Bull Creek Site
A Late Mississippian Site in West Central Georgia
Dog effigy pot,
Bull Creek (9ME1),
Muscogee County, Georgia
Late Mississippian (ca. 1325-1650 CE),
This spectacular ceramic vessel pictured above was one of three nearly identical Negative Painted Dog Effigy Vessels that were found in 1936 at the Bull Creek Site. It can be viewed at the Columbus Museum in Columbus Georgia. The site was discovered by a young man shooting target practice at what he thought was a gourd sticking out of the banks of Bull Creek at its confluence with the Chattahoochee River. It turned out to be a skull. A professional investigation ensued that uncovered a large Indian cemetery with over 40 burials. The associated village was also investigated and pottery from the site was unique enough to be typed and named after the site. An impressive Human Effigy Pipe was also discovered along with an array of fine Mississippian artifacts. The site is basically destroyed and a large commercial building and parking lot sits on the site today. A recent trip down river to visit the site on the river bank was rewarded by the discovery of a large pottery fragment of Bull Creek Complicated Stamp (see photo below). Amazingly after all the development of the modern city of Columbus, Georgia that you can still on occasion find a vestige of the past, what once was an important center for Mississippian Culture in the Chattahoochee River valley.
The Bull Creek Site was situated on this white clay buff.
Bull Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River on the
bottom right. View is looking north.
From the Bull Creek Site looking south. Note the white clay bluffs far left.
Just as I found it! Recent rains had exposed it.
Classic example of the pottery type called Bull Creek Lamar Complicated Stamp.
The design was made by Impressing a carved pattle onto the clay vessel before firing.
This little pot was found sheared in half by a tractor’s box blade and was
professionally restored. Type: Bull Creek Lamar Complicated Stamp.
Bull Creek Site; 1981
Effigy Rim adonos from the same vessel: left is the coiled tail and on the other
side of the vessel- the head. It may represent a dog. Personal find in 1981 from
a trash pit at the Bull Creek Site. Grog tempered- Bull Creek Bold Incised.
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Cultural Chronology
of the Native American Southeast
Paleo American Period
C. 14,000 - 10,000 Before Present
Proto Archaic
C. 10,000 - 9,000 Before Present
Early Archaic
C. 9,000 - 7,500 Before Present
Middle Archaic
C. 7,500 - 5,000 Before Present
Late Archaic
C. 5,000 - 3,500 Before Present
Gulf Formational
C. 3,500 - 2,500 Before Present
Woodland
C. 2,500 - 1,000 Before Present
Mississippian
C. 1,000 Before Present - 1513 AD
Proto Historic
1513 AD- 1702 AD
Historic
1702 AD- 1836 AD
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The Market for artifacts has undoubtedly been affected by this lengthy recession. For quite a long time it seemed that prices would remained stable, but as the economic downturn drug on and on it has finally begun to effect sales and prices. We are observing a 20 to 30% attrition in prices of collectors grade points as well as a drop in overall sales. Low end Points have not lost much in value but sales have dropped off in this area too. High end points remain the best place to invest as long as you are not in a hurry to resale for a profit as the number of available buyers for the high end material has shrunk considerably. This aside, Artifacts like many other tangibles remains a relatively safe place to place your money in these hard times. They certainly have done well in comparison to much of the stock market. To give you an example, I know of an individual who invested $40,000 in a energy stock before the crash. It’s now worth $5,000. Had this person invested carefully in artifacts he would have possibly lost only 20% to 30%n at most if he choose to sell off now. If he were not in hurry to sell he would have a tangible investment that could bring much satisfaction, education and enjoyment while having the real potential of gaining value long before the stock market returns. As long as he holds his relics he loses nothing! In spite of all this bad news there still have been some exceptional sales. Several Paleo Clovis points have sold for $6,000 each. A Large Bolen went for a similar amount. Exceptionally fine Hernando Points have recently sold for strong money. The same Point types that were hot before the collapse continue to be so now. Paleos, Bolens, Hernandos, Waller Knives, large Middle Archaic Newnan and Savannah River Points along with ground stones items like Plummets and Bolo Stones are doing well. Bone Hairpins and Fishhooks are brings good money as well. Overall despite the beating of the poor economy Southeastern Artifacts will continue to be great place to invest.
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FOR THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND
“YES”! I shout into my regulator.
“A fluted Clovis Point!”
