The Swift Creek culture was a Middle

Woodland period In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BC to European contact i ...

archaeological culture in the

Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an Ethnography, ethnographic classification for Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now ...

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, dating to around 100-800 CE. It occupied the areas now part of

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Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

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, and

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. 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 The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from ...

; 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 Bibb County is located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, its population was 157,346. Bibb County is geographically located in the Central Georgia (Middle Georgia) region, and is the largest county in the Macon metropolit ...

. 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 Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

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

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as well as the Crystal River Site in Florida.

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.

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 Archaeological type sites Archaeological cultures in the United States Archaeology of the United States Woodland period Archaeological cultures of Florida {{US-archaeology-stub

Swift Creek Complicated Stamping

See also

Notes

References

External links