372 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



Georgia. Both mounds were unrecorded previous to the survey made 

 in that area. One of them gave evidence of having been erected over 

 a small natural knoll. On its summit were the outlines of a small 

 square house in which there had been a bench or throne at one end. 

 The mound appears to represent a rather late and previously unknown 

 complex which is pre-Lamar in age. The Lamar culture is considered 

 to belong to the Temple Mound II period which is dated at approx- 

 imately A. D, 1450 to 1700. Lamar is correlated with the Creek-Chero- 

 kee peoples and it may well be that the group building that particular 

 mound were proto-Creeks. 



The other mound in the Buford Reservoir may possibly be one of 

 the oldest artificial structures thus far discovered in Georgia. Con- 

 trary to other known mounds, it apparently was not intended for 

 burial purposes and was not accretional ; that is, it was not produced 

 by the gradual accumulation of debris over a large, continuously 

 inhabited area. Furthermore, it does not seem to have been intended 

 as a place for domiciliary structures or for a temple platform. All 

 the evidence thus far tends to show that the mound probably belongs 

 in the Forsyth Period which in the general category of southeastern 

 cultures is known as Burial Mound I. The latter period is postulated 

 as having occurred from A. D. 700 to 900. As far as the present 

 mound is concerned, one explanation is that it may have been erected 

 for ceremonial purposes even though there was no structure on its 

 summit or the structure was so flimsy that no traces of it remained. 

 A simple earthen platform without any form of temple on its summit 

 would be the logical beginning for the developement of that particular 

 complex. 



SMALL BURIAL MOUNDS 



Some work was done in small burial mounds. Two of the latter 

 were dug at the Wheeler Bridge mound site in the Fort Eandall 

 Eeservoir area. In one of them there were 12 bundle burials, while 

 the other contained two or possibly three of the same type. Inas- 

 much as there were no funerary offerings accompanying any of the 

 burials and other material in the mounds was scarce, there was noth- 

 ing to indicate possible cultural relationships for the remains. Mounds 

 of such type are exceedingly rare along the Missouri River itself but 

 occur in increasing numbers farther east, particularly in the James 

 and other lesser stream valleys. The Wheeler Bridge mounds had 

 been greatly reduced in size as the result of long cultivation. They 

 were approximately 40 to 50 feet in diameter with circular outline 

 and rose to a height of about 4 feet. Below each was a rectanguloidal 

 pit, which had been dug into the underlying surface and the disarticu- 

 lated bones of several individuals were found in them. The larger 

 mound had the suggestion of a prepared clay floor, and the pit con- 