I enjoy every aspect of collecting artifacts and fossils. I love the experience of being outdoors away from the rat race of our modern world, and I can think of no better way to get away from the rat race than a day spent river diving. Come with me now for a dive trip on the river and hopefully a journey back in time.
It takes a considerable effort to rise from a restful slumber while it is still dark outside and prepare for the day’s hunt. But once I’ve loaded dive gear into my truck and headed to my dive buddy’s house, the effort already seems worth it. Fellowship and camaraderie is a wonderful part of our enjoyment of this hobby, and once we are together, thoughts of what the day may bring consume our conversation. Shared adventures of past campaigns are revisited. These are unforgettable life experiences. The long drive passes quickly with good conversation. Eventually we arrive at our destination. The rising sun puts on another spectacular display as it creeps over the tree line. Daybreak always inspires in me a mood of thankfulness for another day. We step out of the truck at the remote boat ramp and breath deeply the fresh, cool morning air. Once the boat is launched and we are headed downriver, each of us experience butterflies in our stomachs, both from the excitement of being on this beautiful river and what the day may bring. We are now on river time. No schedules. No watches. Just the river and us.
At last we anchor down at our chosen dive site and begin the arduous task of putting on wet suites and assembling dive gear. What a pain! But it is all worth it as we slip into the cool water. Now, completely underwater, we are truly entering another world. Here the only constants are time and currents. From the shifting sand and gravel to the polished rocks that lie everywhere, evidence of their effects is all around us. The underwater wildlife is here to greet us as well. Bream and Shoal Bass come into view and draw closer to see what we are up to. They will shadow us the entire time we are submerged. Ready to eat any morsel we may disturb on the bottom as we move about. I have often taken time to study and feed bream and bass the small aquatic worms that lie just under the sand and rocks of the riverbed.
As I move deeper I come upon the ancient eerie jagged spires of eroded lime rock that lie in the deepest part of the river channel, some 20 feet deep. I think about how little this landscape has changed during the eons of time. Just in front of the rock mass, I see the dark outline of my dive partner who is closely studying a bed of egg-sized rocks that are all tightly nestled together. This rubble pile is huge, extending in all directions, fading into the distance. I take the left flank of this rock bed and begin to closely scrutinize the rocks. My eyes are trained to look for familiar shapes and piecrust edges jutting from between the rocks. Not long into my search I come upon a huge boulder, nearly the size of a Volkswagen. A huge debris pile of rocks and gravel has collected around the boulder, like biddies under a mother hen. This feature deserves a closer look. Slowly working my eyes over the black rocks, a conspicuous orange object comes into plain view. As I reach to pick up the object, my mind is racing. Adrenaline is pumping! I recognize the orange colored material at first glance. It is Coastal Plains Chert, which is so abundant in and around the Flint River. But the shape of this object is also very familiar! Could it be?… As I pick up the object I’m on sensory overload. “YES”! I shout into my regulator. “A fluted Clovis Point”! I grasp the point and hold it firmly in my clenched fist. I drop to my elbows and beat the bottom of the rock pile in shear elation. Opening my hand, I inspect my prize. Turning the point to every angle and holding it up to the light of the sky above, I see that this ancient piece of artwork is made of a high-grade translucent material. I had hunted this very spot the previous year and wondered why I had not discovered the point then. Noticing the material was fresh looking without the black tannic acid stains seen on all the surrounding rocks, I surmised this little gem had been recently blown out from it’s hiding place by floods of the previous winter.
Now I slip into an almost ritualistic habit of pondering the gravity of my discovery. The last man to touch this stone point lived thousands and thousands of years ago! The questions begin to flood my mind as I stare at this piece of art in stone. Who made this point? Where? When? How old was the maker? What was his world like? Did he see Mastodons and Mammoths? Did he hunt these animals with this point? No answers. Just questions. But questions that will always bring me back to a child like wonder of the world we live in. Life is so sweet and delightful if you can keep the wonder with you throughout your life!
As I take the point from it’s watery home I also feel the responsibility of honoring the artisan who created this ancient tool. I will treat this treasure with utmost care and preserve and share it with others, so that they too may appreciate and understand the time and effort the maker spent creating such a stunningly beautiful, yet lethal object. Hopefully we will be able to appreciate the ancient maker’s skill in selecting and altering the raw Coastal Plains Chert he chose to work with.
I know I will only be the first in a long line of custodians of the past, who will cherish this ancient weapon. Only those who can appreciate the real value of this treasure will ever have true possession of it. Of this I am sure. I will never wish for this piece of art in stone to end up tagged and hidden in a museum warehouse drawer. I do not care for the clinical, unemotional approach of academic archeology. To me, history should be alive and exciting.
