Historic Oglethorpe crowd learns new details about Native American life.
Attendees packed the Oglethorpe County Library to listen to guest speaker James Wettstaed during last week’s Historic Oglethorpe County meeting. Wettstaed has lived in Georgia since 2005, and has been the forest archaeologist and tribal liaison for the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest since 2009.
The meeting was standing-room only, with nearly 70 attendees gathered in the Oglethorpe County Library.
“I think we’re gonna have to expand the parking lot out there!” Historic Oglethorpe president Kathleen deMarrais joked.
The reason for the unprecedented turnout?
James Wettstaed, forest archaeologist and tribal liaison for the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, was the guest speaker on March 28.
Wettstaed’s presentation highlighted recent archeological excavations in North Georgia that changed historians’ beliefs about Native American life during the Contact Period (1400-1700 AD).
“Our understanding of this time period in this region has changed in the last 10 years,” Wettstaed said.
These new perspectives were formed through the collection of new data, as well as the application of new technology to old data.
James Wettstaed shows pictures of a Stephens County excavation site he worked on during his presentation at the Historic Oglethorpe County meeting on March 28. Volunteer excavations that spanned from 2014 to 2018 unearthed two distinct hearths, proving that one house had been there in the early 1500s, and another in the late 1500s.
Among the findings Wettstaed shared were those from the Dyar archeological site in Greene County. This site, now submerged under Lake Oconee, was home to a platform mound once used for domestic and ritual activities.
Archeologists used advanced radiocarbon dating techniques to try to find out when the mounds were built.
“What we found surprised the heck out of us,” Wettstaed said.
Historians previously believed that Indigenous people in this area stopped using mounds after Hernando de Soto came through Georgia in 1540 AD.
“The last building episode there was between 1665 and 1670, which really blew people away because they weren’t supposed to be working on mounds at the time; they weren’t supposed to be using mounds,” Wettstaed explained.
This excavation proved that Mississippian society didn’t immediately decline after the Spanish made contact, as previously believed.
History-shaping projects like this aren’t just the work of experts and academics. Archeological digs often rely on volunteers.
“I’ve had volunteers from all over the country come and work with the forest service,” Wettstaed said.
The program, called Passport in Time, brings in 8-10 volunteers.
“They’re actually doing the excavating, doing the work at the site, and the archeologists supervise and assist in answering their questions,” he said.
One attendee, Ellen Whitaker, has participated in many volunteer digs, including one at Scull Shoals on the Oconee River.
“It was some of the best times I’ve had, really, a highlight of my life. I always wanted to do it and finally, I got to,” Whitaker said.