Lamar Mounds and Village Site

Lamar Mounds and Village Site 9 BI 2
Lamar Mounds and Village Site 9 BI 2 Location within U.S. state of Georgia
Location
Coordinates
Country	USA
Region	Bibb County, Georgia
Nearest town	Macon, Georgia
History
Culture	South Appalachian Mississippian culture
First occupied	1350 CE
Period	Lamar Phase
Abandoned	1600 CE
Excavation and maintenance
Dates excavated	1934, 1936, 1938, 1939-1940, 1996
Notable archaeologists	James A. Ford, Arthur R. Kelly, Gordon Willey, Jesse Jennings, Charles Fairbanks, Mark Williams
Architecture
Architectural styles	platform mound
Number of temples	2
Ocmulgee National Monument
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location	1207 Emory Hwy., E of Macon, Macon, Georgia
Area	702.1 acres (284.1 ha)
Governing body	National Park Service
NRHP Reference #	66000099[1]
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966

The Lamar Mounds and Village Site (Ocmulgee National Monument, a national park and historic district created in 1936 and run by the U.S. National Park Service.^[2] Historians and archaeologists have theorized that the site may be the location of the main village of the Ichisi encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539.^[3]

Site description

The site has two large platform mounds and an associated village area surrounded by a palisade. The original settlement may have been started on a natural levee of the Ocmulgee River, a location which eventually became Mound A. The main village area spreads out to the southeast from this location.^[2] This location may have been island-like at the time of its settlement, the only high ground located in a low swampy area with the Ocmulgee River on one side and an oxbow lake on the other.^[3][4] Houses in the village were rectangular wattle and daub structures, some situated on low house mounds, and the 3,500-foot-long (1,070 m) palisade was made of upright logs covered in clay.^[5] The palisade encircled an area of about 25 acres (0.1 km²) and followed the island shape of the raised levee. Out side of the palisade was an encirling ditch, probably water filled at the time of the sites occupation.^[4] Mound A is a large mound with a round 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter and 10–15-centimetre (3.9–5.9 in) deep depression located in the northwestern quadrant of its summit. This feature is thought to be the remnants of a collapsed earth lodge with a dugout floor and embanked walls. Unlike other Middle Mississippian culture mounds to the northwest, Lamar-style mounds are more rounded in shape as compared to squared-off rectangles.

Mound B, completely round in shape, has a feature almost unique in southeastern archaeology in that it has a spiral ramp leading to its summit. This and other evidence has led archaeologists to speculate that the mound was in the process of being enlarged and given a new layer of fill when work was abruptly stopped. Unlike other Mississippian sites, no evidence of a meticulously clean plaza has been found at the site, although the large area between mounds was once theorized to be one.^[2] Two large pits were made at the site, one inside the palisade and the other outside its perimeter. These were probably borrow pits leftover from mound construction. It is possible the inhabitants used the pits as clean water reservoirs and fish ponds, a use described by the De Soto chroniclers when passing through the area.^[4]

Lamar culture

The Lamar site was inhabited from about 1350 to 1600 CE, during the late prehistoric and early historic period of the area. The style of Mississippian culture pottery found at the site has been used to define this period in the regional chronology, making it the type site for the Lamar Phase (also known variously as the Lamar culture and Lamar period).^[2]

Excavations

In 1936 the site was acquired by the United States government and incorporated into the new [2]

Possible location of Ichisi

Proposed de Soto expedition route through Georgia (Hudson 1997).

On March 29, 1539, the McRae in 2009 called this identification into question and suggested the crossing took place approximately 90 miles (140 km) further south. Archaeologists and historians are still debating which of the two sites was actually visited by de Soto and his men.^[7]

See also

• Coosa chiefdom
• Etowah Indian Mounds
• List of Mississippian sites
• List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition

References

External links

• National Register of Historic Places inventory - nomination form (PDF), NPS.gov

Mississippian and related cultures List of Mississippian sites Mound builder (people) Timeline of Mississippi valley Middle Mississippian American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emerald Mound and Village Emmons Cemetery Horseshoe Lake Kuhn Station Lunsford-Pulcher Mitchell Orendorf Sugarloaf Mound Steed-Kisker culture Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams Dogtooth Bend Kincaid Mounds Marshall Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Twin Mounds Ware Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel Phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Mound Bottom Riverview Mounds Archaeological Site Sellars Indian Mound Obion Mounds Old Town Swallow Bluff Island Mounds Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Phase Boyd Mounds Campbell Chucalissa Eaker Menard-Hodges Murphy Mound Parkin Nodena Phase Nodena Site Tipton Phase Tunica Walls Phase South Appalachian Mississippian Adamson Mounds Site Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Bussell Island Chauga Mound Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa chiefdom Dallas Phase Dyar Etowah Mounds Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar Phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Site Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek Phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Mound Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah Phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Mounds Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Mound Summerour Toqua Town Creek Indian Mound Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks Fort Walton culture Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin-Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Mounds Leon-Jefferson Culture Letchworth Mounds Velda Mound Yon Pensacola culture Bottle Creek Indian Mounds Dauphin Island Fort Walton Mound Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people Plaquemine Mississippian Anna Emerald Mound Fitzhugh Mounds Flowery Mound Foster's Mound Ghost Site Mounds Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Mounds Julice Mound Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Mounds Natchez Pocahontas Mounds Routh Mounds Scott Place Mounds Sims Taensa Transylvania Mounds Venable Mound Winterville Caddoan Mississippian Battle Mound Belcher Mound Bluffton Mound Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Mounds Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Spiro Mounds Upper Mississippian cultures Oneota Beattie Park Mound Group Blood Run Hartley Fort State Preserve Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village Culture Artwork Emmons mask Long-nosed god maskette Mississippian copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Mississippian culture pottery Mississippian stone statuary Shell gorget Languages Caddoan languages Central Algonquian languages Cherokee language Mobilian Jargon Muskogean languages Natchez language Siouan languages Timucua language Tunica language Yuchi language Religion Ballgame Black drink Calumet (pipe) Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Maize Mill Creek chert de Soto Expedition

Pre-Columbian North America Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic Archaeological cultures Adena Alachua Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek Complex Caborn-Welborn Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glades Glacial Kame Hopewell List of Hopewell sites Hohokam Leon-Jefferson Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Tchefuncte Tocobaga Troyville Archaeological sites Angel Mounds Bandelier National Monument The Bluff Point Stoneworks Cahokia Chaco Canyon Casa Grande Coso Rock Art District Eaker Effigy Mounds National Monument Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Site Fort Ancient Fort Center Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Holly Bluff Site Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Manitou Cliff Dwellings Marksville Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moorehead Circle Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena Site Ocmulgee National Monument Old Stone Fort Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Russell Cave National Monument Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Spiro Mounds SunWatch Taos Pueblo Toltec Mounds Town Creek Indian Mound Winterville Miscellaneous Black drink Buhl Woman Calumet Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kennewick Man Kiva Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Medicine wheel Mound builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Stickball Norse colonization of the Americas Piasa Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Underwater panther Related Genetic history Indigenous Portal of North America Pre-Columbian era