Design Reconstruction
Where They Lived
Swift Creek Indian Lifestyle
The Designs
Thousands of years after man came to Georgia a distinctive group of American Indians, the Swift Creek people, thrived in a large area of southern Georgia. Within a few centuries following the death of Christ these Swift Creek people had developed an art style that involved the carving of elaborately complex designs into wooden paddles which were then used as stamping tools during the construction of pottery. These designs which were impressed onto their clay pots survive today as broken fragments of ornate vessels.
Design Reconstruction
The tedious process of reconstruction
paddle designs involves carefully sorting through pottery fragments searching
for design overlaps until as much of the entire design is found as possible.
The process is facilitated by using special lighting which enhances subtle
design data. As each piece of the design information is discovered it is
carefully measured and transferred to paper. Many factors complicate the
process. Overstamping, paddle slippage and the practice of
obliterating the design on certain areas of the pot by some artisans make
the reconstruction of the designs a very slow process.
Where They Lived
The term Swift Creek refers to the location where their pottery
was first isolated as a kind of Indian pottery. Swift Creek is a small tributary
of the Ocmulgee River near Macon. Today, a map of the distribution of Swift
Creek pottery reveals that its range extends from near the Fall Line atMacon
southward into northern Florida as far as Jacksonville and Tampa. In an
east-west direction it has been found from the Georgia coast to the Northwest
Florida coast near Pensacola.
Swift Creek Indian Lifestyle
Because Swift Creek
people lived in prehistoric times (before written history) we do not know
tribal names nor do we know very much about the people themselves. Archaeologist
have excavated some of their villages and burial places in an effort to
learn more about their lifestyle. Careful excavation has revealed an elaborate
ritual associated with the death of their religious and or political leaders.
The burial ceremony sometimes included the sacrifice of individuals to assist
their dead leader in the next life. Weapons, ornaments, and tools are
personal items that are usually placed with their fallen leader along with
many specially constructed pieces of effigy pottery often shaped is illustrated
here as paddle stamp designs. These sacred effigy pots were also killed by
either punching a hole through their bottom or by smashing entire vessels,
thereby releasing the spirit of the pot to go to the next life with the dead
leader.
The largest and most important Swift Creek site is preserved today at Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Southwest Georgia near Blakely. Many smaller Swift Creek Sites have been found and studied in southern Georgia, northern Florida and southern Alabama. Occasionally, Swift Creek pottery has been found throughout the eastern United States associated with the Hopewell people whose sphere ofinfluence and trade centered on the Ohio River but encompassed distant lands such as Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
The Designs
The designs that were incised into wooden paddles are suggestive of a more
widespread woodworkingtradition that probably included other wooden utensils
and art or religious objects which havedecayed through time. Totem poles were
possibly carved by these people. Unfortunately these perishable items failed
to survive the wear of time. However, at Key Marco in southern Florida a
wealth of wooden artifacts were preserved in coastal muck. This rare assemblage
of often highly ornate artifacts gives insight into the kinds of perishable
wooden artifacts that Swift Creek
people may have possessed.
Tribes of North GA/
Woodland Tribe/
Etawah Tribe/
Creek Tribe/
Cherrokee Tribe/
Trail of Tears/
Stories and Myths
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Last updated Feb 11, 1999