My wish is to take my Clovis Point with me to future artifact shows and to share my find with the public. Hoping that they too can appreciate such a rare and beautiful object. If the Indian who made this point could see into the future, to the time when his point was discovered, I hope he would be pleased with the care and honor his creation receives.
Once our dive is over, my dive partner and I climb back into our boat. I share my Clovis find with him, and he shares his finds with me. We both admire and enjoy our discoveries until the light of day fades into night. Later, at the hotel room, we relive the stories of the day’s dive, and share tales of past adventures. Deepening our appreciation and love for our hobby. Yes, this is what it is all about.
We weather the days when we find nothing at all, which are often. We weather equipment failures and lost masks. Forgotten wet suits. Lost weight belts. Swamped boats. Busted props. Keys locked in trucks. Flat tires. Getting stuck. Having dive gear stolen. Being run over by inconsiderate boaters. Being harassed by game wardens. Running headlong into underwater trees. Running out of air while underwater. The memory of the run in with the 14-foot long Alligator, who opened his gaping jaws within 3 feet of my head is weathered, but not forgotten. Being swept away by strong currents. Diving in the cold misery of winter, and getting caught in horrific thunderstorms. Yes all of these trials, this too, is what it is all about. In my 25 years of searching underwater I have learned to take the bad with the good. And when all is said and done, hopefully only the good times will be remembered. I wouldn’t change a thing!
Now do you understand?
Spoke Shaves
Arrowheads, Spear Points and Knives are the most popular and highly valued of all the ancient Native American artifacts.
But Tools are more commonly found and far outnumber other lithics on their ancient campsites and villages. Among the most
overlooked and rarely discovered tools is the Spoke Shave. Usually quite small and unassuming these little tools when
examined carefully show great craftsmanship and skill. Almost always uniface, a concavity is finely worked away
on the dorsal face usually on the distal end. These presumably were held between the thumb and index finger although some
of them could have been halfed. Their use, it is conjectured, was to scrape and smooth the wooden shafts of spears, arrows,
etc. They apparently were in use from Paleo times to a least the Woodland Era as examples have been found at all levels
at Russell Cave and the Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter in north Alabama. The finer examples especially the uniface ones are
quite probably at least Early Archaic if not Paleo in age. The fact that Spoke Shaves made up just .27 percent of the
total of uniface tools at the Stanfield-Worley Site is testament to their relative rarity. If you start collecting them you’ll notice
there are not many to be had. So if you find one consider it a prize!
References: Cambron & Hulse: Handbook of Alabama Archaeology;
Part 2 Uniface Blade & Flake Tools /June 1973
Florida Spoke Shaves - Lengths range from ¾ ” to 2 ½ ” and some here are made from translucent Coral.
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Who should Preserve our Past?
There is probably no question that has ever been asked that is more volatile or that has raised more passionate debate. The lines have been drawn in the sand and the two camps are as isolated as ever.On the one hand is the righteous archaeologist waging war with their laws and hired muscle- the state law enforcement agencies seeking to preserve the rich historic heritage that belongs to all citizens! And in the other corner the swarming masses of artifact collectors who pillage and loot- all for self gain and gratification.
That’s the way you heard it right! But wait a minute…
This righteous champion of historic preservation has some kinks in their armor! Consider what I know to be fact:
· Some contract archaeologist have accepted bribes from developers so as to get a green light for demolition of prehistoric sites. Sometimes looking the other way when every shovel test surveyed produced positive results showing a significant site. Sometimes never even doing the physical survey then just accepting payola to look the other way.
· Some Archaeologist who are supposed to be writing an account of their surveys, digs and finds but never seem to get around to publishing their findings thus all the data is misplaced or lost. Or are never adequately reported. What reports are made are only distributed among their peers in very limited numbers with technical jargon to impress each other. This happens a lot!
· Significant archaeological discoveries are sometimes hushed to keep the public from knowing about it. They don’t want to excite the public or media! This really happened at Ft. Benning, Ga. recently.
· Pencil pushing desk archaeologist who would rather stay in their cushy offices than go out and do real science! Some of them have not been in the field in years except to get their picture taken next to the hole.
· Facilities like the huge warehouse at the University of Georgia which is the state repository for artifacts with over 8 million artifacts that no one can access or see.
· Warehoused artifacts that are poorly cataloged and unprotected where significant artifacts go missing or unaccounted for.
