Bringing Georgia's Natural History to Georgians
  • Natural History & Geology
    • Podcast; The Tivola Whale
    • Coastal Plain Correlation Chart
    • GA Paleo Research by Paul F. Huddlestun PhD >
      • Late Eocene & Older... Coastal Plain Stratigraphy
      • Washington County Core Logs By Paul Huddlestun
      • Coastal Plain Core Logs by Paul F. Huddlestun
    • Presentation; Oaky Woods Stratigraphy
    • Physiographic Map of Georgia
    • Fossils of Oaky Woods
    • Collections & Stewardship of Georgia’s Fossils
    • I, Periarchus (A Fossil's Tale)
    • Georgia's Amateurs >
      • Amateur; Jared Dyche, On The Way To A Degree
      • Cam Muskelly, Duluth, GA
      • Kyle Keller, Valdosta, GA >
        • Kyle Keller Returns, Still Rocking!
      • Hank Josey, Dublin
      • Bill Christy; Kamin Performance Minerals Fossils
    • Public Fossil Locations >
      • South Houston County Fossils
      • Updated; Islands of the Savannah River
    • Georgia Fossils in the Smithsonian
  • Education Material
    • My Field Kit; What You Need In The Field
    • Meet Crassostrea gigantissima, Georgia's Historic Giant Oyster
    • Georgiacetus Presentation; A Whale for Georgia
    • The Natural History & Fossils Record of Houston County, GA
    • Evolution in Georgia's Fossil Record
    • Georgia's State Fossil; Shark Teeth
    • Georgia's Paleontology For Georgia's Classrooms
    • SW GA RESA 2018 Talk
    • Library & School Presentations
    • An Introduction To Fossils; Presentation
    • Georgia's Fossils Presentation; 500 million years
    • Georgia College Natural History Museum
  • Meteorites
    • Did I Find A Meteorite?
    • Georgia's Lost Meteorite
    • Georgia's Witnessed Meteorite Falls
    • The Sardis Iron, Georgia's Largest Meteorite
  • 1: Georgia's Oldest Fossils; Archaeocyathids, At 513 Million Years Old
  • 2: Trilobites; 500 Million Years Ago
    • 2A; Murray County Stromatolites
    • 2B; A Trilobite Nest in Georgia
  • 3: Geologic Time
  • 4: Our Oldest Vertebrate?
  • 5: Georgia Before the Dinosaurs
    • 5A; Georgia’s Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
    • 5B: Carpentertypus durhami, Georgia’s Giant Insect, 315 Million Years Ago
  • 6: 200 Million Years Ago
    • 6A: Birth of the Atlantic Ocean
  • 7: Cretaceous Georgia, Dinosaurs & more
    • 7A: Georgias Pterosaur
    • 7C: Coelecanths
    • 7B: So Many Sharks
    • 7D: Xiphactinus vetus
    • 7E: Side-necked turtles
    • 7F: Marine Reptiles
    • 7G: Dinosaurs in Georgia
    • 7I; The Blufftown Formation
    • 7L: Bill Montante's Mega "Gator" Tooth Discovery
    • 7K: The Pio Nono Formation
    • 7J: The Eutaw Formation
    • 7H: Deinosuchus schwimmeri in Recognition of Dr. David Schwimmer
  • 8: Suwannee Current, Gulf Trough, & Bridgeboro Limestone
  • 9: The Clayton Formation Report; By Hank Josey
    • 9A: The Georgia Turtle
  • 10: The Eocene; Georgia's Oldest Mammals
    • 10A: The Origins of Whales
  • 11: A Whale For Georgia
  • 12: Basilosaurids; The First Modern Whales
    • 12A: Basilosaurus cetoides
    • 12B: Basilotritus
    • 12C: Cynthiacetus (Revised)
    • 12D: Chrysocetus
    • 12E: The Redmond Mandible of Albany Ga
    • 12F; Houston County, GA Basilosaurus to the Smithsonian
  • 13: Ziggy and The Museum of Arts & Sciences, Macon, GA
  • 14: Late Eocene
    • 14A: Eocene Fossils & Stratigraphy
    • 14B; Fossils, Impacts, & Tektites Dating the Clinchfield Formation
    • 14C: The Tivola Limestone
    • 14D: Twiggs Clay Vertebrates
    • 14F; Sandersville Limestone, By Hank Josey
    • 14E: Ocmulgee Formation Vertebrates
    • 14I: Dating Late Eocene Sediments
    • 14J: Georgia's Tektites; Georgiaites
    • 14K; Shell Bluff; Georgia's Most Historic Paleontology Site
    • 14L; Taylors Bluff, Paleo Paddling the Ocmulgee River
    • 14M; Eocene Terrestrial Mammals From Gordon, GA
    • 14N: Fossil Ridge, A Stratigraphic Study in Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area
    • 14O; Georgia's First Entelodont
    • 14P: Historic Rich Hill
    • 14Q; Bibb County's Christy Hill, Clinchfield Formation Hilltop
  • 15: Early Oligocene
    • 15A: The Marianna Limestone
    • 15B; The Glendon Limestone
    • 15C: Undiffereniated Oligocene Residuum
    • 15D; Brissus bridgeboroensis; A New Echinoid Species From Georgia’s Bridgeboro Limestone
    • 15E: The Curious Steinkern Sea Biscuits of Red Dog Farm Road
    • 15F: Early Oligocene Gordian Knot
  • 16: Bonaire GA Entelodont
  • 17: The Whale Eating Shark
  • 18: Miocene Epoch; 23.3 to 5.3 Million Years Ago
    • 18A; Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates
    • 18B; Paul Fell, Rockhouse Cave
    • 18C: The Marks Head Formation
    • 18D: Miocene Terrestrial Vertebrates of the Marks Head Formation
    • 18E: The Statenville Formation
    • 18F: South Georgia’s Dugong Metaxytherium calvertense
  • 19: Pliocene Epoch; 5.3 to 2.5 Million years Ago
    • 19A: Two Small Primitive Horses from Taylor County Advance the Science of Georgia Geology
  • 20: The Ice Ages; Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs
    • 20A; Clark Quarry's Mammoths & Bison
    • 20B: Pleistocene Vertebrate List
    • 20C: Georgia’s Eolian Dunes
    • 20D: Georgia’s Carolina Bays
    • 20E: Late Pleistocene Significant Events
    • 20F: Southeastern Thermal Enclave
    • 20G; Diamond Back Terrapins
    • 20H; A Kaolin Mine Beaver Dam
    • 20I; Pleistocene Vertebrate Fossils On Georgia’s Piedmont
    • 20J; Watkins Quarry Pleistocene Vertebrates, Glynn County, GA
  • *NEW* 20K: Pleistocene Vertebrates from Coastal Georgia
  • 21: Humans in Georgia
  • 22: Geology of the Coastal Plain, 1911
    • 22A: 1911 Cretaceous Fossil Locations
    • 22B: 1911 Eocene Fossil Locations
  • 23: Coastal GA Locations (1957)
  • 24: Needed; The Georgia Geologic Survey
  • Building This Site
    • Origins Of This Site
    • Contributing Artists
    • Black & White Sketches


