The Central Georgia Survey

This study is based, in part, on The Central Georgia Surface Survey, which is the work of Mr. Leon Perry that was done over the past 45 or more years. During the decades of his collecting experience, Mr. Perry met countless landowners, securing permission to walk their plowed fields in search of artifacts. During those years, Leon investigated 171 sites across 18 counties in south-central Georgia stretching from Burke to Baker counties. He was not simply interested in amassing a large collection, which he has certainly done, but he has faithfully recorded his finds, even keeping the artifacts from each site together.

Over the past three years it has been my privilege to help identify and electronically record the contents of each site. The artifacts were listed by site on a spread sheet and the examples were photographed. From these records, the surface survey has been assembled and presented here.

This volume concerns its self with three phases of the Paleoindian period as they have been defined by Dr. David Anderson from the University of Tennessee. To aid the reader in understanding the environment and cultural backgrounds of Mr. Perry’s discoveries, our approach has been to introduce each of the sites containing Paleoindian artifacts in association with each phase of the period for which archaeological evidence was recovered. A brief description of each site has been given as well as a sense of its progressive development through the entirety of the Paleoindian period.

A definitive description of each projectile point and tool type that was recovered relative to the period has also been given. These descriptions are drawn from the author’s research and are excerpts from his book The Native American Tool Box. This book in its entirety is available from www.peachstatearchaeologicalsociety.org Publications section or from www.LuluPress.com.