by Olan Moore, Watkinsville, Georgia
Volume 71, Number 1, January 2024 Central States Archaeological Journal
As the Ogeechee River flows toward the Atlantic Ocean near Richmond Hill, Georgia, it forms a horseshoe bend around some shell middens. Over time the middens have eroded. It was along this edge of the river during the summer of 1977 that my friend, Bobby Morris and his wife Rita, were looking for shell beads. I had been with them on several occasions and finding four or five beads was a good day.
Bobby was searching near the river, and Rita was scouring above the bank when she discovered a pipe. She called to Bobby and said, “I found a pipe with a monkey on it!” (see Fig. 1). The following week I saw the pipe and realized it was an effigy pipe. Bert Bierer pictured a similar one in his Indian Artifacts in the Southeast: A Sketchbook on page 258. He described it as an effigy pipe — a human figure holding a bowl, which was found in the Hollywood Mound on the Savannah River in Georgia. Furthermore, he stated it was a ceremonial object of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, 400–800 years old.
To me, the figure resembles those made of marble from the Etowah Mounds of north Georgia.
It was also during the summer of 1977 that I found the incised human face (center – Fig. 1) near this same location. It is almost identical to the ones recovered by Clarence B. Moore on the Georgia coast in 189, and shown on pages 18 and 68 of his book on those expeditions.
References
Bierer, Bert W.
1977 Indian Artifacts in the Southwest: A Sketchbook. Privately published.
Moore, Clarence B.
1897 Certain Aboriginal Mounds of the Georgia Coast. Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia.
