The Macon Telegraph November 5, 2003

Sites of Ancient Culture in Macon Ga., Could Be Destroyed in Firm’s Expansion

By S. Heather Duncan

Nine previously unknown ancient archaeological sites, including a complex of 17 mounds, plus villages and workshops, have been found on land owned by Cherokee Brick and Tile Co.

Three of the sites, including the oldest, would be destroyed if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approves Cherokee Brick and Tile Co.’s application to expand its clay mines.

Archaeologists and historians say some of the sites could expand our understanding of ancient cultures and the importance of the Ocmulgee River Valley settlement. They are located on property in the floodplain south of Macon’s Seventh Street industrial district.

Family-owned company Cherokee Brick has owned the land for about a century.

The archaeological discoveries were made in 1999 and 2000 as part of a study the company had to do for its mining permit application. The study has not been released to the public.

Seven of the sites were deemed eligible or potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Of those, four, including the mound complex, would be preserved in place, according to the Cherokee proposal. The remaining three, where pottery and toolmaking shards were found, would be mined for clay deposits after artifacts are removed.

The Corps of Engineers could decide the destruction of historic sites is unacceptable and refuse to grant the permit.

But Cherokee Brick owners have said the company will go out of business unless it is allowed to expand its mining operation, and the Corps has determined that there will be “no adverse affect” if the three sites are excavated before being destroyed.

The Corps is awaiting comments from some tribal groups and is working on the portion of the permit dealing with wetlands destruction. Officials hope to decide this year whether to grant the permit.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and smaller Muscogee tribes must be consulted because most of the mining would occur within the area they see as the cradle of their nation. For legal purposes, the federal government recognizes areas on both sides of the Ocmulgee River as the Traditional Cultural Property of the Muscogee.

Little archaeological study has been conducted in the Macon area since the 1930s. Another small mound complex was identified near Warner Robins, but many other sites were destroyed by Macon development and the building of Interstate 16.

The effort to select a route for the Fall Line Freeway through Macon has brought more attention to the underground treasures of an area scientists say has been settled as long as people have lived in North America.

Mounds and villages The Cherokee Brick site is gated to prevent looting, and employees of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources patrol the site, sometimes using photo surveillance, said Paul Petitgout, vice president of Environmental Services and project manager for the Cherokee permit application.

The oldest of the archaeological sites, called Four Oaks, dates back about 8,000 years, said Sylvia Flowers, an expert on the historic cultures of the Ocmulgee River Valley and former park ranger at the Ocmulgee National Monument.

“The presence of intact strata (from that time period) indicates that additional significant cultural remains may be present,” states the Environmental Services archaeology report. “Such deposits would be some of the oldest excavated within the Ocmulgee River Valley.”

It is one of the three sites slated for destruction.

Chad Braley, vice president of Southeastern Archaeological Services Inc. in Athens, said although the age of the Four Oaks artifacts is not unusual for Georgia, artifacts covered by floodplain sediment are likely to be better preserved than the many upland sites ravaged by farming and erosion.

Dave Crass, Georgia’s state archaeologist, visited Four Oaks. “I have never seen deposits that rich from that time period in that part of Georgia,” he said.

But David Crampton, archaeologist for the Corps’ regulatory branch, said the site is “not of exceptional value. ... It doesn’t make the top 10 of Early Archaic sites in Georgia.”

Likely the most unusual find on Cherokee Brick’s land is the 17-mound Adele site, which contains one ceremonial mound and many “house mounds,” platforms where people lived. The small mounds -- many less than a foot high and partly buried beneath years of floodplain sediment -- were built between 1300 and 1650 during the Lamar era, the same as their much larger counterpart at the Ocmulgee National Monument.

The report states that the cultural remains at the Adele site “are some of the best preserved Lamar components within the Ocmulgee River Valley.” Artifacts found there include pottery decorated with two patterns never before seen together, and a pipe from east Tennessee.

“That site could really help us interpret Lamar culture,” said Jim David, supervisor of the Ocmulgee National Monument. “To me, 17 mounds would be very significant.”

Braley has excavated sites in the Macon area and says the house mounds may deepen understanding of Lamar daily life, food sources, and how villages interacted with the “city” site that once existed at the national monument just across the river.

“The big site was probably the capital, and this little site was one of the villages nearby,” Braley said. “It would be a fairly significant site.”

Braley said there may only be about three house-mound sites in Georgia, and very few in the Southeast, because they were mostly built in floodplains.

The report states that one larger mound may be a “mortuary mound.”

Although no burials were identified in the archaeological report, Flowers said that during the Lamar period, the dead were buried beneath homes.

Most American Indian tribes feel strongly that burials should not be disturbed, and federal law requires that they be consulted before bodies are moved.

“It really concerns me,” said Nealie McCormick, a member of the Lower Muscogee Creek tribe who lives in Pelham and chairs the Georgia Council of Indian Concerns. The council, which is appointed by the governor, protects American Indian burial sites.

“If there was habitation, there almost certainly were burials,” McCormick said. “(The Corps) should have brought this to the council.”