Chauga Mound

Chauga Mound
38 OC 1

Location within Georgia today
Location	Westminster, South Carolina, Oconee County, South Carolina,  USA
Region	Oconee County, South Carolina
Coordinates	34°36′30.42″N 83°10′0.34″W / 34.6084500°N 83.1667611°W / 34.6084500; -83.1667611
History
Founded	Middle Archaic
Abandoned	18th century
Periods	Jarett Phase (1100 to 1200) Tugalo Phase (1500 to 1600)
Cultures	South Appalachian Mississippian culture
Site notes
Excavation dates	1953, 1958, 1959
Archaeologists	Joseph R. Caldwell, Carl Miller, Arthur R. Kelly, Robert S. Neitzel
Architecture
Architectural styles	platform mound, plaza
Architectural details	Number of temples: 1

The Chauga Mound (38OC1) is an archaeological site once located on the northern bank of the Tugaloo River, about 1,200 feet (370 m) north of the mouth of the Chauga River in present-day Oconee County, South Carolina. The earthen platform mound and former village site were inundated by creation of Lake Hartwell after construction of the Hartwell Dam on the Savannah River, which was completed in 1962.

While the site was found to have been occupied in the Middle Archaic era, the platform mound and village portion of the site were built in the twelfth century by peoples of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture (a regional expression of the Mississippian culture). The village was abandoned for a period in prehistory, and then reoccupied in the sixteenth century.^[1]

It may have been occupied by the historic Cherokee in the last and fourth phase, as they were known to have a historic village named Chauga. Evidence dates their occupancy into the early eighteenth century.^[2] The Cherokee had their homeland in a large area of what are now known as western Virginia, western North and South Carolina, northeastern Georgia, and eastern Tennessee.