21: The Arrival of Humans in Georgia

​By Thomas Thurman
​

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This is an area of ongoing debate, and though this is a paleontological work claiming no expertise in archeology, the arrival of man is an important point in paleontology; it coincides with the extinction of the large ice age megafauna such as mammoths, mastodons, giant bison and many others. Research is still ongoing over the whether or not the arrival of man triggered, in some way, this extinction event.

Visiting Ocmulgee National Park (Indian Mounds) in Macon, Georgia we see that the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior states that Middle Georgia has had continuous human habitation for 12,000 years.

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This continuous occupation does not mean the same people were present. Cultures came and went, Georgia’s resources are abundant. This is why Georgia has produced artifacts from so many different Native American periods and cultures.

The oldest are probably the Clovis people; it is important to bear in mind that they were modern humans. The only differences between them and us; was culture, technology and education. We could not survive and raise families in their world, with their technology, any more than they could survive in ours. The modern immune system is probably the only physiological difference simply because our ancestors survived many epidemics unknown to the Clovis and early Native Americans before the arrival of Columbus (or other European explorers).

The earliest European visitors found the Mississippian culture, who were mound builders, a very different people than the Clovis.
         
Clovis points occur in Georgia and are dated to at least 13,250 years old. These are a very distinctive type of spear or lance point originally discovered and described from samples in Clovis, New Mexico.

From here, things get complex. One of the problems is that there are many Native American cultures, from many different recent time periods, known to occur in both the USA and Georgia.

These are usually identified by the varying styles of tools or pottery they left behind. This is compounded by the problem that all of these cultures had the same basic needs, and often chose the same locations for their communities because all the resources they required were available.

They needed workable stone for tools. They needed a source of water which in many cases would also have been used for transportation, thus rivers, larger creeks or natural lakes.

They needed high ground near water sources which would give them protection from flooding. Predators also tend to avoid high, exposed ground. So it’s no surprise that stone tools can be found from several different time periods all made from the same local stone sources.

Chert was typically the stone of choice was here in Middle Georgia; we have an abundance natural chert, and much of it is distinctive in quality, coloration and pattern. It is often very localized; one certain pattern, color or texture may only occur within a few acres.

