Archaeological Investigations at the Beaverdam Creek Site (9EB85), Elbert County, Georgia

This report summarizes excavations by the University of Georgia at the Beaverdam Creek mound and village in the Savannah River valley in Elbert County, Georgia. The excavations were conducted as part of large-scale investigations of prehistoric and historic sites in the Richard B. Russell Reservoir, which were funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District.
The Beaverdam Creek site was occupied around A.D. 1200-1250. We have used the pottery from the site to assign it to the Beaverdam phase of the Savannah culture, a subdivision of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture.
The Beaverdam Creek mound was quite small, only 1.5 m high, and was badly vandalized, but it contained the remains of several buildings built atop each other. At first the buildings were earth lodges, large rectangular structures with dirt heaped up along the outer walls. Later, the earth lodges were replaced by free-standing buildings raised up on earth platforms. Each of these buildings probably served as the center for political and religious activities of a group of Indians living in villages scattered throughout the valley.