah whose wares have since been identified at Macon.  Knowledge concerning these people could help clarify Macon Plateau Early Mississippian beginnings, interactions, final associations, and the heritage left to succeeding generations. 

A few archeologists now challenge old beliefs regarding the origins of Mississippian cultures and the existence of a Mississippian 'heartland' along that great river. "The belief that Mississippian culture arose in a relatively restricted area, including the Lower Mississippi Valley north of Memphis, and subsequently radiated out over the Southeast engulfing pre-existing cultures is a gross oversimplification of a complex historical situation." (David Hally, "The Development of Mississippian Culture in the Upper Tensaw Basin of Louisiana," paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archeology, Bal Harbour, Florida) 

"Several sites in the (Central Mississippi Valley) were at one time mentioned as evidence of its temporal primacy, but they are now known to share the A.D. 900 to 1100 time period with a large number of Mississippian complexes that are spread over a wide geographical area... 

"An explanation of Mississippian development cannot be reached by searching for a georgraphical center of initial development.  It will be reached only by unraveling a complex developmental process that involved a number of interacting regions covering a wide georgraphical area... the development of the Mississippian cultural tradition took place relative simultaneously over a wide geographical area, making local development a more reasonable interpretive framework than site unit intrusion." (Bruce D. Smith, "Mississippian Expansion:  Tracing the Historical Development of an Explanatory Model," Southeastern Archeology, Vol. 3, #1. 1984) 

He questions the long-standing acceptance of Macon Plateau as an intrusive culture.  "It is important to emphasize that the apparent abrupt appearance and uniqueness of the Macon Plateau cultural assemblage is largely a function of negative evidence.  Simply because the developmental sequence leading up to Macon Plateau has yet to be established in detail does not mean that such a local developmental sequence does not exist...  The lack of distinctive decorative modes in such assemblages give them very low archeological visibility, especially in surface collections...  I am not convinced that Macon Plateau should be viewed confidently as a colony of outside invaders arriving from an undetermined starting point, rather than as the result of a local developmental sequence which reflects the acceptance of outside ideas."  (Smith, publication quoted above)

Others leave the origin problem unresolved and ask additional questions.  "The site of Macon Plateau is perhaps the most poorly understood prehistoric site in the Southeast...  Despite the minimal amount of published data, the Macon Plateau site has taken on major significance, or perhaps notoriety, as an archtypal example of  site-unit intrusion...  There is no denying that survey in the vicinity of Macon is so spotty that many heretofore unknown Macon Plateau culture sites might exist...  We feel, however, that this lack of data means that evidence for either invasion or local development is inadequate.  What evidence we do have strongly suggests a hypothesis attributing the culture to site-unit intrusion is reasonable if nothing else...  Questions that remain to be answered about this enigmatic phenomenon include:  Was Macon Plateau a result of population movement or in situ development?  What were the social, political, and economic relationships of the Macon Plateau population to neighboring Woodland or Mississippian groups?  How was the Macon Plateau subsistence economy organized?  What were the lasting effects of the Macon Plateau culture on subsequent developments in the Georgia Piedmont?  (Hally and Rudolph, Mississippian Period Archeology in the Georgia Piedmont)

"...the past emphasis on migration to explain culture change in the Southeast during the Woodland-Mississippian transition appears to have sometimes lulled us into a complacency where we simply see a replacement of one culture with another.  We should not lose sight of the fact that the picture is much more complex since there appears to have been reciprocity between intrusive and indigenous cultures with significant culture change in both." (Charles H. Faulkner, "The Mississippian-Woodland Transition in the Middle South," Southeast Archeological Conference Bulletin, No. 15, 1972)

Describing Early Mississippian lifeways, as at Macon Plateau, is difficult.  Because of the humid Southeastern climate and acid soils, few perishable materials have survived to help archeologists detect physical changes indicating development or adoption of Mississippian culture traits.  The origin and spread of new ideas are especially hard to trace from prehistoric evidence in the soil.  Unfortunately, many irreplaceable pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of America's past continue to be destroyed by "progress" and ignorance.

Though extensive excavations were conducted on the Macon Plateau during the 1930's and early 1940's, only about 17 of the huge site has been archeologically tested.  Much of the information unearthed by early investigations at the site was never published or widely circulated.  Still, answers to the many questions surrounding the Macon Plateau culture are vital to accurately interpreting its role in Southeastern prehistory.

Whatever its origins, as the Macon Plateau town grew, it surely served as a social, political, and religious center for a number of outlying villages and farmsteds.  These include components at:

Brown's Mount (the second largest Macon Plateau culture town)

Stubbs Mound Site

Lamar Mounds and Vilage

New Pond Site

Scott Sites

Mile Track Site

Ocmulgee River Horseshoe Bend

Willis Farm

Cowart's Landing

Swift Creek Village

Shellrock Cave  

The people of the Macon Plateau built at least eight earthen, flat-topped mounds, consisting of temple, domiciliary and mortuary types.  These pyramidal mounds were raised in layers at intervals over the years and suggest intricate social relationships.  Three mounds of unknown origin sat on a hill adjacent to the Plateau near pioneer Ft. Hawkins.  They were destroyed before before they were adequately described and assigned to a cultural period.

Mound A, the largest on the site, sits on a southern arm of the plateau.  Its basal dimensions are 300' northwest-southeast and 270' northeast-southwest.  The summit is 160' northeast-southwest and 165' northwest-southeast.  To the north, the mound rises over 40' from the Plateau, but this area has been built up to a height of about 9' so that the total height is  around 50.' On its southern exposure, the mound slopes precipituously 90' to the Ocmulgee River floodplain.  At least during its later stages, it was ascended by wide, stepped clay ramps.

