The Mound Builders of Macon
By Kathleen Walls
Southern RV Traveler
September 8, 2004
This article can also be found at Woodall's site: https://www.woodalls.com/regpubs/southern/output.cfm?id=868591&issueid=0
When the explorer and naturalist William Bartram first encountered them in the
1770s, he described them as “wonderful remains of the power and grandeur of the
ancients in this part of America.” He was speaking of the Ocmulgee Mounds near Macon,
Georgia. The wonder that these unique structures elicited in William Bartram is still
there for us to observe. They have been standing as a silent sentinel, guarding the
mysteries of the Early Mississippian Period people who built them. We can visit and marvel
at the power and natural beauty of the mounds. Beneath the apparent simplicity, scientists
sense that these early builders had an elaborate and complicated society.
People of the Plateau
There is much we know about their way of life and much more we may never learn. They were
not the first to inhabit this pleasant river plateau. Stretching far back into
pre-history, nomadic hunters visited the area. These early travelers stayed in no one
place. They migrated with the herds of huge mammals they hunted and depended on for their
livelihood. They did leave behind a few remnants of their passage; a distinctive type of
spear point called a Clovis Spearhead.
Shortly after them, the early hunters and gatherers came. They depended only partly on
hunting and relied heavily on the bounty of the earth for survival. This site was close
enough to the Ocmulgee River to provide them with shellfish and small game that needed the
water to survive. Their burials here suggest the beginnings of ritual, the earliest form
of primitive worship of a higher being. By about 1000 B.C. a farming people called the
Woodland Culture took root here. The land was fertile, allowing them to grow corn, beans
and squash. They lived in villages and built tools. They created beautiful designs in
their pottery by means of carved wooden stamps before they fired the pieces.
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Arrival of the Builders
The Woodland People were still here when the mound builders came. Apparently there was no
war or conquest, the new people migrated in from the Mississippi Valley, hence their name.
The two cultures existed simultaneously until the Woodland People died out. The
Mississippians had elaborate rituals and a complicated social structure. At least three of
the mounds had a religious significance. As Europe lay huddled in the ignorance of the
Dark Ages, the mound builders at Ocmulgee neared the zenith of their culture. Besides
being successful farmers, they also appeared to understand the basics of astronomy. It is
believed they traded with the other indigenous people around the area.
Macon Plateau Mounds
Great Temple Mound is the largest mound on the Macon Plateau. The builders created
terraces of earth to raise the mound 50 feet on the side facing their village and a
startling 90 feet facing the river. In its heyday, the top was the site of a rectangular
wooden building believed used for religious or civil ceremonies. The mound was constructed
in stages and a low earth wall protected the last stage. The last two stages have stepped
ramps leading to the summit. Lesser Temple Mound was partially destroyed when a railroad
line was cut through the area in the 1870s. It, too, once held a rectangular building on
its flattened top. The uses are still unknown.
Earthlodge
The Earthlodge was reconstructed in the 1930s over the clay floor of the 1,000-year old
ceremonial lodge that once stood on the spot. A fire that ravaged the original building
did preserve the features of the clay floor and the circular bench with its individually
molded seats. Carved into the floor was the effigy of an eagle. It was here in this
ceremonial lodge that the tribe’s leaders converged around the central fire pit to
discuss the tribal affairs.
Mysterious Mounds
The Funeral Mound was probably the burial place of the leaders and important people. It
was constructed in seven stages. The present height is about the equivalent of the third
stage. Much of the later stages were destroyed by the railroad. To date, at least 100
bodies have been discovered at this site. The deceased were buried with artifacts such as
ornaments and pottery made of shell or copper.
The Cornfield Mound is still a mystery to the people who have studied it. It covered rows
of a freshly furrowed cornfield. The mound is about 8-feet high. Archeologists do not know
the significance of this as the cornfields were usually planted down on the river
lowlands. There is evidence that a building stood on the top at that time. Several
prehistoric trenches are also present. They could have been the place the earth was
excavated to build the mounds or they could have been a means of defense. Four lesser
mounds, Dunlap, Southeast, Mound X and McDougal Mounds can be reached by trails leading
from the village. Their purpose is still unknown.
Pre-Columbian History
By the time Columbus arrived in the New World, the mounds were already shrouded in
antiquity and their builders lost to history except for the huge memorials they left
behind.
The people who displaced the original mound builders seemed to be a combination of the two
cultures, Woodland and Mississippian. Their pottery was distinctive from either of their
predecessors and though they made use of the Old Town ruins, their main site was a
stockade village in the swamp next to the river – several miles from the original
mounds. Their village included two temple mounds and is called the Lamar Mounds. The
temple mound is under the protection of the Ocmulgee as a National Public Monument and may
only be visited by special permit. The 45 acres surrounding the scenic Lamar site protect
one of the most unique mounds in the country. This temple mound is the only one in
existence that is ascended by a spiral ramp. By the end of the 1600s the area was the home
of the Muscogeeans, a people the Europeans called the Creeks. The English were anxious to
establish trade with them and built a stockade village at the old village site and brought
glass beads, firearms, pots and other accouterments of “civilization” to trade
for the native people’s furs and deerskins. People from all over the Southeast
traveled here to barter with the white traders.
Lantern Light Tours
If you visit in March during the Cherry Blossom Festival, be sure to sign up for the
Lantern Light Tours. These tours are purposely kept small so that you can truly appreciate
these structures and the people who dwelled here long ago. Walking these ancient paths at
night with only the light of a ranger’s lantern to guide you and just the chosen few
is an experience not to be missed.
Throughout the year, you will find special events designed to enhance your understanding
of the elaborate cultures that flourished here long before European settlers walked this
land. The visitor’s center houses a museum that leads you through the periods of
settlement on the plateau and offers a film, “People of the Macon Plateau.”
For more than 12,000 years, cultures rose and fell here. Today, the site faces one more
threat, a proposed bypass to be built through it. Hopefully, that will be averted so that
this place – so rich in the history of our country – will be preserved for you
and future visitors to wonder at the richness of these early cultures.