After the mound village at Ocmulgee was abandoned we lose the thread of
Indian history in this area for about 250 years. When we pick it up
again in the _Reconquest_ period, it is at a new village some 3 miles
down the river. Much had happened in the meantime, though; and we are
able to piece together a good bit of the story.
In the first place, it is clear that the Master Farmers had been only a
small group which had settled in this one small section of Georgia; and
that the Early Farmers did not leave Georgia when they gave up their
settlements along the Ocmulgee. We cannot say for certain either that
they even quit the valley entirely. Their distinctive pottery seems to
have continued the course of development already outlined, but during
the interval a variety of new influences came in from other regions to
produce a number of striking changes. Noteworthy among these were the
“carinated” bowl form and incised and pinched or punctate decoration
around the shoulder or rim. In its extreme form the first of these may
be described as a shallow bowl with flaring sides which abruptly turn
inward to form a distinct shoulder and inward-sloping rim. The angle
thus produced may be as sharp as 90°, and the shoulder itself may vary
from abrupt to more or less gently rounded. It is this flattened rim
which normally bears the broad, deep incised-line decoration in the form
of scrolls alternating with nested flat-topped pyramids or with inverted
chevrons, all worked into a continuous pattern similar to the Greek
fret. Below the shoulder, the body of the bowl still carries the old
complicated stamping, but gradually the pattern becomes less distinct
and the paddle is applied several times to the same spot. It is even
impossible sometimes to make out any design whatever in the overall
roughening.
Another new element is to be found in a series of notches, bosses, or
circular impressions which are applied just below the lip on jars or
bowls with only complicated stamping, or at the point of the shoulder on
“bold incised” vessels. The lip of most vessel shapes, except the
carinated bowl, is thickened by folding or with an added strip of clay,
and it is the lower edge of this band which is often pinched or
otherwise worked to produce a notched or beaded effect. On the carinated
bowls there is commonly a line of circular impressions made with the end
of a piece of cane or other hollow tube situated on the point or bend of
the shoulder to separate the area of incised decoration from the body
stamping below. Circles of this sort are sometimes used in place of the
beading around the rim.
[Illustration: Pottery bowl showing carinated shoulder, bold incising,
complicated stamping, and reed punctates typical of Lamar Bold Incised.
Diameter, 16 inches.]
[Illustration: Lamar Complicated Stamped jar. Clearly defined stamping
more common in early Lamar period. Height, 9¼ inches.]
Whether the incised decoration and the carinated bowl form came from the
Florida or the Mississippi Valley area has not yet been settled. Temple
mounds, however, are a definite Mississippian trait; and the Lamar
village below Macon, which has given its name to the archeological
period we are discussing, is typical in possessing two mounds with an
adjacent open court. The larger mound is rectangular, while the smaller
is circular; but the latter is most unusual in its spiral ramp which
leads counterclockwise to the top in four complete traverses about the
mound. Mounds showing this feature have been reported by early
travelers, but this is the only one known to exist today.
[Illustration: Lamar mound with spiral ramp, after initial clearing.]
The village occupied a low natural ridge of higher ground in the swamp
close to the river. This position may have been chosen for its
inconspicuous and defensible nature, or to be close to good farmland;
but we do know that it was surrounded by a palisade of upright logs some
3,500 feet in length to protect it from enemy attacks. Within the
enclosed area, the rectangular houses were grouped about the mounds and
the nearby court. Their construction consisted of a framework of light
posts interlaced with cane which was plastered with clay and roofed with
sod or some sort of grass thatch. Some of them were raised on low dirt
platforms, evidently as a protection from the periodic overflow of the
river.
The life of these late prehistoric farmers was otherwise much the same
as that of their predecessors who had lived on the bluffs up the river.
To be sure, the region was now more thickly settled, and other villages
like theirs could be reached by a short journey in almost any direction.
Farming was doubtless the principal activity; and burned corncobs and
beans have been found, indicating two of the important crops. Hunting,
likewise, continued as a major pursuit; and the small, triangular
projectile points tell us that the bow was now the favorite weapon even
though large, stemmed dart or spear points were still made. Small, flat
celts of triangular outline were used. Shell was extensively worked for
ornament, mainly in the form of large beads, large, knobbed pins which
seem to have dangled from the ears, and circular gorgets bearing designs
of the Southern Cult, to be discussed presently.