A 10x15' test shaft sunk into the mound's summit in 1934 was carried down 30' before it began to collapse.  At 104", two hearths were found and at 134" several hearths, much charcoal and two crematory pits were recorded. 

Tests conducted by National Park Service archeologist John R. (Jack) Walker in the 1960's revealed a low clay curb encircling the mound summit.  Twenty feet inside the curb, or parapet, was a 1 to 1-1/2' high platform which served as a base for what appeared to be three structures whose outlines could not be confirmed due to large numbers of postmolds.  An open-air fireplace lined up with one of the ramps. 

Walker found evidence for a much smaller core mound under the large mound.  This earlier level may have connected to the still-visible "West  Platform," an earthen projection extending from the lower portion  of the Great Temple Mound.  On this small mound were found sherds, including a strap handle and three effigy figurines.

Dr. Arthur Kelley (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #119, p. 53) wrote:  "On top of Mound A (Macon group), in clearing away the humus to expose the thick yellow clay plate which mantles the summit and slopes of the mound, two inverted pots were found inset in small pits sunk into the yellow clay plate.  One of these was a typical Lamar 'hybrid' pot, showing both incised and complicated stamped decoration.  The other was a plain, red-fired water bottle of Late Plateau classification..."

Mound B is located 130' to the northeast of the Great Temple Mound.  It is thought to have originally stood some 12' high.  Much of the mound was cut away in 1843 during large-scall excavations for a Macon, Dublin & Savannah Railroad right-of-way.  It remains as a triangular remnant 10' high with a base about 100' and summit 75' on each side.  Tests indicate it was also constructed in stages.  A still-unexplored slump area in its profile suggests the possibility that a cavity once existed inside the mound.  Reports note that this unexplored internal feature, possibly a tomb, existed from the earliest construction stage until after the mound's completion when it finally collapsed.  It has been theorized that this mound may have served as a base for a chief's or priest's house.        

Once-impressive Mound C is 1,100' northwest of the Great Temple Mound.  It was heavily damaged by 1870's construction of a second railroad right-of-way through the site.  At the beginning of archeological excavations, the remnant was 230' east-west and 100' north-south.  The northeast face was almost vertical as result of the Central of Georgia railroad cut and its use as a barrow pit for railroad bed fill.  Charles C. Jones in Antiquities of the Southern Indians notes the finding of an artifically deformed skull and artifacts of European manufacture during removal of soil from the Funeral Mound during railroad construction.  

Archeological work in the 1930's revealed that the mound was built in at least seven stages, each consisting of a thick contrasting layer of brightly-colored clay covered with sand.  Under the lowest mound level was black-stained humus indicating a village area.  Sherds from this humus included Stallings Island Fiber Tempered Plain and Punctated, Deptford Bold Check Stamped, Dunlap Fabric Marked, and Mossy Oak Simple Stamped pottery.  However, the Early Mississippian Bibb Plain type predominated.  

Submound bowl-shaped pits up to 11' long contained log or bark covered tombs with multiple burials of varying ages and sex.  One tomb contained a female in an extended position.  In lines and bands at her torso were thousands of shell beads.  Placed in the same tomb was a male bundle burial. In another 6.7' deep tomb, were three adults, a child, and three unidentifiable disarticulated individuals.  They were accompanied by a large conch shell dipper, some 26,000 small olivella shell beads, 3 long, round bone pins with 2, 4 and 6 shallow grooves around the blunt end, 2 bi-concave stone discoidals with polished edges, and a small greenstone celt.  Red stain (red ocher?) was found on some of the bones.  

The interior of what appeared to be the central submound tomb was surrounded by a low wall of upright logs 4-5" in diameter extending 4' above the base of the pit.  The floor was composed of nine logs and the tomb was covered by logs.  It contained only one individual whose bones were rearticulated, slightly charred and red-stained.  Bones of a foot were found outside the Southeast corner of the tomb.  Additional pits contained multiple burials, some with no grave goods.  Bones in several other tombs showed slight charring as if a small fire had been started in the grave.  

The first mound stage was a 2-6' layer of red loam placed over the burial area.  Two nuclear piles of clay were covered by a 7' high layer of tan clay and loam with a level surface plated with slate blue clay.  A pit 5' across at its top and 1.5' diameter at a depth of 1.5' extended to the bottom of the mound and was filled with red clay before the final clay plate was added.  This pit evidently contained a large post, perhaps similar to those in a burial mound at the Crook Site, Marksville Mound 4, and Mound D at Kolomoki.  An 8' wide ramp with well-worn clay steps extended to the mound's west summit.  It was constructed of brilliant red clay, sharply contrasting with the blue-gray clay plate.  A thin layer of sand mixed with a dark, greasy deposit covered the mounds summit.  Post molds on the summit indicated some sort of structure.

Mound Stage II appeared to be oval in shape instead of rectangular, consisting of long, thin, laminae of various clays built to a height of 3'1"-4' above the top of Stage I.  It was capped with a band of light gray clay 9-16" deep covered by a band of light colored, water-sorted sand.  No ramp was found, but a shallow terrace was located about midway on the western slope.  Both bundle and extended burials were made in pits, one with vertical sides showing upright log molds or bark impressions.  A Halstead Plain bank-face effigy water bottle, with 2 semicircular raised ridges on each side of the mouth, was found with one badly decayed burial.  Sherds of a Bibb Plain variant, very soft with a great amount of shell temper, were found in this level.

