n e w a cq u i s i t i o n
Conservancy Is Acquiring Its First Site in the Coosa Province The Swancy site will be the newest preserve in Georgia.
Conservancy Plan of Action
42
summer • 2002
ALAN GRUBER
I
n the mid–16th century, few, if any, chiefdoms in North America were as large as that of Coosa. Stretching from what is today northeastern Tennessee through northwestern Georgia and into central Alabama, the Province of Coosa comprised numerous small vassal chiefdoms that were subject to a powerful paramount chief. Our first accounts of this province come from the writers who chronicled the Hernando de Soto expedition that passed through the area in 1540.They found a valley filled with towns and fertile farms, but they found no gold. Among the towns was the Swancy site, a fortified town nestled in a bend in the river. There was also an earlier occupation at Swancy that dates to the Carterville Phase of the Early Woodland period (circa 500 B.C. to A.D. 250).The earlier town was probably located along the river to take advantage of the abundant game and easy access to the waterway. During Mississippian times, the town also benefited from the river. However, its location was primarily determined by the surrounding fertile bottom lands. When the expedition of another European explorer, Tristan de Luna, arrived in Coosa 20 years after de Soto, the towns were in sharp decline. The Old World pathogens The search for gold brought Hernando de Soto to the Coosawattee River brought by de Soto’s army had done their deadly work and Valley, where Coosa was located. He found thriving towns, but no gold. reduced the once-mighty chiefdom to ruin. Nonetheless, Native Americans continued to occupy the area until removed to Oklahoma by government troops in the 1830s. The SITE: Swancy preservation of the Swancy site is Swancy 85 CULTURE and TIME PERIOD: urgent. Few of the sites from the 75 Coosa Province era remain. The Early Woodland (500 B.C.–A.D. 250), Atlanta 20 threat to the Swancy site by real esand Late Mississippian Augusta 85 tate development has increased ex(late A.D. 1400s–middle 1500s.) ponentially in recent years as the Macon STATUS: The site is threatened by 185 sprawl of metropolitan Atlanta development. 16 began to creep into the valley. Columbus ACQUISITION: The Conservancy has to Savannah The Swancy site will serve as a raise $59,875 to purchase the site vital link to the past and a unique HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send your 95 laboratory in which archaeologists 75 • • • • • •• contributions to The Archaeological can answer many of the questions Conservancy, Attn: Swancy, concerning Mississippian period life 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 402. and the exact route of the de Soto Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. expedition. —Alan Gruber
