The Late Archaic to Early Woodland Transition in Northwest Georgia: Evidence for Terminal Archaic (ca. 1100 - 600 B.C.) Period Occupation in the Region

The development of a cultural context document to examine the of transition between the Late Archaic to the Early Woodland periods in Northwest Georgia was inspired by the findings of two recent testing projects conducted in Murray County (Gresham 2002) and Gordon County (Patton and Gresham 2003). These projects provided evidence of occupations dating to a time that immediately preceded the introduction, or at least the widespread use, of Early Woodland fabric-marked pottery in the region. While sites of this time period are relatively well studied elsewhere in the Southeast and Midwest, they have generally been unrecognized in Northwest Georgia. For this study, the authors feel that this length of time generally represents the interval between the demise of the major Late Archaic cultural spheres in the Southeast (Poverty Point and Stallings Island) and widespread use of Early Woodland pottery in Northwest Georgia. This date range corresponds with that proposed for the period of Late Archaic to Early Woodland transition elsewhere in the Eastern United States (Kidder 2006:195-198). The transition from Late Archaic to Early Woodland is examined within the context of the essentially aceramic Terminal Archaic period as originally defined at the Westmoreland-Barber site which is located near the northwestern border of Georgia in southeastern Tennessee (Faulkner and Graham 1966a). The geographic extent of Northwest Georgia study area encompasses the Ridge and Valley, the Cumberland Plateau, and the western portion of the Piedmont Physiographic Provinces. The primary study area of Northwest Georgia consists of a ten county area; however, pertinent information from important sites in adjoining counties and in nearby areas of Alabama and Tennessee is included since modern historical and political boundaries are irrelevant to the period addressed. As a means of interpreting the limited data base currently available from Northwest Georgia, comparative data from other regions in Eastern North America will also be utilized in this study.

Interest in the cultural changes that developed between the end of the Late Archaic period and the Early Woodland period in Northwest Georgia began more than half a century ago with Joseph Caldwell’s work in Allatoona Reservoir. Caldwell recognized a “discontinuity” within the material culture on sites of the earliest pottery-producing people of the region (Kellog period) and their Archaic predecessors (Caldwell 1957, 1958). Caldwell felt that no culturally intermediate sites had been located in the Allatoona area and, if any such sites are found, will be rare. Caldwell was probably referring to sites with fiber-tempered pottery (his Stallings period) which he found to be ‘hardly represented at all in the Allatoona Reservoir” (Caldwell 1950:6). Based on his research in Buford Reservoir on the upper Chattahoochee River, Caldwell (1953:10) referred to this time of discontinuity as “a hiatus of unknown duration.” More recently, researches have argued that Caldwell’s idea of a “temporal and cultural hiatus” is not supported by current archaeological data (Bowen 1989:215, Crook 1984:55, Rotenstein n.d.:7). However, others have maintained that some of the data that have been used to refute Caldwell’s assertion are flawed (Wood and Ledbetter 1990:19). Caldwell suggested that the people of the Kellog focus moved into Piedmont Georgia and the Carolinas from the north, possibly from eastern Tenneesee (Caldwell 1958:23). Bowen (1989) has reexamined much of Caldwell’s work and revised some of Caldwell’s ideas. Bowen (1989) concluded that a smaller geographical area centered on Allatoona Reservoir represents the Kellog “heartland” representing the area of most intensive Early Woodland occupation in Northwest Georgia.

To date, most of the work relating to the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods in Northwest Georgia has been conducted in areas along the western edge of the Piedmont province. Relatively little information is available from most of the Ridge and Valley province, and area that is expected to share characteristics with cultural traditions defined for physiographic regions to the north and west. This lack of data for the Late Archaic period in the Ridge and Valley province was previously recognized by Stanyard (2003). Our study of the Late Archaic to Early Woodland transition in Northwest Georgia relies in large measure on information extracted from previous investigations. Previous investigations in Northwest Georgia have been conducted by archaeologists of varied background who have perceived and interpreted the Late Archaic and Early Woodland cultures of the region in an equally varied fashion. In some instances, these researches interpreted certain aspects of these sites as transitional or intermediate occupations, and thus provide information that pertains directly to this study. Most frequently these transitional occupations are identified by projectile point types that have been defined elsewhere in the Southeast as dating to the very early part of the Early Woodland periods. Various researchers have referred to these transitional occupations as terminal Late Archaic, Terminal Archaic, or transitional Late Archaic/Early Woodland. These admittedly vague designations result from the fact that fiber-tempered pottery is extremely rare, if not absent, in most of Northwest Georgia. Also, traditionally Early Woodland pottery types do not appear until relatively late in the region (ca. 700 – 600 B.C.). In parts of the lower Southeast and in the lower Tennessee Valley where fiber-tempered pottery does occur, occupations of this time period are usually referred to as Late Archaic or Gulf Formational. The Terminal Archaic period in Northwest Georgia should be view as essentially aceramic.

Assemblages consisting of barbed and expanded and stemmed projectile points and soapstone vessels are referred to as Terminal Archaic in eastern Tennessee (Faulkner and Graham 1966a; Childress1999); they have been more formally defined as Wade phase in Middle Tennessee (Keel 1978:160), and Cogswell phase in Kentucky (Ison 1986:212). Very similar projectile points occur in the Terminal Archaic Prairie Lake phase as far away as the American Bottom in Illinois (Emerson 1980). Each of these phases are well dated within the interval of approximately 1100 to 600 B.C. (uncalibrated date range). Previous research shows that similar point types occur most frequently on sites in the northwestern corner of Georgia. This suggests a relationship with cultures living in the Cumberland Plateau region and areas to the north and northwest. The aceramic Terminal Archaic component at the Lick Creek site in Gordon County has been dated within the range of these phases (Benson et al. 2008).

Because so few transitional sites have been previously recognized in Northwest Georgia, data form sites with Late Archaic and Early Woodland occupations have been assessed to better understand this period of transition. Available data suggest that Northwest Georgia was an area of cultural and ethnic diversity during the latter part of the Late Archaic period through the Early Woodland period. This may be explained in large measure by the unique geographic position of Northwest Georgia with respect to the Ridge and Valley province and specifically to the Great Valley (Coosa Valley). It appears that this period of transition in Northwest Georgia was a time of cultural constriction that is visible in the distinctive appearance of the material culture of sites within relatively small geographical areas in the region. Many of the cultural traits that distinguish this transition, and the material culture of these sites in the Southeast, are related to the changes in subsistence. The culmination of generations of incipient plant husbandry stabilized that plant resource base, allowing for increased sedentism and more geographically constricted ethnic identities that are reflected in the innovative technologies that accompanied these changes.