Additional layers consisted of brightly colored clay, some covered with sand.  On the third, fourth and fifth stages, a ridge or curb of clay was added to the extreme edge of the summits. Inward bent postmolds on the fifth stage indicated a large small-log type structure or possiblly a palisade enclosing the summit.  Two horizontal logs were found laying on the east slope of Stage VI's clay plate.  

Burials (extended, flexed, semi-flexed, bundle, and single skull) were interred as the mound fill was put in place or in pits dug into the completed levels.  Through time the burials tend to become less elaborate, however, Burial #57 in the fifth stage contained two repousse copper "sun disks," two copper-covered cut puma jaws, fragments of cane matting (2 mm. wide strips in an over 3/under 3 diagonal twill), something described as "decayed fur," and fragments of 2-strand twisted cord.  Eye witnesses reported a round, copper gorget which is missing from the collections.   

Over the final stage, a thick layer of humus conforming to the original mound contours contained burials with shell disc beads and Bibb Plain sherds.  A layer of "new sod" developed probably after the mound was abandoned, though at least one Macon Plateau burial originated from this level.  It was made in a long oval pit with bark or wood covering over the ashes of a cremation.  The tomb contained shell disc beads, a wide mouth, straight necked Bibb Plain bottle and small surged rim jar with two loop handles of the Bibb Plain type.

Occupational detritus in the surrounding village area extended in depth from only a few inches to 2' below the plow zone.  Numerous postmolds, storage pits, and a number of prehistoric and historic burials with grave goods were found in the area.  South of the mound at a depth of 1.3' a Halstead Plain bottle in the form of a person with a carefully modeled, round head and incised features (described further in the section on Macon Plateau pottery) was found.  One Macon Plateau partially flexed burial was accompanied by a two-hole circular undecorated shell gorget, a small flat adze, 5 lanceolate shell objects, a large pottery elbow-type pipe, and a Bibb Plain jar with loop handles.

Cornfield Mound: 

Mound D is located 1,800' Northeast of the Great Temple Mound.  In 1933, it was roughly round, 150' in diameter and approximately 8' high.  After intensive cultivation and archeological excavations, only the Northern one-third is still standing.  

Under the final mound was a low, square, ramped earthen platform serving as a base for a wattle and daub house with baked clay floor and inner walls or veranda-like constructions on each side.  This house mound rose sharply amid the clearly defined "rows of hilled up dirt" that were obviously remnants of an ancient agricultural field.  A trench through the north portion of Mound D uncovered a distinct line of post holes at mound base level.  This structure was of flimsy wall construction.  An extended burial had been made just beyond the northwest corner of the house floor.  A second small house mound was apparently partially demolished incident to cultivation of the prehistoric field.

Mound D, constructed over the area, consisted of sand fill plated with red clay.  A building on the first stage's summit was rectangular with a blue clay floor.  It had a semi-circular addition on the side opposite the door.  From the door, a narrow, much-worn path lead to what appeared to be a raised clay alter with a burned area on top.  On Mound Level #2 was a circular structure with a red clay floor.  A rectangular structure on the last level was associated with a number of baked-clay lined cache pits.  A small vessel was  found inverted in a hole on the mound's final summit.

Southeast Mound: 

Mound E is now a small, dome-shaped, 15x20' oval rise about 3' high.  It was heavily damaged by farming and was dug by an amataeur prior to the 1930's archeological excavations on the plateau.  It was possibly a burial mound.

This mound, located 1,800' northeast of the Cornfield Mound, was outside the central village area, though tests made by Jack Walker in the 1960's located a large habitation area nearby.  The mound was partially destroyed by cultivation in the 1800's when the site was part of the Dunlap Farm.  Before excavation, it was described as a circular rise, 6' high and 100' wide at its base.  It was composed of compacted yellowish sand and served as a base for a rectangular structure which was later removed, its postholes filled with clay and the mound capped with red clay.

Located 2,300' North of the Cornfield Mound and visible from Emery Highway, this mound was also outside the primary village area.  It is thought to have been erected late in the Macon Plateau sequence since no shell tempered pottery was found in the post-mound occupation level.  In 1854, it was described as 30' high and 100' in diameter at the base.  Approximately three-fifths of the mound was taken for East Macon road fill in the early 1900's, leaving it presently about 15' high.  It was named for a commandant of nearby Ft. Hawkins who was said to have been buried in the mound.

Five burials, encircled by five post holes 6-8" in diameter, were found 31" below the top of the pre-mound strata.  The base mound consisted of a buttress or retaining wall of red clay with the central area filled with whitish sand.  A structure outlined by postmolds 8-12" in diameter and a series of clay-lined oval pits were found on the mound's flat top reached by a clay ramp.  The large second mound may have been built over the core mound in one operation.  Its final appearance seems to have been elliptical, rather than the usual rectangular shape, with a slightly domed summit.

Now almost invisible, during the 1930's this area appeared as a low rise exhibiting buried sod that was never thoroughly explored by archeological excavation.

South Plateau Terracing: 

The hill on which the Great and Lesser Temple Mounds are situated was repeatedly terraced and enlarged as the mounds grew in size.  Early exavations uncovered a series of superimposed circular earthlodges and rectangular structures built in the area between the two mounds.  Their construction, destruction, and other debris from human activity over a considerable period of time resulted in an accumulation over 9' deep.  Midden rich with Macon Plateau pottery sherds covered the entire South Plateau and its two mounds, suggesting that the area was used long after mound building activities ceased.

