370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



oldest of the sequences, which tentatively has been designated Pre- 

 pottery, preceded the Stallings. The Prepottery stage may represent 

 several periods and cover a long duration of time. Throughout that 

 stage the people made no pottery, did not have pipes, practiced no 

 agriculture, and possibly had no houses. At least no evidence was 

 found to indicate any type of structure. The economy probably was 

 basically hunting and gathering and the main weapon may have been 

 a javelin hurled with a spear thrower (Caldwell, 1948). 



The University of Georgia dug one site in the Allatoona area and 

 uncovered the remains of a square earth-covered structure. Rich 

 midden deposits were found on the floor of the structure and in the 

 surrounding area outside. Three levels were recognized in the refuse 

 accumulations. They represented successive groups attributable to 

 the Lamar, Savannah, and Etowah periods. Considerable informa- 

 tion was obtained pertaining to the various pottery types for the 

 different stages and the data make the ceramic picture for the area 

 much clearer. Originally the site was thought to be one containing 

 a mound. The excavations, however, showed that to be an erroneous 

 idea as the feature that had been so identified turned out to be the 

 remains of the large earth lodge with its associated midden deposits. 

 The extensive and well-known Etowah Mounds lie some distance 

 below the Allatoona Dam and were not involved in any of the work 

 connected with the construction of the reservoir (Sears, 1950). 



MOUND EXCAVATIONS 



The excavation of large artificial mounds has not been attempted 

 to any extent thus far. Projects of that nature require such large 

 crews of workmen and so extensive a program of operations that it has 

 not been possible to undertake that type of investigation with the 

 funds available. Some digging has been done in mounds, however. 

 At the Fort Gibson Reservoir on the Grand (Neosho) River near 

 Waggoner, Okla., two mounds out of a group of six remained at the 

 Norman site. Four of the mounds had been investigated by the 

 University of Oklahoma several years prior to the starting of the 

 River Basin Surveys. One of the two remaining mounds was the 

 largest at the site and was connected to an adjacent low mound by a 

 ramp. Small test excavations had been made in the low mound, but 

 the large one was virtually intact. It represented a stage in cultural 

 florescence in the southern United States about which very little is 

 known, and it was thought that it might be comparable to the famous 

 Spiro mounds located in an adjacent county, which were destroyed 

 by treasure hunters about 20 years ago. For that reason thorough 

 excavation of the remaining mounds and the surrounding village area 

 had been recommended by the survey party that examined the site. 