· The game warden that vigorously patrol sites as if they were passionate about the so called ‘preservation of history ‘only to be caught collecting relics for themselves. Ie: Like the game warden that runs all the divers off of a South Georgia River so he can dive it himself and add to his personal collection. This is not isolated either, actually quite common.
· Archaeologist who outright lie and misrepresent the collecting community as villains to secure state grants and funding and thus their jobs.
· Some Archaeologist spend a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources pushing ridiculously restrictive laws instead of doing good archaeology.
A number of the archaeological community that I have met are stuck up egotistical snobs who live in their academic ivory towers far removed from the real world. With their PHD’s they think this gives them an exclusive right to our history. They are a condescending and arrogant lot that loath and despise anyone who has an interest in history who doesn’t have a scholarly degree. They blame all site destruction on so called looters when they are in fact guilty of the worst of it. (their science is the most destructive of all science)
Not all archaeologists are like this. Some I call personal friends and they will privately admit to me that these things are going on. Several I know would be glad to attend relic shows so as to document what is being found but there is tremendous peer pressure to abstain from association with collectors.
Truth be known, Commercial development is the number one cause of the destruction of our past not the collector or diver. But collectors are the easy scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb, if you will for all things evil and bad. By stopping collecting they can claim that they are proactive in preserving history. Laws are passed and continue to be so with intent to stop all collecting while ignoring the elephant in the room. Commercial greed!
Carefully consider what the so called amateur collectors have contributed to the preservation of our history. Almost all sites have been and are still found by collectors. Collectors are preserving the past thru careful curation. Gone are the days of gluing or wiring relics to boards. Today collectors have sophisticated displays that feature foam back wood display cases with glass fronts, some are backlit to help you appreciate the colors and translucence of many of the projectile points. Displays will often center of specific point types, lithic materials or geographical distributions. Most relics are labeled and cataloged as to site, county and state of origin. Many times even the detailed circumstances of discovery are recorded. And let’s address money: Whether one wants to admit it or not, collectors who attribute monetary value to relics of the past have also gone a long way toward preserving them. After all who wants to keep something that is worthless and of no value. Yet Archaeologist would have you believe that in’ their perfect world’ that it is wrong to put a price on a relic. Baloney! They are paid to pursue relics thru grants to dig them up. If they were not paid, do you think they would do archaeology for free, for their passion for the past! No way! Most have no passion for history at all, it’s merely a job, they don’t get excited at the discovery of a Clovis point, and there is no emotion. It’s just another relic that they have to catalog. Collectors are paid after the discovery is made IF they decide to sell the relic. The person buying the relic is certainly going to do his best to preserve the relic. After all he doesn’t want to lose his investment. Archaeologist will say it’s not about the relics, but the knowledge, but who wants to dig and find nothing? What can you learn if there is a total absence of artifacts!
What we need from them is to do the archaeology on sites, do the science that we can’t do, report their finds promptly and thoroughly and protect for future generations the rare and significant sites that are for the most part well known now and most are state or federally owned. And leave us, the collectors to glean from the massive scatter of millions upon millions of relics that ancient cultures left behind on this land. And give us the collecting community credit for the good job we do in preserving the past! An artifact does not exist until it is discovered. And it cannot teach us about the past unless it is studied and shared with others. The more it is seen, the more it contributes to the knowledge base of the masses.
Consider How collectors preserve the past:
Record: Collectors record with Cert. of Authenticity and cataloging.
Preserve: Collectors curate them for future generations
Collectors often restore important pieces and curate these as well.
They Insistence of provenience particularly for significant pieces.
We teach: Collectors hold many Year round events to display collections with open interaction with the public with the resulting education and broadened knowledge base.
At these shows the public:
· Learn different cultural horizons,
· Point Typology,
· Flaking Technique,
· Lithic material sources and identification.
· Cultural site distribution.
· Also a wide variation of books offered at shows, many authored by non professionals.
Collectors know where all the sites are and have curated collections from these sites. Think what the professionals miss by alienating the collecting public! Our knowledge of the past surely suffers.
If the ancient Native American were alive today, I think he would blush with pride at the adoration his daily survival creations garner. He would be happy to see his wares often displayed and admired and when real science is practiced among archeologist he would be equally proud that his story is being told in such detail.
In summary all have the responsibility to preserve the past. More could be accomplish if both camps would cooperate. But the controlling Archaeologist will never give up, so dig in collectors it’s going to be a long bumpy ride.