Ocmulgee Mounds

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park has been a place of human habitation for 12,000-17,000 years. The first peoples here alongside the Ocmulgee (oak-muhl -ghee) River near what is now Macon, Georgia, were Paleo-Indians – big game hunters just after the last ice age. A broken Clovis point arrowhead dating back at least 13,000 years, found in a fire pit during a major archeological excavation, tells us of that early occupation. Then as the earth warmed and the mammoths and mastodons went extinct, the humans adapted. They modified their hunting skills to take down deer and other smaller faster mammals using the atlatls and beginning to grow some of their own vegetables. In this era they would heat stones to drop into water vessels to cook food, the original stone soup! As the millennia passed these Woodlands peoples grew more adept at farming and developed amazing pottery skills. By the end of first millennium CE the Moundbuilders civilization was predominate here. The huge platform mounds, crafted by hauling soil one basketful at a time, still dominate the landscape. They served ceremonial and spiritual purposes. We learned much of this from Ranger Makayla on the Earth Lodge tour. As we walked the grounds with her we learned more about the Green Corn Ceremony that was practiced widely at the end of the growing season. The people feasted, then fasted and drank a strong Yaupon Holly tea to cleanse their bodies. All fires in the village were extinguished before a new ceremonial fire was built and used to light all the cooking fires and mark the beginning of a new year. Descendents of these Moundbuilders, the Muscogee (Creek), even now practice a New Fire Ceremony. We had the opportunity to humble ourselves by stooping to walk through the passage to the rebuilt Earth Lodge to see the original thousand year old floor with a Bird of Prey effigy opposite the entry, the original fire pit, and the fifty seats arranged in a circle. The lodge is oriented so that every February 22nd and October 22nd the rising sun shines straight through the entry and illuminates the Bird of Prey effigy and the Seat of the Chief. More recent human activity has caused destruction to these mounds. In 1843 and 1873 railroad construction removed a large portion of the Funeral Mound and much of the Lesser Temple Mound. Civil War trenches and earthworks as well as pot hunters and looters removed a lot of material but in the 1930’s the Smithsonian, the CCC ,and the WPA conducted the largest ever archeological dig under the supervision of archeologist Arthur Kelly. Thus began the protection of this recognized national historic site. We truly enjoyed walking the grounds, climbing to the top of the Great Funeral Mound, perusing the museum in the Visitors Center, and learning as much as we could in this our first visit.