The
LaFayette Ceremonial Stone Complex:
An Unexpected Discovery of A Prehistoric Stone Row and Stones Piles in Chambers County
An Unexpected Discovery of A Prehistoric Stone Row and Stones Piles in Chambers County
Presenter: Teresa Paglione, Cultural Resources
Specialist, National Resources Conservation Services, US Department
of Agriculture
About a decade ago a member of The Chattahoochee Valley
Historical Society Board of Directors followed a clue found in printed material
in the Cobb Memorial Archives to rediscover a mysterious site of stones long
ignored and almost forgotten by the inhabitants of Chambers County. The Board member with family made lengthy
treks through cottonmouth infested swamps to reach and walk over the
undisturbed site. In the nineteenth
century this odd array of stones covering acres of land next to a creek was
approachable by field roads and was visited by picnic parties of school
children and families.
Since the rediscovery
of the site, the CVHS Board has identified the landowner and secured permission
for access to the sight for purposes of study and documentation. Teresa Paglione, as a professional
archeologist, was asked by the Board to provide leadership in documentation of
the site. The landowner is committed to protecting the site because of its
unique value in understanding the history of Chambers County and this
region. The location of the site and
name of the owner will not be publicized and access to the site is made by
permission of owner through CVHS officers. A rattlesnake has been observed in
the stones.
The LaFayette
Ceremonial Stone Complex consists of a single massive linear stone row in
somewhat of a crescent shape-with both ends leading downhill to a creek. Across from this linear stone work and the
creek are at least 49 stone piles.
Archaeologists are certain that Native Americans erected these stone
works but when they were constructed is not easily documented. Dozens of these works have been identified in
North Alabama. The LaFayette Ceremonial Complex is the largest known work of
this type so far south in the topography of our state. This stone work and site date from perhaps a
thousand or more years ago. The historic Native Americans would have recognized
these ancient sacred sites, given them names and may have contributed to the
works. Teresa will describe the
LaFayette Ceremonial Site and the work to date in the effort to document the
large site and its stone works.
Teresa was born in Gulfport,
Mississippi, lived in Orlando, Florida (pre-Disney) and grew up in Montgomery,
Alabama. Graduating with a degree in Art
and a double-minor in Sociology-Anthropology from Auburn University Montgomery, she
started working with a local archeologist, Dave Chase, in her junior year at
AUM. After working for a year in
archaeology in Alabama, she attended graduate school at Florida State
University. She has worked as an archeologist for
private contractors, the State of Florida, Georgia Dept. of Transportation, the
National Park Service (Florida), the US Forest Service (Chattahoochee National
Forest, GA), and
for the past eighteen years , the Natural Resources Conservation Service
here in Alabama. She is former Vice President and President of the Alabama
Archaeological Society, President
of the local East Alabama Chapter of the Alabama Archaeological Society, and a Board Member
of the Lee County Historical Society.
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