Dugouts or Trenches: 

The primary village area of the Macon Plateau was partially surrounded by two parallel lines of deep, semi-connected pits 3 to 9' deep and 15 to 25' wide, linked in a series like strung sausages.  There fireplace-like features in the bottom of some of the pits and they contained large numbers of both Woodland and Macon Plateau pottery sherds.  Their excavator, Dr. A. R. Kelly originally suggested they might have been "pit houses," though this interpretation has largely been discounted.  It has also been postulated that they were defensive works to protect the Macon Plateau intruders, but no associated palisades were located (as they have been at a number of other Mississippian sites where trenches are know).

Charles Fairbanks stated:  "To the east and southwest, two extensive series of very large ditches or dugouts encircled the plateau.  Profiles definitely showed that these dugouts cut both the red clay of the earthlodge mound and the surrounding humus.  Thus there is good evidence that the earthlodge was older than the dugouts and that the two low mounds to the northwest (later covered by the Cornfield Mount) were roughly contemporary with the earthlodge." (American Antiquity, Vol., "The Macon Earthlodge," 1946)

Since they were constructed after the initial occupation and there is nothing to suggest later warfare, it seems unlikely they were constructed as defense works. It is possible that as the town and its mounds grew in size, borrow pits were strategically placed to delineate the town's "ceremonial" precinct.  It is also possible that they served some yet unknown purpose.

"On Brown's Mount in the 10-acre field where the circular earthlodge was uncovered there were surface indications of small, slightly sunken areas containing a different type of soil than was found in the surrounding ground.  The absence of erosional scars or drainage outlets and the grouping of these sinks was considerably suggestive of filled dugouts.  Exploration on this point to check against the situation on Macon Plateau has not yet been undertaken."  (A. R. Kelly, Anthropological Papers, Smithsonian Institute, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #119, "Archeological Explorations at Macon, Ga.)  These enigmatic "pits" were never explored.

Rectangular houses on the Macon Plateau sometimes had slightly rounded corners, and included both trench-set, small log buildings (with or without open corners) and single-set, larger pole examples.  House A, between the Great and Lesser Temple Mounds, was 39' x 45' with single set posts 7" in diameter and a 4'6" diameter, 3' deep raised rim fire basin.  It preceded the last three circular lodges.  The last yellow clay cap of the Great Temple Mound postdated the last use of this square building and the 6th circular lodge.  A charred timber from House A yielded a Carbon 14 date of A.D. 1040.

 In the 1960's under the direction of Jack Walker, a square structure was excavated on Brown's Mount.  A photograph clearly shows the prepared clay floor with molded clay fire pit, four large interior support posts, and 18' long entrance similar to the circular lodges on the Plateau.  Wall posts were single set.  Pottery on the floor was primarily Macon Plateau, though a few Etowah sherds were also found.  A report written by co-excavator Richard Marshall stated that this building was possibly earth-covered or earth-embanked. Walker (personal communication) noted that it was later called a "small-log townhouse" rather than an earthlodge.  Charcoal from the structure produced a Carbon-14 date of A.D. 980.  It was superimposed over what appeared to be an earlier, but similar, postmold configuration with a different entrance tunnel alignment.  This older building was not explored.

An almost identical rectangular lodge was excavated under a mound at the Stubbs Village site at Macon where Macon Plateau pottery was also found.  Since this structure has been ascribed to the Lamar Culture's early Stubb's Phase, it is covered under the section on Lamar.

Earthlodges and Circular Structures: 

William Sears wrote in the Wilbanks site report (River Basin Surveys, Paper #12):  "The earliest earth-covered structures in the Southeast, at least east of the Mississippi River, are those at the Macon Plateau."  These were circular lodges which seem to have been ceremonial rather than residential in character.

The best preserved earthlodge, located near the Cornfield Mound, was reconstructed over the original clay floor.  This structure is  41' in interior diameter with a red clay buttress wall. The inner wall is encircled by a low clay bench with 47 molded seats and "receptacles" that become gradually lower and smaller near the entrance.  Centered in this bench, and opposite the doorway, is a large clay platform molded in the shape of a raptorial bird (bearing the Southern Cult "forked" or "weeping" eye symbol) on which three more seats are located.  A fire pit with raised rim was molded in the central floor area.  Four large (2-2.9") posts supported spoke-like rafters.  Entrance was through a very low, 14' (originally 26') long tunnel walled with short posts set in trenches.  The earthlodge had been burned.  It appeared as if the floor of the structure had been purposefully cleaned prior to the fire, since the only artifact found inside was a Bibb Plain pot.

Timbers from the earthlodge were Carbon-14 dated to A.D. 1015.  Despite this relatively early date, it does not appear to have been constructed during the initial settlement of the Plateau.  The southeast ramp of a small house platform (Halfway House) was cut away when the council chamber was mounded with red clay loam and the west clay shoulder covered a baked clay floor.  "That the structure (earthlodge) was built some time after the first settlement... is indicated by the high percentage of Macon Plateau types in the submound humus and in the mound itself." (Charles Fairbanks, American Antiquity, Vol. 2, 1946, "The Macon Earthlodge)  

A 30' diameter lodge with 4 large interior support posts, 20' long entrance way, raised-rim fire pit and yellow clay buttress wall, but lacking the bird platform and bench with receptacles, was built on the same hill some distance from the reconstructed lodge.  How they related in time is not known.

