Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-26
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henri.

Flint artifacts quite similar in work.
manship to those of the middle and late
Old Stone Ages in Europe and showing
signs, probably deceptive, of great age,
are reported to the Smithsonian msti-
tuition from an archaeological exploration
during the past four years Of the Ocmul-
gee Basin, near Macon, Ga.
Several thousand of these worked
flints, it is reported by DR.. A. R. Kelly.
in charge Of the project, have been dug
from the Macon Plateau. These in
clude great variety of specialized
scrapers, such as was characteristic Of
the culture Of early European hunting
peoples.
THE conveyance In workmanship"
says DR.. Kelly, lis in many instances
truly remarkable" However old they
may be, he says, they certainly preceded
the first pottery making among the In
dams of the neighborhood, and this it
self is a quite ancient art In the New
World.
A great majority, he says, show adj
vanced decomposition or "patination" to
an extent seldom observed in American
collections Flint artifacts of similar
meteorological nature, he points out,
change hardly at all in the soil condi-
tons to which these have been exposed
within from 700 to 1000 years. On the
other hand, the process goes on very
rapidly in deep-lying and weathered
loan and fossil soils. There is posi-
bility that special circumstances favored
very rapid rate of decomposition for
these particular objects.
Many of the artifacts, he reports, have
"Folsomoid complex" This means
that they resemble, but are not identical
with, the flint tools and weapons made
by the hypothetical Folsom hunters, who
apparently roamed over North America
in the closing days OF the last Ice Age
and who are the earliest known inhabi-
tants of this continent. One projectile
he describes as being truly Folsom, in
distinguishable from the type found in
the Southwest, where the greatest con-
centration OF relics of this mysterious
people has been found.
A few isolated areas showed heavier
concentrations of rotten, decayed flint
scraps, Indicating the possibility Of an
Gent workshops.
Mr.. Kelly leaves the question open
without drawing from the accumulation
of evidence the possible conclusion that
the country around Macon was the site
Of a concentration Of Ice Age people.
For the most part only scattered Folsom
points have been found through the East
and there is no means of dating them.
The Western evidence indicates that
they lived in Colorado, Arizona and New
Mexico approximately 10000 years ago,
when there were great numbers of ami
mails, now extinct, including the man.
moth and variety of bison which long
s1r.oa has disappeared. Their appear
ance In the East may have been much
later or simultaneous with the Western
phase.
While the methods of flint chipping
are very similar to those used by the
'cave men of the European Ice Age,
this probably was purely coincidence
and does not indicate any relationship
between the early peoples of the two
continents.
The greater part of Dr. Kelly's report
is devoted to the pottery complex around
Macon. The work was started originally
under the direction of the Bureau of
American Ethnology of the Smithsonian
Institution as Works Progress Admins
tration project. It has continued under
various relief organizations and is at
present under the direction of the Ma
tional Parks Service. The area is within
the Ocmulgee National Monument, re-
Gently set aside as Federal reserve by
act of Congress.
The area, known as Ocmulgee Fields,
is notable for the large mounds scat
tered over it. 1t was in the excavation
OF these mounds, resulting from Indian
occupancy, that the relief labor was
employed. From the pottery and other
artifacts uncovered rough reconstruct
ton Of the history of the region before
the coming Of the white man can be
made, although intensive study is still
necessary before the proper interpreted
tons can be put on all the material
recovered.
Broadly, Mr.. Kelly reports, the culture
OF the region was quite similar to the
basic culture of the Lower Mississippi
Valley. There are other evidences that
this was an Indian homeland" from
which peoples occasionally migrated or
were driven, but in which they retained
sentimental interest and to which they
returned several times, perhaps with
lapses of generations. During the vari-
Gus periods of exile they retained their
basic culture, which was, however modi-
fled by the impact of new environments.
This may account, Mr.. Kelly believes for
some of the anomalies found in the pot
terry sequences.