An Archaeological Overview and Assessment of the Lamar Mounds Unit of Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon, Georgia

The Lamar site is a unit of Ocmulgee National Monument located near Macon, Georgia. The site itself was a palisaded mound center consisting of two mounds and a village. The area encompassed by the palisade is approximately 21.5 acres. Mound A, situated on the western side of the site is a truncated mound approximately 6.2 meters in height. Mound B. located almost directly east of Mound A, is a conical mound with a spiral ramp. Lamar was occupied from the Archaic to the Historic period with its major occupation being during Mississippian times. The site has not been developed for interpretation and today is overgrown with trees and privet. Lamar has been the site of three major excavations conducted between 1934 and 1941. These investigations, begun before the site was in Federal ownership, were directed by men who were later to become influential forces in southeastern archeology: Arthur R. Kelly, James A. Ford, Gordon R. Willey, Jesse D. Jennings, and Charles H. Fairbanks. In addition, these investigations, and those conducted concurrently at other southeastern sites, were to become the basis for defining many cultural phases, periods and pottery type descriptions for the Central Georgia area and the southeast in general. The work done at Lamar also provided the baseline information for what is now called the "Lamar" culture, which eventually made its way into many descriptions of southeastern Mississippian cultural phases (see also Prehistoric Overview, this volume). Clearly this is an important site in southeastern prehistory and the study of southeastern prehistory. Despite its importance, very little definitive information is known from the Lamar site. Most of the investigations conducted at the site were done as part of the WPA, CCC and CWA relief efforts. As with many of the archeological projects done during that time, few site reports have ever been written about the work that was done. As a result we are left with only the notes and collections to guide the interpretation of the site. The archival documentary collections from the Lamar investigations are now over fifty years old and they have not aged well. This overview represents the results of over a year's efforts in trying to untangle the archival collections. It is by no means a definitive statement on the archeology of the Lamar site, but rather an introduction to the work carried out. In going through the collections many discrepancies and errors were uncovered; some were resolved, some remain. Many sources of information were used, but four stand out: the field notes from the three projects, two Key Maps of the Lamar site, the 1973 report on the Lamar collections by Hale Smith, and Mark Williams' transcription of the Lamar Symposium held at Florida State University in 1973. The maps of the three excavations in this report were digitized from the 1941 Key Map of Lamar drawn by L.K. Sessions. They are not exact reproductions however, as we determined that the Key Map was inaccurate as to the orientation of Ford's and Willey's units. They should not be considered to be the final statement as to the location of the units but rather as the best estimate to date on the general layout of Ford's, Willey's and Fairbanks' excavations. The artifacts from Lamar are currently being recataloged by the Anthropology Department of Florida State University. It is conceivable that upon completion of this project, an archeological synthesis of the Lamar site can be written based on what has already been dug up at Lamar. However, due to the poor condition of the collections it is all but certain that more work will have to be conducted at Lamar in order to adequately interpret the site within the current understanding of southeastern prehistory.