Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T02:36:38.861Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Possible Case of Cannibalism in the Early Woodland Period of Eastern Georgia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David Sutton Phelps
Affiliation:
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
Rebekah Burgess
Affiliation:
Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Abstract

Preliminary investigations at White's Mound, Richmond County, Georgia, have revealed a stratified sequence of cultural material that begins with Stallings Island fiber-tempered pottery and is followed by Deptford, which occurs coincident with a more popular cord-marked type and minor amounts of a fabric-impressed type. The cord-marked pottery is assumed to be indicative of the timing and impact of the Northern tradition on this area. The last test square excavated on the site yielded evidence of possible cannibalism in the form of redeposited fragmentary bones, most of them cooked and a few calcined. With the deposit of bones, some of which had been cut, were a boatstone, a bear-claw necklace, and Deptford bold check-stamped and simple-stamped sherds. An alternative explanation is redeposited cremation which does have precedence in the Georgia area and in the Northern tradition.

Type
Facts and Comments
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Caldwell, Joseph R. 1952 The Archeology of Eastern Georgia and South Carolina. In Archeology of Eastern United States, edited by Griffin, J. B., pp. 312–21. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Caldwell, Joseph R. 1958 Trend and Tradition in the Prehistory of the United States. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 88. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Holmgreen, Virginia C. 1959 Hilton Head: A Sea Island Chronicle. Hilton Head Island Publishing Company, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.Google Scholar
Kellar, James H., Kelly, A. R., and McMichael, Edward V. 1962 The Mandeville Site in Southwest Georgia. American Antiquity, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 336–55. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
William A., Ritchie 1955 Recent Discoveries Suggesting an Early Woodland Burial Cult in the Nottheast. New York State Museum and Science Service, Circular No. 40. Albany.Google Scholar
Gordon R., Willey 1949 Archeology of the Florida Gulf Coast. Smithsonian Institution Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 113. Washington.Google Scholar