Swift Creek culture
The Swift Creek culture was a Middle Woodland period archaeological culture in the Southeastern Woodlands of North America, dating to around 100-800 CE. It occupied the areas now part of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In Florida, Swift Creek ceremonial practices and burial complexes are referred to technically as the Yent-Green Point complex. The Swift Creek culture was contemporaneous with and interacted with the Hopewell culture; Swift Creek is often described as "Hopewellian." The type site for the Swift Creek culture was the Swift Creek mound site, which was located in Bibb County, Georgia. The Leake Mounds are another significant Swift Creek Culture site in Georgia.
Swift Creek peoples practiced mound-building but were generally non-sedentary. Their sustenance resulted from hunting, gathering/collecting, and fishing. Swift Creek are characterized by earthenware pottery with complicated stamped designs, involving mostly curvilinear elements. Examples of a type of pottery decoration consisting of diamond-shaped checks found at the Swift Creek sites are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip Earthworks, Rockhold, Harness, and Turner), and the Mann site in southern Indiana[1] as well as the Crystal River Site in Florida.[2]
Swift Creek Complicated Stamping
The Swift Creek people practiced their own form of pottery, known as Swift Creek Complicated Stamping. In this process, one would carve out the design of the pottery in a wooden paddle. This design usually featured curvilinear patterns. From the wooden paddle, it would be stamped on to the pottery, which was then fired. Throughout the existence of the Swift Creek culture, this process continued to evolve through the years 20 BCE to 805 CE. The earliest finding of these works were deep jars with scalloped and notched rims. Towards the end of the practice, pottery was found to be bowls with folded rims.
See also
- Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture
- Hopewell tradition
- List of Hopewell sites
Notes
References
- Kelly, A.R., and Betty A. Smith. 1975 The Swift Creek Site, 9 Bi 3, Macon, Georgia. Ms. on file, Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon, Georgia.
- Snow, F.H. 1975 "Swift Creek Designs and Distributions: A South Georgia Study", Early Georgia 3(2):38-59.
- Williams, M., and D.T. Elliott, editors. 1998 A World Engraved: Archaeology of the Swift Creek Culture. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
External links
- Swift Creek Period, Frankie Snow, South Georgia College
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- Woodland period
- List of Hopewell sites
- Mound Builders
- List of archaeological periods (North America)
- Beam Farm
- Benham Mound
- Cary Village Site
- Cedar-Bank Works
- Dunns Pond Mound
- Ellis Mounds
- Ety Enclosure
- Ety Habitation Site
- Everett Knoll Complex
- Fort Ancient
- Fortified Hill Works
- Great Hopewell Road
- High Banks Works
- Hopeton Earthworks
- Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
- Indian Mound Cemetery
- Keiter Mound
- Marietta Earthworks
- Moorehead Circle
- Mound of Pipes
- Nettle Lake Mound Group
- Newark Earthworks
- Oak Mounds
- Orators
- Perin Village Site
- Pollock Works
- Portsmouth Earthworks
- Rocky Fork Enclosures
- Rocky Fork Mounds
- Seip Earthworks and Dill Mounds District
- Shawnee Lookout
- Shriver Circle Earthworks
- Stubbs Earthworks
- Tremper Mound and Works
- Williamson Mound Archeological District
- Goodall site
- Norton Mound group
- Lewiston Mound
- Serpent Mounds Park
- LeVescounte Mounds
Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture
- Crystal River Archaeological State Park
- Etowah Indian Mounds
- Leake Mounds
- Kolomoki Mounds
- Miner's Creek site
- Pierce Site
- Swift Creek mound site
- Third Gulf Breeze
- Yearwood site
- Yent Mound
- Armstrong culture
- Copena culture
- Fourche Maline culture
- Laurel complex
- Saugeen complex
- Old Stone Fort (Tennessee)
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