About a mile and a half north of the Fontenoy Mills,
in Greene County, Georgia, and located on the left bank of the Oconee
River, are three tumuli surrounded by traces of extensive and
long-continued inhumations. The largest (A) is situated rather more than
100 yards east of the river, and rises about 40 feet above the level of
the valley. In general outline it may be described as a truncated cone.
Its apex diameters, measured north and south, and east and west, were
respectively, 65 and 68 feet. At the base, however, the flanks are
extended in the direction of the east and west to such a degree that
there is a difference of 35 feet between the base-diameters running
north and south, and east and west; the former being 133 feet and the
latter 168 feet. At the center of the top may be seen a circular
depression, some 20 feet wide and 2 feet deep.
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Ancient tumuli on the Oconee River |
Toward the north the face of this tumulus is quite
precipitous. When first observed by the European, this monument was
covered with a growth of trees as dense and apparently as old as that of
the circumjacent lowlands. When the neighboring fields were cleared,
this mound was also denuded of its vegetation and cultivated, its rich
surface yielding generous harvests both of corn and cotton. Although now
overgrown with brambles and small trees, which materially retarded
minute inspection, it appeared quite probable from the scars on the
surface of the valley in the immediate vicinity, that some severe
freshet years ago impinged upon the northern base of this mound and
carried away a considerable portion of its northern flank.
Rather more than 100 yards to the north of this
tumulus, and trending to the northwest, is an irregularly shaped
excavation (B), at present from 10 to 15 feet deep and partially filled
with water, from which the earth used in the construction of these
tumuli was obtained.
As yet no attempt has been made to open the large
mound, but against its eastern face the overflowing waters of the Oconee
at one time dashed, wearing it away for some distance and leaving there
a perpendicular front of 10 feet or more. Here were disclosed human
bones, the skeletons of dogs, and large beads made of the columns of the
Strombus gigas. If this partial revelation be accepted as indicative of
the general contents of the tumulus, it should be classed as a huge
grave-mound. We decline, however, adopting this conclusion without
further information. It may be that the remains and relics then
unearthed belonged to later and secondary interments. Instances of this
sort, as we well know, are of frequent occurrence.
Two hundred yards to the south is an elliptical
grave-mound (0), not more than 4 feet high, but covering a considerable
area. This structure, in the direction of its major axis, is about 150
feet long. Its minor axis is two-thirds less. The surface and
neighborhood abound with human bones, shreds of pottery, fragments of
pipes, shell-beads, muscleshells, and various other relics. Across a
shallow lagoon, and 250 yards southeast of the large tumulus, is a third
mound (D), well preserved, 10 feet high, and quite level at the top. In
every direction, except where it looks toward the north, its sides slope
gently. Having been constantly cultivated for many years, this structure
has encountered no inconsiderable waste. At the base its north and south
diameter was 100 feet. Measured at right angles, the other diameter was
88 feet. Similar measurements across the top indicated 50 feet and 40
feet. To the east, west, and south, are traces of spurs or graded ways
for easy ascent.
This mound occupies a central and commanding position
in the middle of a fertile alluvial field of fifty acres. Although its
contents are unknown, we conceived the impression that it was designed
as an elevation for a chieftain's lodge, since the Spanish historians
mention the existence of artificial tumuli erected for this purpose.
Around the base, and for a considerable distance on every hand, are
traces of primitive occupancy, all persuading us of the fact that, in
former times, this tumulus was surrounded by the dwellings f people who
had here fixed their home.
The space adjacent to the large tumulus (A), to the
extent of some four acres, appears to have been largely, if not
exclusively, dedicated to the purposes of sepulture. Every freshet which
sweeps over this area uncovers human skeletons, disposed in every
direction only a few feet below the surface. So thoroughly and
frequently has this territory been torn by freshets that it has lost its
original level, and now exhibits on every hand heaps of broken pottery,
quantities of human bones, and fragments of various articles of use,
sport, and ornament. The freshet of 1840 was the first, so far as we can
learn, which in a marked manner invaded the precincts of this ancient
burial ground. Upon the subsidence of the waters many were attracted to
the spot by the multitude of terra-cotta vessels, human bones,
shell-beads, pipes, discoidal stones, grooved axes, celts, and other
objects of primitive manufacture. One gentleman collected nearly a quart
of pearls which had been perforated and worn as beads. The plantation
Negroes supplied themselves with clay pipes then unearthed. In the
possession of not a few of them were seen strong clay vessels, thence
obtained, which they used for boiling soap. Large calumets and other
objects of special interest were secured by the curious and carried to
their homes, where, for a season, they formed matter for speculation and
idle talk, and in the end were either lost or broken. Subsequent
inundations have brought to light similar proofs of sepulture and early
manufacture, but this treasure-house has been so often visited and so
carefully searched that its present yield falls far short of that which
was encountered when the Harrison freshet invaded this place of the
dead.
It is a sad fact that the denudation of the banks of
these southern streams and the destruction of extensive forests in
reducing wild lands to a state of cultivation have proved the proximate
causes of serious injury to, and often of the total demolition of, many
prominent and interesting aboriginal structures.
On the right bank of the Oconee River, about a mile
and a half above its confluence with the Appalachee River, situated in
the low grounds of the plantation of Mr. Thomas P. Saffold, is a
circular earth mound some 20 feet high, covering about the eighth of an
acre. The sides are sloping, as in the case of other conical mounds
along the line of this river, but the peculiarity which distinguishes it
from its companions is that around the apex stout earth walls were
raised to the height of several feet, thus causing a depressed or
guarded top.
Near the banks of the Appalachee River, in Morgan
County, may still be seen occasional artificial pits, some 4 feet in
depth and 6 feet or more in diameter. Upon removing the debris of leaves
and earth with which they are filled, their bottoms and sides indicate
the influence of long continued and intense fires. Fragments of pottery
also occur in them. It would seem that they constituted a sort of rude
oven in which the Indians baked their clay vessels.
We might multiply instances of tumuli still extant in
the valleys of the Oconee and its tributaries, but having already
described and figured those in East Macon and its vicinity,1
enough has probably been said to convey an intelligent idea of the
aboriginal monuments of this section.
Footnote:
1. Antiquities of the Southern Indians, &c., p. 158 et
seq., New York, 1873.
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Source: Aboriginal Structures In Georgia, By Charles
C. Jones, Jr., Reprinted From The Smithsonian Report For 1877,
Washington: Government Printing Office,1878.
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