Archaeological Excavations at Scull Shoals Mounds

Under a Volunteer Agreement with the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests, the University of Georgia undertook six weeks of excavation followed by two weeks of analysis during the summer, 1983, at Scull Shoals Mound site in Greene County, Georgia. The work was performed as a University of Georgia field school. The existence of this site has been known for over 100 years through the early reports of C. C. Jones. This season's work was designed to record basic information on the site. A site map with surface contours and detailed contour maps of the two mounds were made. Mound A is about 11 meters high while Mound B is 3 meters high. Post hole tests were made over the entire bottom to define the limits of the village. The mapping and post hole testing were hampered by the very thick vegetation in this preserved section of the Oconee National Forest as well as by I meter of upland red sandy loam alluvium which has buried the site in the last 150 years. A total of 6 squares, each 2 by 2 meters, was excavated in the village in order to determine its chronological placement. Analysis of artifacts from these pits indicates that the site was first occupied in the Late Etowah Period and was occupied through the Savannah and Lamar Periods. No Early Mississippian, Woodland, or Archaic materials were found in tests that reached 3.5 meters deep. No excavations were made on the mounds and no features other than a few post molds were found in the village. It appears that extensive cotton farming from about 1800 until 1880 severely damaged the village midden at this site which is the most northerly of the mound sites thought to be associated with the Oconee Province.