Rood's Landing (9SW1) Arbitrary 1968-1979 Final

Summary

The Rood’s Landing Site (9SW1), also known as Rood’s Creek, was described by Caldwell as a Mississippian Period mound center consisting of eight mounds and a large village at the confluence of Rood’s Creek and the Chattahoochee River in Stewart County, Georgia. It was first described by C.B. Moore in 1907, and recorded again in 1939 by Wauchope (Atz, et al. 2000). In 1955, four of the mounds were tested by Joseph R. Caldwell (Caldwell 1955). However, over the next thirty years Rood’s Landing was also investigated by a number of other archaeologists including David W. Chase, A.R. Kelly, Harold Huscher, and Frank T. Schnell, but Caldwell was the only one to perform extensive excavations and to produce a published report detailing the findings (Schnell 1978). In addition, “large surface collections were made by the Smithsonian, the University of Georgia, the University of Alabama, and the Columbus Museum in subsequent years, and amateurs have since reported cultural materials from several peripheral areas to the Columbus Museum” (Knight and Mistovich 1984).

In 1955, work was started on the Walter F. George Dam, which was built on the Chattahoochee River roughly a mile north of Fort Gaines, Georgia (Schnell 1973). The Walter F. George Dam was completed in 1963 forming the Walter F. George Lake. The newly formed lake changed Rood’s Landing from a high bluff overlooking the Chattahoochee River into a peninsula barely above the water level of Walter F. George Lake (Huscher 1959). The construction of the Walter F. George Lake had both positive and negative effects on the Rood’s Landing site. The site became more accessible and additional surveys were undertaken, which led to the discovery of a possible ninth mound, Mound I (Schnell 1973).

The Mississippian Phase of Rood’s Landing has produced the most artifacts and appears to be the phase in which all nine mounds were constructed. However, Rood’s Landing is not just a Mississippian site; it is, in fact, a multi-component site with numerous temporal phases having been identified by artifacts collected by Frank T. Schnell and others. Occupations represented by the artifact assemblages include Paleo-Indian, Late Archaic, and Early Woodland settlements in addition to the Mississippian village/mounds (Schnell 1978).

The Rood’s Landing (9SW1) Arbitrary 1968-1979 collection was received as ten boxes labeled “Rood’s Landing 9SW1.” The artifacts in Rood’s Landing (9SW1) Arbitrary 1968-1979 investigation were grouped together because the artifacts lacked provenience information and could not be linked to specific investigations, principal investigators, or investigating institutions at Rood’s Landing with any degree of confidence. The dates and information associated with these artifacts seem to indicate that the artifacts were collected after the creation of Walter F. George Lock and Dam in 1964. It seems that most of the artifacts were recovered through informal collections during investigations conducted to assess the impact of Walter F. George Lake on the site, as well as collections that were taken during efforts to construct a steel breakwater in the late 1970s to halt erosion (Schnell 1973; Knight and Mistovich 1984; Atz et al. 2000).

Human Skeletal Remains were found at the Rood’s Landing (9SW1) site, and Rood’s Landing (9SW1) Arbitrary 1968-1979 contains some Human Skeletal Remains and NAGPRA related items. More information regarding NAGPRA can be found in the NAGPRA Artifacts section of this report.

Should additional information about Rood’s Landing be found in the future, it could be determined that artifacts from Rood’s Landing (9SW1) 1955, Rood’s Landing (9SW1) Arbitrary 1968-1979, and Rood’s Landing Tom Meltzer (9SW1) 1975 and 1980 could belong together or could be further divided. If this occurs, artifacts will need to be moved between projects.

The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include an artifact catalog, artifact report, and selected photographs. Additional materials held by the VCP include additional artifact photographs.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Contributor(s): Brockington and Associates, Inc.

Landowner(s): U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District

Sponsor(s): U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District; US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Repository(s): University of Georgia, Laboratory of Archaeology, Athens, Georgia

Prepared By(s): Veterans Curation Program

Submitted To(s): U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District

Notes

General Note: The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include an artifact catalog, artifact report, and selected photographs. Additional materials held by the VCP include additional artifact photographs.

Source Collections

Rood's Landing (9SW1) Arbitrary 1968-1979 Final collection will be sent to the UGA Laboratory of Archaeology, for permanent curation.