The Park Mound Site ( 9TP41) is a destroyed

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located near Yellow Jacket Creek in

Troup County Troup County (pronounced ) is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 69,426.US Census Bureau, 2020 Report, Troup County, Georgia The county seat is LaGrange. Troup ...

, Georgia, USA. It was investigated by Harold Huscher and a team of

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

students in the early 1970s.

Background

In the early 1970s, Troup Country, Georgia was in the midst of archaeological investigations by a contract with the

and the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. Between 1970 and 1972, the contract archaeologists were searching for historically documented Muscogee villages located within the

West Point Lake West Point Lake is a man-made reservoir located mostly in west-central Georgia on the Chattahoochee River and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The Chattahoochee river flows in from the north, before flowing through the West ...

reservoir project area; at this time, all fieldwork was limited to the Park Mound Site. In 1969, Huscher and his students began archaeological investigations of the Park Mound site, where initial clearing of vegetation was the primary goal to prepare for future excavations. It was not until later, in 1973, when the mound was investigated further with funds from a grant supported by the Callaway Foundation of LaGrange, Georgia. Park Mound is located on a large triangular portion of the flood plain at the junction of Yellow Jacket Creek and the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

. The site consisted of a single substructure platform mound measuring northwest to southeast and northeast to southwest and is high with surrounding village

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

deposits. The villages were only occupied on the northern and northeastern sides of the mound. All the

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

recovered during the excavations in 1972 was identifiable as Bull Creek complex. A small number of

Archaic Archaic is a period of time preceding a designated classical period, or something from an older period of time that is also not found or used currently: *List of archaeological periods **Archaic Sumerian language, spoken between 31st - 26th cent ...

lithic artifacts were also discovered, dating to late Etowah or Savannah phase time period, signifying brief occupation. David J. Hally and Leila Oertal at the University of Georgia compiled post excavations, archeological reports. The Park Mound site was destroyed at the completion of the West Point Lake reservoir in 1975. Yellow Jacket Creek is currently a recreational park area in southwestern central Georgia near the West Point Lake reservoir.

References

{{Pre-Columbian North America Archaeological sites in Georgia (U.S. state) Native American history of Georgia (U.S. state)