Archaeological Appraisal of the Rock Pile Site 9JK8, Jackson County, Georgia

This report is written in response to a request by the Tumbling Waters Society of Jackson County to determine if the 47 recorded stone piles and a natural rock outcrop on top of a ridge toe immediately south of a dramatic bend in the North Oconee River could be the historically-described site of Yamacutah or Tumbling Shoals. Officially labeled Site 9Jk8, several aspects associated with the ridge match the site's description in The Early History of Jackson County Georgia by G. J. N. Wilson. To independently establish the antiquity of the stone piles, mapping and excavations were conducted between February 19 and March 8, 2016 at the site. Fieldwork involved carefully removing leaf litter from the stone features, digital photography and GIS mapping of the stone features, inspection of the ground surface for metal artifacts with a metal detector, the setting out of a 10-meter interval grid across the site, the controlled excavation of 40 shovel test pits, the controlled excavation of four test units, the collection of soil samples for analysis and OCR dating, and the backfilling of all excavated areas. Thirty seven of the stone piles were found to be piled by people, while the remaining were either natural bedrock outcrops or stones brought up to the surface by tree tip-ups. Stones identified on the site are gneiss and schist. The gneiss appears to follow natural bedrock outcrops on or immediately below the ground surface. Thorough inspection of the ground for buried metallic items with a metal detector only yielded five shotgun shells, all of which came from a concentration some 10 centimeters below ground surface in the vicinity of Stone Pile 14. The shovel test pits yielded no artifacts and only one feature. Upon further investigation, by excavating Test Unit 2, the feature with its partially carbonized wood turned out to be the remains of an old pine tree. The shovel test pits and test units revealed an A (sandy loam), 2A (fine sandy loam), and 2B (clayey loam) and/or bedrock (weathered gneiss or soapstone). The absence of a plow zone and metal implements supports the landowners' claims that no plowing has ever occurred on the site. Excavation of Test Unit 1 showed that the slab-like base of Stone Pile 19 rested on a change in soil levels. Based on the soil textures, pH, total organic carbon, and on soil color from the soil column next-to Stone Pile 19, the stone pile overlay a preexisting soil. Based on the percentage of organic carbon in the soils, the construction of the stone pile occurred around 740 years before present (i.e., AD 1210 or Early Mississippian). Its construction resulted in the minor mixing of the soil, thus the similar ages the soils immediately above and below the bottom of the stone pile. This makes the stone pile roughly contemporary with the small encampment Site 9Jk72 on the levee next-to Tumbling Shoals and the big habitation Site 9Jk54 at the North Oconee and Cabin Creek confluence. Viewed in terms of the ethno-historic record of the Cherokee and Creek Indians whose ancestors once lived in the area, the "clean" site overlooking the natural bend in the river and the rapidly eastward-flowing water was probably a sacred staging ground for Indians participating in a going to water ceremony. In this regard Site 9Jk8 differs from other Indian stone piles in Georgia that cover human remains and/or commemorate the physically-departed. Proposed additional work at Site 9Jk8 includes doing a remote sensing/geophysical survey of the ground surface to look for possible buried holes, as reported by Wilson in 1914.