CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS OF THE ALTAMAHA RIVER, 



By Clarence B. Moore. 



The Altamaha river, formed by the union of the Oconee and Ocmulgee, takes 

 a southeasterly course through part of the State of Georgia entering the ocean 

 through Altamaha sound. From the Forks, as the confluence of the two rivers is 

 called, to the town of Darien is 131 miles by water, 1 and from there to the sea is a 

 farther distance of 16 miles. 



The Altamaha river, like the Savannah, is narrow, crooked, shallow and muddy. 

 It runs between cypress swamps with here and there a bit of high ground. No 

 aboriginal shell-heaps are to be seen along the banks and no mussel-shells were 

 scattered over such fields as were examined by us. Such territory as borders the 

 river appears far from fruitful and it seems hardly likely that a considerable popu- 

 lation inhabited the banks of the river in former times. 



There has been no previous systematic exploration of the mounds of the 

 Altamaha. Colonel C. C. Jones 2 refers to " the lonely mounds along the Altamaha," 

 but makes no reference to exploration. Dr. J. F. Snyder describes an urn-burial 3 

 found at a point near the river. Beyond this we know of no investigation previous 

 to our own. 



In the spring of 1896 we went up the river as far as Lake Bluff, 50 miles by 

 water above Darien, and in addition spent several weeks around Darien where five 

 mounds were thoroughly examined. The result of our work at Darien has already 

 appeared in our memoir of the Georgia coast. In the spring of 1898 we spent 

 twenty-one days on the river carefully covering the territory as far as the Forks, 

 including in our work only mounds within three miles of the river on either side. 

 However, none of importance at even a greater distance was reported to us. 



As the reader will see, the mounds of the Altamaha are mainly insignificant 

 as to size and unimportant as to contents. Pits were rare and trans-marginal burials, 

 so frequent on the Georgia coast, were wanting. Interments, as a rule, occupied a 

 central position in the mounds which were unnecessarily great for their contents. 

 Cremation obtained as did the bunched burial and the' burial of skeletons in ana- 

 tomical order, or but slightly disarranged. Urn-burials were found in but two 

 localities. 



Larger mounds of clay in the swamp, used as places of abode or of refuge, 

 such as are found along the Savannah river, are wanting along the Altamaha. 



1 Chart of the Altamaha river. House of Representatives Ex. Doc. No. 283. We are indebted 

 to Frederick R. Howard, Esq., TJ. S. Engineer's Office, Savannah, Ga., for charts which have greatly 

 facilitated our investigations. 



2 Op. Cit. page 125. 



3 Smithsonian Report, 1890, page 609. et seq. 