At least eight earthlodges were superimposed between the Great and Lesser Temple Mounds. Only a portion of the fired yellow clay floor and collared fire basin were distinguishable from the earliest lodge, which may have covered yet another structure.  The next two lodges were the largest (40' diameter) in the continuum and the only ones with clay seats/receptacles.  Later editions of the circular council house were smaller (15-30' diameter), first with walls of trench-set poles inside a clay buttress, followed by the final two lodges with walls of larger logs set in individual holes.  Only the 6th lodge in the sequence had a short entrance-way.  Its raised-rim fire pit was surrounded by a large square "collar."  The 7th lodge was the only one with large interior support posts (six of them).  Its raised-rim fire pit was in the northeast quandrant and there was possibly a partition in front of the entrance opening.  The final lodge was 19' in diameter, constructed of 4-6" diameter single-set posts with no discernable prepared floor.  The raised-rim fire pit was 4' in diameter and set somewhat off-center.  Bibb Plain, Simple Stamp, Etowah and Lamar pottery sherds were found in the floor area.   

An additional circular lodge was excavated by Dr. A. R. Kelly during the 1930's on Brown's Mount.  This lodge was constructed on a especially prepared yellow clay floor leveled out of a hillslope.  It had a wall section of thickly massed red clay used as a plating to retain sand fillers.  It also contained low, molded clay peripheral seats, centrally located circular clay-lined fire pit, and a 21' long, tunnel-like entrance.  No evidence was found of large interior support posts, nor was there any assured trace of a clay "bird platform" or dias.  Artifacts associated with this lodge were of Macon Plateau origin.

Less elaborate circular buildings were located at the Cornfield Mound where they seem to have alternated with rectangular structures.  They were also found under a series of rectangular houses in the stratified village area where they were reportedly Woodland in origin, though Macon Plateau sherds were found on the floors (along with Woodland Period sherds).

James A. Rudolph ("Earthlodges and Platform Mounds: Changing Public Architecture in the Southeastern U.S.," Southeastern Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1984) describes an important trait with early antecedants at Macon.  "If one were asked to describe a typical Mississippian period political center, one would certainly include in this description a platform mound that supported a public or semi-public building, a temple, an elite residence, a council house, or a mortuary structure.  But in Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas this picture is not completely accurate.  Here archaeologists have also found centers that are Mississippian in many respects but which contained free-standing earthlodges rather than platform mounds for at least part of their occupations.  In many cases these earthlodges were the earliest public buildings at the sites, only to be replaced--actually covered over--with platform mounds that supported new types of public architecture."

He lists 19 known sites with earthlodges:

Georgia:                      Tennessee:                   North Carolina:

*Macon Plateau         *Hiwassee Island          **Peachtree

*Brown's Mount         *?Cox                         **Garden Creek

*Stubbs Mound          **Harris Farm             **Town Creek

*Bullard Mounds        **Bowman Farm

*Singer-Moye            ***Toqua

**Bell Field

**Tugalo

**Wilbanks

**Horseshoe Bend

**Beaverdam Creek

**Irene

***Dyar

*Sites with free-standing earthlodges.  On the central Ocmulgee River near Macon, the Macon Plateau and Brown's Mount lodges date to the 10th or 11th centuries A.D., Stubbs Mound A.D. 1000-1400 (?), the possible multiple earthlodges at Bullard date to the 16th century.  On the Chattahoochee River, the Singer-Moye lodge as been dated A.D. 1270.  The Hiwassee Island Site is now said to date post-1000 A.D.  No date or description is available for the possibly freestanding lodge at the Cox Site in Tennessee.

**Sites where earthlodges were subsequently covered by platform mounds.  These are all associated with contemporary or nearly contemporary phases which generally place these structures in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries A.D.

***Earthlodges constructed on the summits of platform mounds dated to the late 16th or early 17th centuries.

Objects of stone and fired clay are among the most durable, and often the only, artifacts remaining from ancient times.  Techniques for manufacture of stone tools tended to vary little over long periods.  When mapping events and establishing prehistoric cultural sequences, archeologists rely heavily on studies of ceramics.  The ability to easily manipulate pottery into an infinite variety of styles and surface designs provided an outlet for artistic expression.  The appearance of new forms hints at new uses and cultural change.

 The vast majority of Macon Plateau pottery had no surface decoration.  It appears to form a distinct break with the indigenous Woodland tradition of stamping pottery with paddles wrapped with cord or carved with simple incisions and elaborate, highly artistic designs.  True handles were introduced, along with the use of crushed shell as a tempering material.

One of the negative evidences usually cited to prove lack of Macon Plateau interaction or influence on surrounding populations contends that Macon Plateau pottery is not found outside the immediate area.  Possibly, it has simply not been recognized.  In most archeological site collections from the region, unidentified plain body sherds make up the largest sorting group.  But, at a time when few connections appeared evident between the Macon area and North Georgia, Robert Wauchope wrote in 1948 concerning the ceramic sequence in the North Georgia Etowah River drainage:  "...we find most of the traits of such wares as Bibb Plain, Hallstead Plain, and Macon Thick present either as trade specimens or as characteristics of the local wares." (American Antiquity, Vol. XIII)

Macon Plateau sherds are extremely difficult to identify.  While some pottery from the site is distinguished by an orange-red color, gritty surface texture, and shell-grit tempering, colors range from bright orange through many shades of brown, to grays or almost white.  A percentage was tempered with crushed shell, but grit, sand and even grog (crushed sherds) were also used as strengthening materials.  "...body sherds from Woodland plainware are often hard to distinguish from grit-tempered specimen of Bibb Plain." (J. Earl Ingmanson, Dunlap and McDougal Mounds, Ocmulgee National Monument).

"The pottery has very few characteristics to set it off from any piece of baked clay... Sorting depended on recognizing a series of almost intangible elements of color, paste, temper, surface finish, thickness, etc." (Charles Fairbanks, Archeology of the Funeral Mound, Ocmulgee National Monument).

