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Georgia
Below is an assortment of photographs (mostly scans from slides) of various archaeological field projects I've been involved with in my home state of Georgia. This page will be updated as new images are scanned from these and other projects.
Thompson Site / Raccoon Ridge / Flint River / Soapstone Ridge
Thompson Site Excavations, 1999-2001
As part of the public programming of the Coosawattee Foundation based in Calhoun, Georgia, I supervised excavations at the Thompson site along the Coosawattee River between 1999 and 2001. The site contains extensive evidence for Mississippi period occupation, including a substantial 16th-century village that has produced evidence for Spanish contact from the Luna and Soto expeditions. Many schoolchildren and volunteers worked at the site.
Initial testing and later block excavation were all carried out with the participation of middle-school classes from Gordon County; pictured are Jim Langford with several students. Even younger groups were able to tour and participate in sifting and other activities; pictured are several third grade students with their teacher and me. Each class was introduced to basic labwork, including artifact-washing and initial rough-sorting, as part of their field exercise; pictured are archaeology educator Dea Mozingo and a number of students and parents. More extensive excavations adjacent to the presumptive platform mound remnant revealed a constellation of postmolds from several identifiable prehistoric structures, as well as several previously-looted pit features; pictured are Adrienne Lerner and another volunteer. Raccoon Ridge Project, 1993-1998
The Raccoon Ridge site is a remarkable multicomponent achaeological site in the eastern Georgia Piedmont, which included substantial occupations during the Early Mississippi (Vining culture) and Late Mississippi (Lamar culture) periods. This site was the focus of new public archaeology programs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History during the 1990s, and literally hundreds of schoolchildren and adult volunteers participated in fieldwork at the site. The selection of images below is only a sampling.
A view of members of our first field school (and me) shovel-scraping a recently uncovered area. The Piedmont red clay was ever-present at the site, but made prehistoric postmolds and pits almost immediately evident. Darrell Woodall and students excavating a unit during one of the many week-long summer field school for middle school students. Students practiced replicating prehistoric pottery during each field school session; this was usually one of the most popular activities; pictured is field assistant Raj Gupta and several students. The thin upland plowzone was carefully scraped away with a small, flat-bladed backhoe after initial surface collection, commonly revealing underground features that related to one of the two major occupations. Dr. David Noble with students at the waterscreen. The clayey soils made dry-screening all but impossible in many cases. Darrell Woodall and Dea Mozingo, shovels in hand, both of whom dedicated many years of work to the Raccoon Ridge project (including Dea's 1998 Master's thesis). The final result of several years of excavation was the identification of two substantial (and nearly identical) late prehistoric round-houses along with the remains of several associated rectangular structures. Some two or three smaller, much earlier structures were also identified in the same area. Middle Flint River Survey, 1986-1988
My master's thesis fieldwork with the University of Georgia was conducted along the Flint River in the upper Coastal Plain of central Georgia, where I ultimately recorded 113 new archaeological sites along a considerable stretch of river. In addition to pedestrian survey of sites ranging from Paleo-Indian to historic American in age, I also excavated testpits in the two Mississippian platform mounds that served as chiefly centers for a chiefdom extending from the Fall Line southward into the wide floodplain expanse of the middle Flint River.
The Middle Flint River was a remote and undeveloped landscape, particularly within the floodplain, which extended as much as 4 miles wide in some places. Boat travel was the only way to reach many areas, and alligators sunning themselves were common sights along the many sandbars. The pristine waterways of the Flint River are dotted by standing remnants of Native American fish weirs, originally constructed during prehistoric times and probably maintained sporadically well into the early historic period. Difficulties in surveying the middle Flint River in the late 1980s are highlighted by Miona Ferry, which was closed not long after this photo was taken, when a road finally traversed the river at this point. Without a boat, daily survey was normally limited to one side of the river or the other. The search for a fabled "lost mound" in the deep swamp of the Flint River floodplain ultimately proved fruitless, and was hindered by vast swamps with cottonmouth moccasins in the wet areas and wild boars in the few dry areas. Pictured are Ricky Hill and Maxwell Duke. Excavating a first testpit in Hartley-Posey mound during the summer of 1986; pictured are me digging and Alan Maddux and Sonny Hartley at the sifter. Posthole pattern forming the wall of a circular structure identified in 1986 under Hartley-Posey mound, dating to ca. A.D. 1150-1200. View of my advisor Dr. David Hally shoveling in a testpit at Neisler Mound in the summer of 1987, along with Maxwell Duke and his singing dog Rose. Another shot of the crew during the 1987 test excavation at Neisler; pictured are Keith Stephenson, Jennifer Lozowski, Maxwell Duke, and others. Another view of Rose during 1988 topographic mapping of the 25-foot-tall Neisler Mound, which turned out to have a two-level summit that was invisible to the naked eye. My first archaeological fieldwork was as a high-school volunteer with the 1981 Georgia State University archaeological field school under Dr. Roy Dickens, conducted at the Fork Creek Mountain site in DeKalb County. The site was a Late Archaic steatite quarry, where stone bowls were quarried in-place with quartzite and diabase tools.
A shot of me taking notes in an excavation unit with GSU student Gary Petherick. View of "Dr. D." examining an interesting feature alongside a soapstone boulder; in addition to me, pictured are Amy Phillips, Gary Petherick, and several other students whose names I can't recall. A unit filled with soapstone rubble; pictured are Leslie Raymer (taking notes) along with Bobbi _____ and another student. An improvised location for the GSU fieldschool sign.
