A Rediscovered Glyph Find (GA Site 9TO51) Towns County, GA

All Text & Images: Copyright (2019)

This site had been documented a number of years ago.   We were unable to locate any reports and
had no idea of the extent or amount of rock art found at the time.   Initial visual examination revealed
just a few cupules, but removal of leaves, ground cover and dead-fall revealed significantly more.

Visit 1 - This was a reconnaissance trip to get familiarized with the site.   The weather was dry and cloudy.
The area contains a number of soapstone boulders; many had surfaces that looked promising for rock art.

Boulder 1 with the base of a large tree covering much of the rock.

Boulder 2

Boulder 3

Boulder 3, reverse side

Boulder 4

Examining the rocks, I noticed several cupules on Boulder 1

The cupules were against a huge tree buttress that had grown over much of Boulder 1

I didn't see much on the other boulders.   I used side lighting to bring out any shallow carving indications and did see a possible faint vulva symbol as well as cupules on Boulder 4. Since this was just a scouting trip, and I would return in a few days, I soon headed for another destination...

Visit 2 - A few days later, this location was the first stop on a multi-site day spent documenting rock art and stone bowl quarry-workshop sites with Alan C.   We made quite an exciting find. Conditions were drizzly, which made for good photography on these rocks. We knew that there had to be more here than just the few visible cupules.   We cleared leaves and mulch off one side of Boulder 1 with no luck, but clearing the other side exposed some nice rock art.   Alan was pulling out poison ivy with his bare hands (it must be nice to be immune), while I was avoiding it like the plague!   And I still got some rash!

Boulder 1 with petroglyphs uncovered Only the green moss covered portion of this boulder, with the 3-4 cupules, was exposed when we found it. Clearing off the ground cover and mulch revealed some signicant rock art.

Subsequent rock art tracing, made later with J. Loubser. The boulder was covered back up after the tracing was made.

Another view of the petroglyph rock. Varying angles allowed some features to show better than others. The buttress of a huge tree covers much of this boulder.

A closer view

Rock detail

Rock detail

Rock detail - hand or foot-print(?)

Petroglyph Index

Native American Index

SE USA Index

All Text & Images: Copyright 2019.