Another line of reasoning suggests that Woodland people would not immediately embrace the spectrum of comparatively drab Macon Plateau ceramics.  The complicated design motifs applied to some Woodland pottery for hundreds of years may have had social significance (Frankie Snow, personal communication).  At least one design, the cross-in-circle, persisted from Late Archaic Period Stallings Island Fiber Tempered pottery, through the Woodland Period (Napier and Swift Creek Complicated Stamped) and Mississippian Period (Etowah, Savannah and Lamar Complicated Stamped), into historic times in Georgia. 

Some Macon Plateau pottery may have had specialized uses.  As they became "Mississippianized," Woodland cultures adopted a number of Macon Plateau-like forms (hooded effigy bottles, short-necked jars, globular or shouldered bowls with handles, certain figurine types, etc.) perhaps after acquiring a need for them. 

Several traits introduced to Central Georgia by Macon Plateau potters appeared more frequently in succeeding Mature Mississippian cultures.  William Sears (River Basin Surveys, Paper #12, "Wilbanks Site, Georgia") notes:  "Strap handles are of course a distinctly Late (read Mature) Mississippi feature as contrasted with loop handles, noded or otherwise, of the Early Mississippi Horizon as exemplified by the Macon, Hiwassee, and small-log town-house complexes... Finally, in this inventory of sherds with specific Mature Mississippi connections, we have two rim sherds that apparently are from blank-faced effigy water bottles...  These of course, one Sixes Plain and one Etowah Plain, are not necessarily late, since they do occur in the pottery type Halstead Plain at Macon Plateau."

Strap handles, it was later learned, also occurred at Macon Plateau.  "These last sherds occurred on a possible sub-mound structure beneath Mound A (the Great Temple Mound).  One sherd was unique in the fact that it was also incised and punctate and in the form of a strap handle.  Also occuring here were three effigies, one of a bear, one of a bird, possibly an eagle, and one unidentified...  These effigies are of the same paste, temper and color as the buff Halstead Plain, also found here."  (The Archeology of Mounds A and B and South Plateau, Ocmulgee National Monument, Karwedsky, O'Grady, Fesperman and Stoutmire)

Method of Manufacture:  Coiled, coil fractures occur.

Temper:  Grit (55 percent), shell (40 percent), shell and grit mixed (5 percent), sometimes an extremely abundant shell, which has been sorted as Bibb Plain Variant because of its extreme friability.  Grit temper is medium to coarse; sand, crushed limestone, or crushed quartz; moderate to abundant. Shell, often leached out, is coarse and abundant.

Texture:  Slightly gritty when grit tempered; clay, fine texture.

Hardness:  2.5 to 5

Color:  Variable; core, black to dark brown, rarely buff.  Surfaces red-brown to chocolate, rarely buff.  Exterior often mottled or smudged.

Surface Finish:  Smooth, rarely polished, sometimes eroded and showing gritty core.  An all-over red filming occurs.  Cordmarking occurs in less than one percent of the sherds and a variant with an Etowah stamp motif is now known.

Decoration:  Modeled nodes, simple or bifurcated, on shoulders between handles.  Single or multiple nodes, grooves, or rarely crude effigies on handles.

Form:  Bodies are globular, slight shoulder; with surged rim, Shoulder is sharply angled (carinated).  "Melon" or lobed pots are known rarely as are stright-necked bottles and seed-bowl forms.  Size varies from 3 to 30 cm. diameter, 8 to 25 cm. high.  Rim slightly flaring, flaring, straight, surged; generally short.  Surged rim is actually a shoulder area, true rim being absent.  Lips are generally rounded, or flattened; rarely squared, narrowed, slightly extruded, or with an interior bevel.  Bases generally rounded, simple, flattened in large bottles.

Thickness:  Lip, 3 to 6 mm.; body, 4 to 9 mm.

Appendages:  Loop handles, welded to lip, riveted to shoulder, cross section average 17 x 14 mm.  Often with raised boss, nodes (single or bifurcated), or projection above lip, single or multiple node on sides of handles, or longitudinal grooves. Two handles per pot.

Chronological Position:  Dr. Charles Fairbanks, who worked extensively with Macon Plateau collections, believed that the type was comparable to but slightly earlier than a number of other early Mississippian plain types, many of which include multiple strap handles and other elaborations.

Probable Relationships:  This is the predominant Macon Plateautype (near 90 percent of all collections during its period). It is closely related to types at Hiwassee Island and Norris Basin Small-log Townhouse sites in Tennessee, Rood Phase sites in the Chattahoochee River area, and, perhaps, the early levels at Cahokia, though at these sites the type seems to exist side-by-side with more elaborate, decorated forms.    

Halstead Plain: 

Method of Manufacture:  Coiled, coil fractures rarely present.

Temper:  Shell, fine, scarce, often lacking.

Texture:  Fine.

Hardness:  2.5 to 4.

Color:  Variable; core generally gray, buff; surface tan to brown with black mottling, some gray, rarely black.

Surface Finish:  Very smooth, usually polished, some crackling. Some red or red and white filming.

Decoration:  Applique modeling, narrow incised lines, paint. Effigies with incised hair, applique ears, hair, etc., paint on face and body of effigy.  Perhaps rare all-over red.