[Illustration: Pipes in both plain and fancy styles were numerous.]
[Illustration: Gorgets were made of the outer shell, and large beads and
these knobbed “ear bobs” from the inner whorl of the marine whelk, or
conch. “Ear bobs” about 5 inches long.]
[Illustration: Some of the important beings of the Southern Cult as
depicted on shell or copper: Puma, Woodpecker, Deer Man, Rattlesnake.]
Finally, smoking appears to have become so habitual that it may have
been released from the religious implications which everywhere seem to
accompany the use of tobacco in aboriginal America. Pipes in an
astonishing variety of skillfully executed shapes, principally of clay
but also in stone, have been found scattered throughout the village
refuse. Human heads with great goggle eyes, bird and animal heads, boats
(?), and a stylized representation of a hafted celt are common.
DeSoto probably encountered some distant towns of these people when he
explored Georgia in 1540, and they were undoubtedly the ancestors of
various historic Creek Indian tribes of this State. We have suggested
that their culture was a mixture of very old elements in the region,
such as complicated stamping, with newer ideas coming in with the Master
Farmers or even later, such as temple mounds and incised decoration. We
know from work in other areas that the Early Farmer bearers of the Swift
Creek tradition had continued their existence uninterrupted save only in
the immediate vicinity of Macon. Therefore, despite the admixture of
many outside influences, we see in the reappearance here of one of their
major cultural elements, the old paddled pottery surfaces, proof that
the basic culture and presumably the people themselves were still the
same. In effect, an actual reoccupation of the area seems indicated; and
it is this fact that the museum exhibits recognize in the name
“Reconquest” given to the period we are discussing.
The culture represented at the Lamar site just described, which is the
type site for this archeological period, covered a very wide
geographical range and lasted in some locales into the historic period.
Typical Lamar pottery is found on numerous sites in regions as widely
separated as Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, and even parts of
Tennessee. We know that it was made by the historic Cherokee, which
accounts for the persistence of complicated stamping into historic times
mentioned earlier, and possibly also by some Siouan-speaking tribes in
the Carolinas, as well as by the early Creeks. While not all elements of
the culture were uniformly shared in all of these areas, there can be
little doubt that the material aspects of the lives of these different
groups were surprisingly much alike. This may appear the more remarkable
when one considers the difference in language and even the active
hostility of such historic tribes as the Creek and the Cherokee.
Nevertheless, one has only to consider the diversity of modern European
nations sharing a single culture which we know as “Western Civilization”
to realize that language, nationality, and culture are not mutually
interrelated on any one-to-one basis.
Mention has been made of the Southern Cult. Briefly, this is the name
given to the religious idea behind a group of frequently recurring
symbols, and the paraphernalia on which they are depicted, which have
been found all the way from Oklahoma and the Great Lakes to Florida and
the gulf coast. These unusual articles occur in association with the
platform mounds, and at some sites appear to be limited to the graves of
an important class of personages who had the unique privilege of burial
within the sacred structures atop the mounds.
The objects themselves appear to be symbols of office or religious
vessels or regalia of diverse sorts. They include engraved circular
gorgets of shell, engraved copper plaques, hafted ceremonial axes made
of copper or from a single piece of stone, as well as stone axheads
either so finely made or of such soft material that they could not have
been put to practical use. A ceremonial atlatl looks to us more like a
mace or sceptre; both this form and that of the hafted ax are reproduced
in beautifully chipped flint, and these are found in association with
long blades and reproductions of other elements of the cult in the same
material. Vessels include conch shell cups and pottery bottles of
various forms.
Of perhaps even greater importance than the physical apparatus just
described are the symbols pictured on some of these specimens, and
representations of these and other objects being worn or carried by
god-animal beings, mythological creatures, or their impersonators.
Important figures of the mythology or the religious pantheon include the
eagle, ivory-billed woodpecker, and turkey; various forms of the
rattlesnake, the cat or mountain lion; and the human chunkee player.
