urbantreasure
Full Member
This post is actually in response to a now closed thread regarding the controversy surrounding Eagle and /or Thunderbird fake artifacts. Though I know nothing of the validity of any such artifacts, I do know that Eagles were very important to certain Southeastern tribal cultures. If you go to Google Earth and type in these coordinates: 37 25'19.1"N 122 05' 06"W (Old Federal Road, Ball Ground GA) Look to the left and you will see an amazing eagle beak land outline / effigy. The County actually calls it the Eagles Beak Property and is turning it into a park. As far as anyone knows the property has had that appearance for a very long time.
Below is an interesting tidbit re an actual bird effigy in the SE:
Rock Eagle Effigy Mound is an archaeological site in Putnam County, Georgia, U.S.A. estimated to have been constructed 1,000 to 3,000 years ago. The earthwork was built up of thousands of pieces of quartzite laid in the mounded shape of a large bird (102 ft long from head to tail, and 120 ft wide from wing tip to wing tip). Although it is most often referred to as an eagle, scholars do not know exactly what type of bird the original builders intended to portray. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) because of its significance. The University of Georgia administers the site. It uses much of the adjoining land for a 4-H camp, with cottages and other buildings, and day and residential environmental education.
What prompted the early inhabitants of Middle Georgia, who lived in a time long before the rise of the later Mississippian, Creek and Cherokee cultures, to build these massive effigy mounds is still something of a mystery. They obviously hold ceremonial significance and the Rock Eagle seems to have been expanded from a large dome-
Below is an interesting tidbit re an actual bird effigy in the SE:
Rock Eagle Effigy Mound is an archaeological site in Putnam County, Georgia, U.S.A. estimated to have been constructed 1,000 to 3,000 years ago. The earthwork was built up of thousands of pieces of quartzite laid in the mounded shape of a large bird (102 ft long from head to tail, and 120 ft wide from wing tip to wing tip). Although it is most often referred to as an eagle, scholars do not know exactly what type of bird the original builders intended to portray. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) because of its significance. The University of Georgia administers the site. It uses much of the adjoining land for a 4-H camp, with cottages and other buildings, and day and residential environmental education.
What prompted the early inhabitants of Middle Georgia, who lived in a time long before the rise of the later Mississippian, Creek and Cherokee cultures, to build these massive effigy mounds is still something of a mystery. They obviously hold ceremonial significance and the Rock Eagle seems to have been expanded from a large dome-
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