Form:  Usually bottles. Seed, open bowls and effigy form rare. Flattened, globular, somewhat too markedly flattened.  Rim straight, short, on simple bottles, rarely flaring or slightly flaring.  Neck on effigy bottles tapers from body.  Lip narrowed and rounded, or rounded.  Simple, rounded base. Blank faced effigy bottles with raised semicircular ridges on each side of mouth or stylized human head with ears pierced for ear pins.  More realistic human effigy bottle with neck and incised hair unpainted; red body with clavicles and nipples clearly shown; white round face with slits for eyes, small nose and pierced ears; hair combed straight back (found at depth of 1.3 feet in village area south of Funeral Mound).

Thickness:  Lip, 2 to 4 mm.; body and rim 3 to 6 mm.; base 6 mm.

Appendages:  Modeled applique on effigy bottles to form ears, hair crest, etc., rare strap handles (2 per vessel).

Chronological Position:  Macon Plateau

Probable Relationships:  Seems to be a fairly straightforward Mississippian smooth or polished plain type, usually found on blank-faced effigy bottles.  Details differ from comparable types.  It is evidently not a utility ware.

Method of Manufacture:  Some coil fracture, some vessels modeled.

Temper:  Grit, medium to fine, scarce to moderate.  Some coarse clay fragments.

Texture:  Even to fine.

Hardness:  Generally 2, but occasional specimen up to 4.

Color:  Core, red to buff, sometimes mottled; surface buff, red, brown; little difference between core and surface, except surface sometimes weathered.

Surface Finish:  Fairly even, matte, some temper may appear on surface.

Decoration:  Broad, deep incising, lines triangular in section. Horizontal, diagonal and combinations of vertical and diagonal incised lines, all simple, widely spaced.  Cord marked with vertical impressions.  Stamped, usually concentric circle design.  Punctations combined with incising and cord marking. Decorations on sides of vessel and, rarely, on lip surface.

Form:  Extremely thick-walled cylindrical jars with small constricted orifices, straight or (rarely) slightly curved walls, height about twice diameter; lip frequently surged at right angle, frequently rounded, some flattened, or expanded and flattened.  Bases flat, rarely rounded, possibly flared. Funnel shapes; "flower pots," objects shaped like well-molded, giant oval "beads" or swimming "buoys" with a straight hole from one end to the other." One fragmentary ladle seems to belong to this type.  Also, a group of sherds consisting of clay balls with a small vertical hole that are difficult to differentiate from crude versions of Macon Thick.  

Thickness:  Lip, 6 to 20 mm.; body, 13 to 20 mm.

Chronological Position:  Macon Plateau.

Probable Relationships:  The type seems to be unique to Macon Plateau sites.  Fairbanks could find no close similarities at other sites, though there seems to be a resemblance in some of its forms to the type Wycliffe Form from a few Mississippian sites in western Kentucky.  It differs radically from other Macon Plateau types yet is part of the complex.  Some sherds seem to approach in form and material the baked clay objects with a central hole that have been called pottery standards or torch holders.  Macon Thick is a pottery type, however, and not a pottery object.  

Method of Manufacture:  Coil fractures very rare.  Probably made in a fabric- or leaf-lined pit.

Temper:  Generally shell, abundant, coarse; rarely grit, coarse, abundant.

Texture:  Laminated, not greatly contorted.

Hardness:  2 to 4; average 2 to 2.5.

Color:  Core red, chocolate, rarely tan or black, usually only slightly darker than the red, chocolate, gray or brown surface; some smudging.

Surface Finish:  Impressed with plain twined open-work fabric over the entire surface up to lip.  Rarely twilled twined fabric, banded.  Some leaf impressions. Interior smoothed.

Form:  Large, open circular basin; slightly flaring to flaring sides.  Rim straight, slightly tilted outward from base. Lip plain (57 percent), thickened, more commonly rounded than flat, rarely longitudinal groove.  Flattened base.

Thickness:  Wall, 8 to 13 mm.; lip 8 to 21 mm.

Chronological Position:  Macon Plateau

Probable Relationships:  This is the typical Mississippian "salt pan."  It is found in quantity at many Mississippian sites, early as well as late.  It is probably not a salt plan, but the family eating bowl and baking pan.  

McDougal Plain: 

Method of Manufacture:  Coil fractures rarely occur but these pans were probably made in a basin-shaped pit like Hawkins Fabric Marked.

Temper:  Generally shell, coarse, abundant; some coarse sand and grit; rarely mixed shell and grit.

Texture:  Generally laminated, rarely contorted.

Hardness:  2 to 2.5 average, range 2 to 4.

Color:  Core red, chocolate, rarely tan or black, usually a little darker than the red or chocolate surface.  Rarely smudged.

Surface Finish:  Poorly smoothed, generally area below the lip for about 10 cm. is smoother than basal portion.

Form:  Larage circular basin with slightly sloped sides, 60 cm. diameter, 12 cm. deep.  Rim straight, rarely thickened below lip, either rounded or flattened area below lip.  Slightly tilted outward from base.  Lip flat, less commonly rounded, rarely ridged or longitudinally grooved.  Base flat, rarely rounded.

Thickness:  Body, 8 to 13 mm; lip 8 to 20 mm.

Chronological Position:  Macon Plateau.  May be slightly later than Hawkins Fabric Marked.

Probable Relationships:  This is apparently a common variant of the typical Mississippian "salt pan" form.  It occured at the Norris Basin at both Small-log and Large-log sites, but seems to be more characteristic of the latter.  At Kincaid, at late site, plain pans increased in frequency in the later levels.  On the basis of Macon Plateau evidence, it does not seem to be exclusively a late type.

Method of Manufacture:  Coil fracture present.

