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<< Other Photo Pages >> Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area - Stone Row / Alignment in United States in The South

Submitted by bat400 on Thursday, 19 July 2012  Page Views: 9691

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area Alternative Name: 9Un367, Track Rock terrace complex
Country: United States Region: The South Type: Stone Row / Alignment
 Nearest Village: Blairsville, GA
Latitude: 34.880000N  Longitude: 83.87W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
2 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area
Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area submitted by bat400_photo : The ruggesd and heavily forested landscape of Brasstown Bald, northern Georgia. The Track Rock Archaeological Area lies to the immediate west of of this area. View to the South from Brasstown Bald. Source: [http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/seasonal/fall/the_bald.htm Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest website] This image is a work of the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agricul... (Vote or comment on this photo)
A complex of piled stone walls and cairns in Union County, Georgia.
This grouping of stones dry piled into low walls and shaped piles was first mentioned in 1834 by a Doctor Stephenson. The complex covers an irregular area approximately 600 m long by 300 - 400 m wide. The walls vary in size with the majority of them being 20m long or less, although several are as much as 100 m long. Other structures included two short stone columns (now recumbent,) and stone piles.

The majority of the walls follow contour lines of the steep hillsides, in the manner of terraces, but several walls meander without regard to elevation contours and are similar to known prehistoric rock pile sites in other parts of Georgia, such as Fort Mountain.

Many of the Indian people of eastern North America had described stone sites in general as sacred places, with many connections to the stones as burial or commemorative locations. And it has been a local assumption that this stone complex was associated with a pre-contact battle, although any formal documentation of this oral history appears tenuous. The entire site is now part of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.

In 1999 - 2000 local residents consulted with Johannes Loubser and Douglas Frink to have the site mapped. Minimal excavations on several features dated soil beneath them by Oxidizable Carbon Ration dating. Dates ranged from 141 to nearly 2000 years before present, but with several sampled dates indicating construction of specific features to ~1100 AD.

The one stone pile that was partially excavated yielded charcoal, lithics and ceramic fragments, and a portion of the bowl of a pipe, and (later) prehistoric dates. As these indicated a possible burial, no additional excavation of the feature was carried out, and the artifacts were returned after field examination. A separate wall feature revealed a fragment of pre-historic lithics. No historic artifacts were found in the areas below the stone structures examined. All indications supported the pre-historic nature of at least a portion of the site, although some carbon dates from the site are from the historic period. Loubser (see below) has indicated that it is possible that the stone structures date from a variety of time periods: prehistoric, Cherokee coalescence/immigration, up to European vernacular dry stone.

The complex lies between a stream bed that parallels the Track Rock Gap Road and the western slopes and onto the Buzzard Roost Ridge of the Brasstown Bald. The trail head for the modern Arkaquah hiking trail is also near the Track Rock rock art figures; (this trail is associated with a pre-contact trail.) The stone complex lies south of the Arkaquah Trail, with much of it along or south of "Vent Trail", which leads to a fumarole or vent, lying north east of the stone pile complex. The close association of the nearby Track Rock petroglyphs, the Vent, and the ancient trails with the stone wall and stone pile complex has been suggested by several researchers to be part of one ethnohistoric landscape.

The site is included in the larger Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area listing (pending) for the National Register of Historic Places. The location given for this listing is the general location of the complex along and west of Buzzard Roost Ridge and does not reflect any particular feature.

[Note: Although not strictly speaking "prohibited," the Forest Service does not recommend use of the unauthorized, user-created trail which leads to this site, or visiting the Track Rock Stone Complex site itself. (Although the Forest Service itself led a group of journalists and representatives of Native American groups to the site on 19 Dec 2012.) This is described as a strenuous hike and most of the site lies off any developed hiking trail. In mid 2012 portions of this trail were blocked to discourage visits to the site, as stated by the Forest Service, "One way the Forest Service and Tribal partners protect the very fragile, sensitive and sacred stone landscape is by not encouraging visitation..." ]

Sources include:
Johannes Loubser and Douglas Frink, "An Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Appraisal of a Piled Stone Feature Complex in the Mountains of North Georgia," Early Georgia, Number 38, 2010.
Donald B. Ball and John C. Waggoner, Jr., "Megaliths in the Upland South: Imposing Stones of Uncertain Function," Journal of Alabama Archaeology, Vol 56, No. I, 2010.
"American Indian Partners Work to Protect Track Rock Gap," Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest website,

