14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



Georgia. — Field work in Georgia was carried on from a base of 

 operations furnished by the University of Georgia at Athens. The 

 main investigations during the year were of a survey nature. From 

 November 14 to April 6 a reconnaissance was made of the area that 

 will be inundated by the proposed Buford Reservoir on the Chatta- 

 hoochee River. From April 23 to 28 a brief reconnaissance was made 

 in the Clark Hill Reservoir, on the Savannah River, for the purpose 

 of locating the remains of Fort Charlotte. 



The Buford Reservoir basin occupies a large intermediate section 

 of north-Georgia terrain lying between the Allatoona Reservoir area 

 on the Etowah River and the north-Oconee drainage. The region is 

 one that is virtually unknown archeologically, and it should contain 

 significant data as far as a proper understanding of cultural develop- 

 ments in that part of Georgia is concerned. The preliminary survey 

 located 46 sites in the area to be flooded. Included in the group are 

 29 that appear to represent a rather early prepottery period. There 

 is some evidence that this group of sites may be somewhat older than 

 the Stallings Island Prepottery Culture. A larger proportion of 

 sites belong to the Woodstock period than was found to be the case 

 during the investigations at the Allatoona Reservoir. The larger 

 number of early sites indicates either that there was a sizable popula- 

 tion in the district or that it was occupied over a long span of time. 

 Extensive investigation of a number of the sites should give an answer 

 in that respect. Two large previously unrecorded mounds were also 

 noted, and some test digging was done in them. One gave evidence 

 of having been erected over a small natural knoll, and the outlines of 

 a small square house with a bench, bed, or throne at one end were 

 found on its summit. The mound appears to represent a rather late 

 and previously unknown complex which probably is pre-Lamar in 

 age. The other mound apparently is one of the oldest artificial struc- 

 tures thus far found in Georgia. It differs from previously recognized 

 types of eastern mounds in that it was not accretional and probably 

 was not intended for burial purposes. Neither does it seem to have 

 been a temple platform or domiciliary mound. Evidence obtained 

 during the course of testing it and adjacent areas suggests that it 

 probably belongs in the Forsyth Period, which falls into the general 

 category known as the Burial Mound I Period. In many ways the 

 mound suggests similarities to the well-known Swift Creek Mound. 

 One postulation as to its function is that it may have been erected for 

 ceremonial purposes even though there are no traces of a structure on 

 its summit. A simple earthen platform without a structure would be 

 the logical beginning in the development of the eastern temple-mound 

 complex. 



In addition to the pre-Columbian sites, the survey found a number 

 attributable to the historic Cherokee. The latter are located for the 



