Lamar mounds and village site
South Appalachian Mississippian culture | |
Site notes | |
---|---|
Excavation dates | 1934, 1936, 1938, 1939-1940, 1996 |
Archaeologists | James A. Ford, Arthur R. Kelly, Gordon Willey, Jesse D. Jennings, Charles Fairbanks, Mark Williams WPA, Lamar Institute |
Architecture | |
Architectural styles | platform mound |
Architectural details | Number of temples: 2 |
Ocmulgee National Monument | |
Location | 1207 Emory Hwy., E of Macon, Macon, Georgia |
Area | 702.1 acres (284.1 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 66000099[1] |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
The Lamar mounds and village site (9BI2) is an important archaeological site on the banks of the Ocmulgee River in Bibb County, Georgia (U.S. state), several miles to the southeast of the Ocmulgee mound site. Both mound sites are part of the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, a national park and historic district created in 1936 and run by the U.S. National Park Service.[2] Historians and archaeologists have theorized that the site is the location of the main village of the Ichisi encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539.[3]
Site description
The site has two large platform mounds and an associated village area surrounded by a palisade. The original settlement may have been started on a natural levee of the Ocmulgee River; this is where Mound A was developed. The main village area spreads out to the southeast from this location.[2] This location may have been island-like at the time of its settlement, the only high ground located in a low swampy area, with the Ocmulgee River on one side and an oxbow lake on the other.[3][4]
Houses in the village were rectangular
Mound B, completely round in shape, has a feature almost unique in southeastern archaeology: a spiral ramp leading to its summit. This and other evidence has led archaeologists to speculate that the mound was in the process of being enlarged and given a new layer of fill when work was abruptly stopped. Unlike other Mississippian sites, no evidence of a large, flat
Lamar culture
The Lamar site was inhabited from about 1350 to 1600 CE, during the late prehistoric and early historic period of the area. The style of Mississippian culture pottery found at the site has been used to define this period in the regional chronology, making it the type site for the Lamar culture (also known variously as the Lamar phase and Lamar period).[2]
Excavations
In 1936 the site was acquired by the United States government and incorporated into the new
In 1996 archaeologist Mark Williams from the University of Georgia and the Lamar Institute did test excavations and site mapping. These were the first archaeological explorations at the site since 1940.[2]
Possible location of Ichisi
On March 29, 1539, the
Noted historian and de Soto researcher
But archaeological work in 2009 at a site in rural Telfair County, Georgia, near the present-day town of McRae, discovered evidence that calls this identification into question. Evidence from the Telfair site suggests that de Soto's crossing of the Ocmulgee River took place here, approximately 90 miles (140 km) further south than at Lamar Mounds. Archaeologists and historians are still debating which of the two sites was visited by de Soto and his men.[7]
Lamar name
The mounds are located on plantation land that was owned by
See also
- Coosa chiefdom
- Etowah Indian Mounds
- List of Mississippian sites
- List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
References
- ^ "National Register of Historic Places". Archived from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f Williams, Mark (1999). "Lamar Revisited : 1996 Test Excavations at the Lamar Site" (PDF). Lamar Institute, University of Georgia. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 12, 2010.
- ^ ISBN 9780820318882.
- ^ a b c Fairbanks, Charles H. (1941). "Palisaded town". The Regional Review. VI (5 and 6). National Park Service. Archived from the original on May 16, 2006. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- ^ "NPS Historical Handbook : Ocmulgee". National Park Service. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- Charles, Hudson; Chaves, Tesser Carmen (eds.). The Forgotten Centuries - Indians and Europeans in the American South 1521 to 1704. University of Georgia Press. pp. 184–185.
- ^ Bynum, Russ. "Researcher: Georgia artifacts may point to de Soto's trail". ABC News. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ^ Mark Williams and Gary Shapiro, Lamar Archaeology (1990), University of Alabama Press, paperback