Note: Internet Argument over Architect's Theory that North Georgia rock pile site is Mayan colony. See comments.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 847m NW 311° Track Rock* Rock Art
 21.0km SSE 154° Hickorynut Track Rock* Rock Art
 26.3km SE 146° Nacoochee* Barrow Cemetery
 27.8km SE 140° Sautee-Nacoochee earthwork Ancient Village or Settlement
 27.9km SE 142° Kenimer* Artificial Mound
 50.0km N 7° Sculptured Stone near Robbinsville* Sculptured Stone
 56.5km NE 53° Nikwasi Mound* Artificial Mound
 59.3km NE 44° Cowee Mound Artificial Mound
 75.4km NE 34° Kituwah* Ancient Village or Settlement
 76.9km W 260° Fort Mountain Stone Enclosure* Cairn
 83.3km NE 56° Judaculla Rock* Rock Art
 84.1km NE 37° Museum of the Cherokee Indian* Museum
 88.2km SW 225° Funk Heritage Center* Museum
 100.4km WNW 292° Candies Creek Village Archaeological Preserve* Ancient Village or Settlement
 104.4km SSE 154° Sandy Creek terrace complex* Ancient Village or Settlement
 104.9km E 87° South Carolina Rock Art Center* Rock Art
 114.8km SE 129° Georgia Guidestones* Modern Stone Circle etc
 118.3km WNW 301° Hiwassee Island Mounds* Artificial Mound
 118.8km N 357° University of Tennessee Agriculture Farm Mound* Barrow Cemetery
 119.3km N 358° McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture* Museum
 119.4km SW 227° Arborrigg* Modern Stone Circle etc
 119.9km SW 226° Etowah Mounds Museum* Museum
 119.9km SW 226° Etowah Mounds - Ditch and Palisade* Misc. Earthwork
 120.1km SW 226° Etowah Mounds - Mound C* Artificial Mound
 120.1km SW 226° Etowah Mounds - Mound A* Artificial Mound
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"Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Squabble over presence of ancient residents in Blairsville by Anonymous on Friday, 07 March 2014
Your web page, in trying to be balanced journalism, actually misrepresented the situation. The archaeologist, Johannes Loubser, was recently relocated from South Africa and knew virtually nothing about the indigenous peoples of Georgia, where Track Rock was located. His work was funded by the Cherokee tribe of the State of North Carolina, and so he only discussed some unrelated archaeological sites near the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina.

He labelled traditional Creek art on the petroglyphic boulders as "graffiti by bored Cherokee hunters." One boulder contained four Maya glyphs that could be easily translated, but he missed those. Loubser had never even been in Mexico, whereas I studied Mesoamerican architecture in Mexico then taught the subject at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There were Creek Indian town sites with earthen pyramids literally in eyesight of Track Rock, which Loubser did not mention. Also, there are three other terrace complexes in that same county that have been surveyed by Georgia archaeologists, but Loubser stated that Track Rock was the only known terrace complex in North America. Loubser should not have been hired to study the site.

The reason that I have always been insistent that Itza Mayas colonized the Southern Appalachians is that the Creek Indians called the region Itsapa, which means, "Place of the Itza" in both Creek and Maya!

There were about a dozen Native American towns in the region with Maya names or literally called "Itsate" which means "Itza People." We have many Maya words in our Creek language that are associated with architecture, politics, trade or agriculture.

Richard L Thornton
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Squabble over presence of ancient residents in Blairsville by Andy B on Friday, 07 March 2014
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Thanks Richard, we'd like to help you get across what you're saying, I think we were just re-reporting what was in the local media.

    >One boulder contained four Maya glyphs that could be easily translated, but he missed those.

    Could you send over a photo of this?

    > There were Creek Indian town sites with earthen pyramids literally in eyesight of Track Rock, which Loubser did not mention.

    Again could you send over details of these so we could add these to our map

    >Also, there are three other terrace complexes in that same county that have been surveyed by Georgia archaeologists, but Loubser stated that Track Rock was the only known terrace complex in North America.

    As above!

    Many thanks
    Andy
    [ Reply to This ]

Accusation: Forest Service Blocked Access to Archaeological Area by bat400 on Thursday, 19 July 2012
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On 9 July 2012 architect/author Richard Thornton accused the United States Forest Service of cutting trees along a hiking trail into the Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area in order to minimize visitation to the stone configurations that Thornton has interpreted as a Mayan town site in north Georgia.

