Mandeville Site (9Cla1) First Season

Archaeological exploration at the Mandeville site (9Clal), in Clay County, Georgia, and this report of the results thereof prepared by archaeologists of the University of Georgia, are part of the InterAgency Archeological Salvage program between the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and the sponsoring local agency, the University of Georgia.

On the basis of preliminary survey of potential sites in the Columbia and Walter F. George river basins, in the lower to middle Chattahoochee river, with Columbus, Georgia marking the northern terminus, the field parties of the Smithsonian Institution had made preliminary appraisals of scientific worth and importance of sites to be inundated by the two respective dam constructions. A meeting of Inter-Agency representatives met and discussed the relative merits of the sites, and the salvage programs which each of the participants would undertake within the limits and time of the available appropriations.

The University of Georgia entered upon a contract with the National Park Service to carry out excavations on a large, presumptive domiciliary mound, Mound A, and selected portions of the 5O-acre village area, during 1959, at the Mandeville site, 9Clal. Work on this project began in the spring of 1959, under field supervision of Edward McMichael, and concentrated field operations were carried out in the summer of 1959 when A. R. Kelly and James H. Kellar joined the field group with students of the University of Georgia summer field session in archaeology.

The results of this projected work on Mound A and in the village area are reported by Edward McMichael and James H. Kellar, the responsible archaeologists in immediate charge of their respective units of excavation.

It was not considered possible or practicable to accomplish adequate exploration or coverage of such a large and complex site in a single season. The second mound, Mound B, was reserved for a future program, and is scheduled for salvage operations during the summer of 1960 under a new contract. 9Clal was perceived to be a multiple site, on the basis of study of surface collections and observed features, with historic (Contact) materials, a Mississippian and an early Woodland context indicated.

The Mandeville site was the name given by Clarence B. Moore at the turn of the nineteenth century. The village and the mounds were divided into conventional excavation units with Mound A given the name of the Standley mound, and Mound B that of Griffith mound, after the present owners of the property.

Preliminary reconnaissance had been made at Mound A by A. R. Kelly and students of the University of Georgia in 1950. Jarold A. Huscher, chief-of-party for the Smithsonian party, gave high priority to the site in his preliminary survey appraisal in 1958.

The archaeologists, who had studied and made preliminary appraisal of the Mandeville site all considered that the major mounds and presumptive village occupation belonged to some Mississippian component. Before the summer season had gone beyond the half-way point the realization grew that these later chronological intervals and cultural representations only masked the deeper and more extensive deposits belonging to an important manifestation of Early to Middle Woodland provenience, known from the type site at Macon, Georgia, Ocmulgee river, as Swift Creek. Moreover, the early period of development of Swift Creek was represented, and only two components of Farly Swift Creek were known to Georgia at the time of the initial Mandeville operations, i.e. the type site at Macon and the Halloca Creek site on the Fort Benning Military Reservation surveyed by David W. Chase and A. R. Kelly.

In the quarter century elapsed since the work at the type Swift Creek site at Macon, the Swift Creek culture had been identified in minority occurrence at points far to the north in the upper Mississippi drainage, with perceived components or subregional expression in north­west Florida and the Georgia coast. Speculation was rife that Swift Creek mounds might be the earliest burial mounds in the southeast, a southern regional manifestation coeval with Hopewell in the upper Mississippi drainage.

The Mandeville site thus had important archeological implications, not only for the immediate region but for the eastern United States. The incidence and spread of complicated stamped pottery, of which Swift Creek was a recognized prime exemplar, added significance to the new site. For these reasons the representatives of the several interagency groups agreed that a strong effort should be made to extract as much definitive data as time and money available would make possible.

This report is essentially an interim report, based on mound and village excavation units, and deals largely with the report of the excavations and the analysis of materials accessioned thus far. The wider synthesis and discussion of problems of cultural origins movements is only tentatively set forth in this preliminary report.

With the exploration of the "conical" Mound B, and further investigation of the zoned occupation levels within Mound A, more data will be available for final analysis and conclusions, which will appear after the work of 1960-61 is complete. Comparative analysis as between the type Swift Creek site at Macon, the Halloca Creek site, and other middle to "late Swift Creek" site components, have already been made, and others are in process.

This part of the report will be incorporated in the final report on the Mandeville site.

The Inter-Agency Salvage program in river basin archaeology has made possible the close cooperation of technicians and administrators of the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and the University of Georgia. Numerous individuals have made valuable contributions. John W. Griffin of the National Park Service regional office at Richmond, Virginia; Harold A. Huscher, chief-of-party of the Smithsonian Institution in the Chattahoochee river basin survey, and the resident engineer and his assistants of the Corps of Engineers have maintained close contact with the University of Georgia archaeologists at all phases of the work. Acknowledgement is made also of the cooperation of the Clay County commissioners in providing equipment and other valuable assistance at critical intervals.

The efficient operation of a field laboratory and accessioning unit was made possible by the presence of the students of the summer field school who were majors in anthropology at their respective institutions. Bettye Broyles, artist-draughtsman and archeological surveyor, has provided many of the diagrams and illustrations. Frank Schnell, Jr., with a museum scholarship from the Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts, has been of particular assistance in the field and laboratory analysis. Mary Lou Waters, secretary, has been invaluable in preparation of reports and manuscript copy.

A. R. Kelly

Professor of Anthropology

University of Georgia