The Athenaeum: April 2010

Ocmulgee National Monument, located near Macon, is a large mound group that features a restored ceremonial earth lodge. While the Indian culture thrived here between AD 900 to 1150, there is evidence of at least 10,000 years of human habitation from Ice Age hunters to the Creek Indians to an English trading post in 1690.

Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns

OCMULGEE  CHRONOLOGY

pre-9,000 BC     Paleo Indian Period
Ice Age hunters arrive in the Southeast, leaving one of their distinctive "Clovis" spear points on the Macon Plateau (in the 1930s this became the first such artifact found in situ in the southern U.S.).
8,000-9,000 BC   Transitional Period
People adjust to gradually warming weather as the glaciers melt and many Ice Age mammals become extinct.
1,000-8,000 BC     Archaic Period
Efficient hunting/gathering; adaptation to a climate much like today; use of the atlatl (spear thrower), woodworking tools, etc.; white-tail deer becomes a staple; extensive shell mounds along the coast and some inland rivers.

2,500 BC     First pottery in this country appears along the Georgia/South Carolina coast and soon filters into what is now Middle Georgia; it is tempered or strengthened with plant fibers which burn out during firing, giving a worm-hole appearance to the vessel surface.
1,000 BC-AD 900     Woodland Period
Pottery tempered with sand and grit, sometimes decorated with elaborate designs incised, punctuated, or stamped into its surface before firing; cultivation of sunflowers, gourds, and several other plants; construction of semi-permanent villages; stone effigy mounds and earthen burial and platform mounds; connections to the Adena/Hopewell Cultures further North and to Weeden Island in Florida and South Georgia.

A.D. 900-1150     Early Mississippian Period
A new way of life, believed to have originated in the Mississippi River area appears on the Macon Plateau. These people, whose pottery is different from that made by the Woodland cultures in the area, construct a large ceremonial center with huge earthen temple/burial/domiciliary mounds and earth lodges, which serve as formal council chambers. Their economy is supported by agriculture, with corn, beans, squash and other crops planted in the rich river floodplain. Indigenous Woodland people in surrounding areas interact with these people, who possess early symbols and artifacts associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (Southern Cult).
1150-1350     Mature Mississippian Period
The great Macon Plateau town declines and the Lamar and Stubbs Mounds and Villages appear just downstream. These towns are a combination of the old Woodland culture and Mississippian ideas. The Southern Cult, distinguished by flamboyant artistic motifs and specialized artifacts, flourishes at places like Roods Landing and Etowah (GA), Moundville (AL), Hiwasee Island (TN), Cahokia (IL), and Spiro (OK).

1350-1650   Late Mississippian Period (Protohistoric)
The Lamar Culture, named for the Lamar Mounds and Village Unit of Ocmulgee National Monument, becomes widespread in the Southeast; chiefdoms marked by smaller, more numerous, often stockaded villages with a ceremonial center marked by one or two mounds; combination of the both Woodland and Mississippian elements.
1540     Chroniclers of Hernando DeSoto's expedition into the interior of North America write the first descriptions of the Lamar and related cultures, ancestors of the historic Creek (Muscogean), Cherokee (Iroquoian), Yuchi (Euchee), and other Southeastern people. Most of their main towns are situated near rich river bottom land fields of corn, beans and squash. Many towns feature open plazas and earthen temple mounds. Public buildings and homes are constructed of upright logs, interwoven with vines or cane and plastered with clay (wattle and daub). Some are elaborately decorated and contain large woodcarvings. DeSoto’s expedition’s 600 men and 300 horses devastate local food supplies; epidemics of European diseases decimate many populations.
1565     The Spanish establish their first permanent settlement at St. Augustine, set up outposts at towns along the Atlantic coast to the North, and begin to missionize the Indians. Priests and soldiers travel up the river systems to other towns in the interior of the area which would become Georgia.
1670     The British establish Charles Town (Charleston, SC) on the Atlantic coast. Despite Spanish opposition, English explorers initiate contact and trade with towns in the interior.
1690   A British trading post is constructed on Ochese Creek (present Ocmulgee River at the site now protected within Ocmulgee National Monument). A number of Muscogee towns move from the Chattahoochee River to this vicinity to be near the English. At this time, the Ocmulgee river is called Ochese-hatchee or Ochisi-hatchi (various spellings). The towns are known as the Ochese Creek Nation. The British eventually refer to them simply as the "Creeks." They speak variations of the Muscogean language, but their confederacy incorporates other groups, such as the Yuchi, who speak different languages. The Creeks acquire horses from Spanish Florida and guns from the British. Their culture and dress is modified by use of trade goods such as iron pots, steel knives, and cotton cloth.

1704     Col. James Moore, with a band of some fifty men from Charles Town, leads 1,000 warriors from the Creek towns on the Ocmulgee River to Florida. They devastate the Spanish Apalachee Mission system and drive the Spaniards back to St. Augustine. After many of the inhabitants of northern Florida are exterminated, some of the Creeks move into the area and incorporate the survivors into their own group. These people are subsequently known as the Seminole and Miccosuki.
1715     The Yamassee War erupts in protest against British indignities related to the fur trade, including the taking of Indians shipped as slaves to work in Caribbean sugar plantations. Many traders in Indian territory are killed. In retaliation, the British burn Ocmulgee Town on Ochese Creek. The Creek towns withdraw to the Chattahoochee River and the Yuchis move with them. The people are known as the Lower Creeks. The Upper Creeks are centered on the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers to the northeast.
1733   The Georgia Colony settles on lands along the banks of the Savannah River given to General James Oglethorpe by Chief Tomochichi of the Yamacraws, a group related to the Lower Creeks. The Colony serves as a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.
1739   General James Oglethorpe, founder of the Georgia Colony, travels the ancient trading path through the mounds and old planting fields at Ocmulgee enroute to Coweta (near what is now Columbus, GA) to meet with the Creeks. One of his Rangers writes a short description of the mounds at what is now Ocmulgee National Monument. A western boundary for the colony is defined along the Ogeechee River. The area extends along the coast to the present northern border of Florida.

1774                    William Bartram, renowned naturalist and botanist, follows the Lower Creek Trading Path from Augusta through the area. In his journal, he records this account of the Ocmulgee Old Fields:
           "On the heights of these low grounds are yet visible
monuments, or traces, of an ancient town, such as artificial
mounts or terraces, squares and banks, encircling considerable
areas. Their old fields and planting land extend up and down
the river, fifteen or twenty miles from this site. If we are to
give credit to the account the Creeks give of themselves, this
place is remarkable for being the first town or settlement, when
they sat down (as they term it) or established themselves, after
their emigration from the west..."
1778     During the Revolutionary War many Creeks want to remain neutral, but Alexander McGillivray (of Creek-Scottish descent, educated in South Carolina, Principal Chief of both the Upper and Lower Creeks) leads them into an alliance with England.