His article, here, describes the tree cutting he and others found on a recent hike to the area, but also appears to support unexplained compass readings his party saw at the site as the presence of a "time portal". Thornton also accuses the Forest Service of blocking film crews requesting access to the site.

Basically the US Forest Service agrees that they are trying to discourage site visitation. The Director of Public Affairs for the Southern Region of the US Forest Service responded to the examiner article in its comments section, and indicated that tree cutting has not displaced the stone structures in question and was more limited than the accusations described. Filming for a History Channel episode was denied, according to the Forest Service, due non-visitation stance and the scared nature of the site for the service's Cherokee and Creek partners.
The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest website has posted a page called "Commonly Asked Questions about the Track Rock Gap Stone Landscape". The webpage also debunks the "Mayan" theory: "There is no archeological evidence of any link to Mayan people or culture. No artifacts or other archeological evidence suggesting any connection between the Maya and the Native Americans who resided in what is now the southeastern United States have ever been discovered anywhere in the southeast."
[ Reply to This ]

Squabble over presence of ancient residents in Blairsville by bat400 on Thursday, 19 July 2012
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In December 2011 an internet controversy began when Architect/historian/author Richard Thornton wrote about Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area and another north Georgia prehistoric site, Kenimer Mound, as part of a series of articles on Native American sites and lifeways. His reference to previously published archaeological surveys to support his own theory that these sites and others were built by Mayan refuges was strongly protested by one of the authors of those studies.
The argument attracted the attention of national news, but closer to the region the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote:

For 40 years, Mark Williams has researched ancient Indian sites. But the University of Georgia archaeology professor has never received attention like this. A preeminent expert on prehistoric times in Georgia, Williams was cited in an article last month that declared that a thousand-year-old Mayan ruin was discovered in North Georgia.

Architect/historian/author Richard Thornton theorizes that bands of Mayan peasants ... made their way to the North Georgia mountains near Blairsville. The article surmised that a collection of hundreds of rock terraces and small mounds was the work of the Maya people, not locals.

Thornton declares that an area near Brasstown Bald is “possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540.” Thornton uses Williams’ research on Indian mounds and the studies of archaeologist Johannes Loubser, who excavated the north Georgia site, to bolster his claims.

Williams couldn’t disagree more. “This is total and complete bunk,” Williams wrote on Facebook. “There is no evidence of Maya in Georgia. Move along now.”
Williams’ reaction brought forth legions of bloggers and Internet experts calling him “arrogant” and “dismissive.” “That’s the way with the Internet,” said Williams, who was weary of the matter when reached last week for an interview. “There’s a feeling that people are hiding the truth. Someone needed to stand up and say, ‘This is silly.’ ”

The site referred to by Thornton has more than 300 rock structures — perhaps 500 — some of them dating back to 800 A.D. ... Thornton contends that the North Georgia formations resemble Mayans structures and that the timing of when they were built coincides with a possible Mayan diaspora.

Williams is not sure how the rock structures came about or who built them, “But it’s a wonderful mystery without having to bring in the Mayans or people from Mars.”
Loubser, who excavated a rock wall and waist-high mound at site and authored a report in 2010, chuckled at all the fuss. “I think that [Thornton] selectively presents the evidence,” said Loubser. “But he’s a better marketer than I and other archaeologists are. When you make a claim like that, you have to back it up with hard evidence.”

Archaeology is not Indiana Jones. It’s often a lonely activity filled with shovels and dirt screens and carbon-dating and sunburn and published findings that are nearly anonymous. Loubser, in his report, did not say who he thought erected the structures, although he figured the Cherokees or an earlier tribe were likely candidates. The two areas excavated, according to soil testing, were built somewhere between the years 800 and 1100.

Thornton, reached this week at his home near the site, dismisses his dismissals. “I’m not an archaeologist. I’m a big picture man,” said Thorton, an architect who fell on hard times because of the economy and has thrown himself headlong into research of his Creek Indian heritage.

In his article, Thornton said early maps of the area use the word “Itsate” for two villages, which is what Itza Mayans called themselves. This, coupled with the terraces and the date when some of the structures were built, led him to his conclusion.
“It’s identical to sites in Belize,” he said. “We’re hoping this ar

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