These are depicted most clearly on some of the engraved copper plaques
like that of the Eagle Man from the Etowah site, which is reproduced in
the Ocmulgee Museum in the colors most likely to have been used in the
original costume. They are also engraved on shell cups, masks, and
gorgets and on pottery vessels. Among the important symbols occurring
alone or as ornament on these figures are the cross, swastika, sun
circle, bi-lobed arrow, forked eye, hand and eye, and death head. The
figures are also shown brandishing the ceremonial atlatl, holding a long
flint knife, or throwing the chunkee stone; and some wear the bi-lobed
arrow as a hair ornament. The forked eye, sun circle, and other symbols
are shown painted on these figures or on their regalia.
[Illustration: Museum exhibit portraying eagle-costumed figure embossed
on copper plate from the Etowah site, north Georgia. Original about 20
inches high.]
[Illustration: Ceremonial ax from burial near Funeral Mound. Length, 19
inches.]
We are still uncertain as to the origin and significance of the Southern
Cult, although we know that it is associated with the platform or temple
mounds of the late Mississippian period, and that it very likely
represents the ritual which accompanied the use of these mounds. One
interesting suggestion has been made as to the motives behind its
development, relating these rather closely to the effects of the
introduction of corn agriculture. Populations naturally increased
rapidly with the improved food supply. Good land thus becoming
relatively scarce, tribes were no longer able to find suitable areas for
new settlements, as our Master Farmers had done, by the simple act of
moving to another region. At the same time the success of their crops
grew steadily more vital to the life of the tribe, and this, in turn,
led to a great elaboration in the worship of the special deities
connected with them, i. e., the Southern Cult. This theory seems logical
as far as it goes; but the forces which are seen at work are not of a
sort likely to reverse direction. Therefore other factors would have to
be introduced to account for the later decline of this religious
phenomenon.
Various explanations have been advanced to account for the actual origin
of the Southern Cult, where it first appears, and from what source or
sources its several elements were drawn to enrich the ceremonial life of
the temple mound builders. Suggestions of Middle American origins have
thus far failed to receive any but the vaguest support from the existing
evidence. Agreement appears to be general, on the other hand, that many
of the basic elements from which it could have been formed are contained
in Hopewell. The emphasis on large marine shells and on copper is shared
by both; and acquisition from Hopewell of the method for supplying these
scarce or remotely situated materials might well have encouraged an
interest in expanding and beautifying the ceremonial apparatus. The
artistic skills of the older culture, too, might possibly have passed
into the hands of a new school of artists who sought to express with
them the religious ideas or mythology of their own people. The
techniques of the two art styles are basically similar, and the Southern
Cult closely approaches both the technical proficiency and the facility
of expression which are so characteristic of Hopewell. The connection
appears to stop there, however; for aside from one or two isolated
designs occurring on Florida Hopewellian pottery, nothing has been found
from which the Southern Cult designs could reasonably be thought to have
developed.
The earliest expressions of the Southern Cult to appear in the Macon
area occur in the Master Farmer period. The eagle effigy platform of the
ceremonial earthlodge seems to portray the spotted eagle of the Southern
Cult and, in any case, a distinct representation of the forked eye,
probably the earliest use of this symbol on record. A ceremonial ax from
the vicinity of the Funeral Mound is also typical, while the more
Hopewellian traits such as undecorated shell cups and gorgets and cut
animal jaws (unique, however, in their copper-plating) may be thought to
argue for origins from this direction. It was during the interval while
Ocmulgee was abandoned that this religious idea must have reached its
fullest and most elaborate expression; and this period probably
corresponds to that of the occupation of the Etowah site in north
Georgia, where much of the spectacular material was found. By the time
the Lamar village was occupied, however, the vigor of this form of
religious expression seems to have been already on the wane. Engraved
shell gorgets occur, but only in the simpler designs; perhaps the hafted
ax form of pipe could be considered a Southern Cult object or at least
to show its influence. Possibly more complete excavation would reveal
additional and more distinctive paraphernalia.