Term of Award

Spring 2025

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Social Sciences (M.A.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Committee Chair

J. Matthew Compton

Committee Member 1

M. Jared Wood

Committee Member 2

Kara Bridgman-Sweeney

Abstract

Precontact life in the Ogeechee River valley of Georgia’s Coastal Plain is significantly understudied in contrast to the adjacent Savannah River valley and the coast of Georgia. Research in these regions has provided a substantial amount of archaeological data that has helped us to understand Late Archaic period dynamics and the settlement patterns of precontact people, primarily those associated with Stallings culture. The Ogeechee River valley figured prominently during the Late Archaic period, especially during Classic Stallings times, yet the region’s archaeological record is largely unexamined. Settlement patterns for coastal Georgia and the middle Savannah River valley have been proposed by researchers attempting to delineate the geospatial matrix of Stallings culture. This research adopts a double-pronged approach to better understand Late Archaic settlement within the Ogeechee River valley. Specifically, a model of settlement proposed for the middle Savannah River valley is applied to two Ogeechee River valley settlements, the Chew Mill Site (representing main channel occupation) and 9BK243 (representing tributary stream occupation). Faunal, ceramic, and lithic analyses on artifacts from the 1994 Chew Mill excavation were conducted to characterize habitation of main river channel sites within the watershed. Additionally, controlled excavations at 9BK243, a multicomponent site located along a tributary to the Ogeechee River, provides much warranted data from undisturbed, non-shell midden contexts. Together, data from these two sites help situate Ogeechee River settlements within the greater interaction sphere of Stallings culture.

OCLC Number

1520502002

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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