Temper:  Usually grit, some shell, and grit and shell mixed, rarely extremely abundant shell (like Bibb Plain Variant)

Texture:  Slightly gritty when grit tempered, some diagonal laminations, generally somewhat finer than Bibb Plain.

Hardness:  2 to 2.5 average; some as hard as 4.

Color:  Core black to dark brown, rarely buff.  Surfaces red- brown to chocolate, sometimes buff.  Occasional smudging.

Surface Finish:  Smooth, rarely polished, usually eroded.

Decoration:  Modeled heads, owl and human with round topknot facing inward on bowl rim.  Effigies crudely done; eyes, mouth, nose only slits. Heads only.

Form:  Hemispherical shallow bowls, about 30 cm. diameter, 6 cm. high.  Rim straight or very slightly curved.  Lip generally rounded, narrowed and rounded, rarely squared.

Appendages:  Effigies adornos.

Chronological Position:  Macon Plateau

Probable Relationships:  This is the type of Early Mississippian effigy bowl found at other early sites.  It differs from later Mississippian effigy bowls in that fish are never present, heads are much simpler, effigies face inward, there are no tails, effigies are much cruder in execution.  Monks Mound Red at Cahokia and Davis Incised in Arkansas are somewhat comparable and Hiwassee Island Red Filmed is similar, except it has a thickened folded rim.  To the south, it sometimes occurs in Weeden Island Incised.  

Other ceramics include small co-joined vessels; bulky "elbow pipes, some with projections at base of bowl;  mushroom-shaped trowels; disks cut from Bibb Plain sherds; and modeled animal or bird figurines. 

Red, white and black filming or painting on Macon Plateau vessels may be more common than once thought.  National Park Service, Harper's Ferry Center, Conservator Greg Byrne (personal communication) noticed tiny colored flecks on Macon Plateau sherds examined under a magnifying glass.  He suggests that in many instances paint was washed off by over-enthusiastic cleaning during the 1930's; therefore, ceramics should be closely examined for paint remnants during any future analysis of the collection.

Most of the forms encompassed by Bibb, Halstead and Brown's Mount Plain were found at several other possibly early Mississippian sites in the Deep South.  Archeological reports for these locations seem to indicate that the plain types were accompanied by substantial amounts of incising, punctating, engraving, cordmarking or stamping, usually correlated with the kind of decoration applied by Woodland people indigeneous to the site's area.  At these sites, however, design motifs and other elaborations applied to the vessel forms were of kinds widespread and common after A.D. 1100 during Mature Mississippian times.  

Though the Macon Plateau culture seems to be exceptionally "pure" Early Mississippian, "There is some data which seems to indicate that the previous ceramic traditions did manage to survive the shift on the plateau from Late Woodland to Macon Plateau Period but little work has been done in areas marginal to the Macon Plateau which would confirm the indications."  (Nelson, Prokopetz and Swindell, Analysis of Mound D and Macon Earthlodge (1Bi3 Materials at the Southeast Archeological Center)

Macon Plateau's artifact assemblage included unengraved bone pins; many thousands of disk, barrel-shaped, and elongate/flattended beads manufactured from conch shells, beads produced by grinding the apex from Olivella and Marginella shells, marine shell ear spools, shell ear pins, and undecorated circular shell gorgets; copper ornaments, including a pair of repousse "sun disks" and copper-covered, cut puma jaws thought to be part of a headdress (one pair from a burial in the Funeral Mound; a second pair found in a pit near the Cornfield Mound); small and large stone discoidals (probably indicating the introduction of the chunkey game to Central Georgia), large greenstone and gray slate celts with narrowed poll, a well-made stone phallus incised with a cross, a finely polished greenstone bilobed spud, and large blades (sometimes in caches) that may be pre-forms or blanks.

These artifacts point to trade with the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts and to the North.  It has been theorized that the copper may have been obtained from the Great Lakes Region, however, there are also sources of copper in the Appalachian Region. 

It is notable that only a few of the small, triangular projectile points, typically associated with Mississippian culture and abundant at many sites, have been found on the Plateau and Brown's Mount.  Perhaps other point types, such as the many stemmed or notched specimen found at the site, were used or points were made of some organic material, such as bone, which has not survived.  The lack of typical Mississippian triangular points might also indicate that projectile point-related activities (warefare, hunting) were not conducted at the site.    

The forked or weeping-eye design molded into the reconstructed council chamber's platform, represents the earliest known example of the symbolism associated with the Southern Cult, which reached its peak in the Mature Mississippian Period after A.D. 1200.  This symbol, along with conch shell cups, plain shell gorgets, copper disks, bilobed spud, and chunkey stones at Macon seem to represent a formative stage of the "Cult."  In his papers, Antonio Waring twice mentions the occurrence of the hand-eye design at Macon Plateau.  No other references to artifacts bearing such a motif can be located.

DECLINE: 

By AD 1150 to1200, the town on the Macon Plateau was no longer a thriving center of Mississippian culture.  After this time, Mississippian culture flourished at places like Etowah in Northern Georgia, Moundville in Alabama, and Spiro, Oklahoma.  By AD 1350, a late Mississippian town which archaeologists call "Lamar" (after an early landowner) was thriving about  2-1/2 miles down the Ocmulgee River from the Macon Plateau,  Two earthen mounds were built at the site, one encircled by a unique spiral ramp, the only one of its kind still known to exist in this country.  A widespread late Mississippian Southeastern culture was named for this site which is also protected as a separate unit of the Ocmulgee National Monument..

                                                                                                                                        Text by Sylvia Flowers

Macon Plateau's Georgia Contemporaries

Related Cultures Elsewhere

Later Mississippian Developments

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