So in many cases one might be able to determine where any given stone tool originated. However, Native Americans heated the stone to make it easier to work and more durable.

Heating chert changes its coloration and pattern, so to determine the source for such tools one would have to collected samples from several areas and heat them all for comparison.

Stone tools are also found in Georgia which did not originate locally; this suggests both travel and trading among the Native Americans, something which is generally accepted by researchers.

Turning back to paleontology, and resting on the Clovis period of 13,250 years ago which is relatively well known and accepted, we can see what animals were present when these people lived and hunted in Georgia.

The Clovis people are known to have hunted mammoths and mastodons. In other parts of the country Clovis artifacts have been found in relation to kills of these animals. There were also giant ground sloths present, as well as giant bison, cougars, jaguars, black bears, cave bears, giant beavers, large armadillos, llamas, horses, giant tortoises, alligators…. The list goes on.

The American lion, saber tooth cats, saber toothed tiger, dire wolf and brown bear may also have been present. They were certainly in present in Florida and surrounding states. (35)

Gray’s Reef Land Mammals & Human Presence
19 miles offshore, into the Atlantic Ocean

If we walked about 19 miles out into the Atlantic from Georgia’s coastline we’d reach Gray’s Reef. Today of course we’d need a boat, but this wasn’t always so. Sea levels rise and sea levels fall and more than once, since humans have been present in Georgia, you could have walked all the way to Gray’s Reef. Men, women and children did this.

In 2003 a research project led by the University of Georgia researchers Ervan G, Garrison, Sherri L. Littman, and Megan Mitchell looked at and reported on the Gray’s Reef fossils and artifacts.

Gray’s Reef was most recently above sea level about 8,000 years ago. Fossils from species of bison, which species is unknown, have been recovered from Gray’s Reef and radio carbon dated by the University of Georgia to this time frame.

Other fossils from Grays Reef include horse, elk or deer and what is thought to be a camel fossil. The relatives of modern camels and llamas were certainly in Georgia during this time frame. Older fossils have also been recovered, including both mastodon and mammoth remains dating to more than 10,000 years old.

Perhaps the most interesting of the specimens recovered have been human artifacts; tools, stone projectile points made of orthoquartizite and antler material, whose ages has not yet been accurately determined. They could easily be 8,000 years old. (17)

Georgiaite Artifacts
On the subject of artifacts, and returning for a moment to Georgia’s tektites, Hal Povenmire reports that about 5% to 10% of Georgia’s tektites show “indications of being flaked by early Indians. However, complete artifacts are extremely rare”. (39)

Georgiaites, being essentially natural glass, would make very fine edged projectile points.

Hal reports:

“In early 2011, a second Georgia tektite which had been flaked into a projectile point was reported.  This specimen was found in Dodge County and artifact specialists have suggested that it was of archaic age (Archaic Period) and the aborigines flaking it were likely of the Pickwick or Wacissa Cultures. This 7.1 gram tektite was flaked, damaged, and then reworked several times.” (39)

The U.S. National Monument website for the Ocmulgee National Monument places the Archaic Period at 1,000 to 8,000 BC (say 3,000 to 10,000 years ago) with the tektite itself being more than 30 million years old.

References 
Gray’s Reef:
2008, Shallow Marine Margin Sediments, Modern Marine Erosion and the Fate of the Sequence Boundaries – Georgia Bight (USA) Southeastern Geology, 45:127-142. Garrison, E.G., G. McFall & S.E. Noakes

2004, Geoarchaeology and Paleoecology of Gray’s Reef National
Marine Sanctuary, Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology. March 31 to April 4, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Ervan G. Garrison, Sherri L. Littman, Megan Mitchell, Pradeep Srivastava, & Wendy Weaver.


2003, Palecology of Gray’s Reef National Marine Snactuary. Ecological Society of America, 88th annual Meeting, August 3-8, Savannah, GA. Ervan G. Garrison, Sherri L. Littman, Megan Mitchell & Wendy Weaver.

Geoarchaeological Studies at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Georgia’s Atlantic Bight. Ocean’s ’03, San Diego, CA. Ervan G. Garrison, Sherri L. Littman, Megan Mitchell & Wendy Weaver. 


The Arrival of Man
Ocmulgee National Park, Macon, Georgia 17,000 years of continuous Human habitation. See website; www.nps.gov/ocmu/index.htm

New Georgia Encyclopedia; Paleoindian Period overview, see: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-810 
 
Georgiaites points

The First Documented Georgia-Area tektite Found in Bibb County, Georgia. Hal Povenmire, Indian Harbor Beach, Florida. Summer 2011