Small Soapstone Bowl Quarry - TO5SB (GA Site 9TO62) Chattahoochee Natl. Forest, Towns County, GA |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2018-2020) |
Several years ago, I came across an abstract of a USFS report which described finding a "prehistoric soapstone bowl quarry" in this area. Talking with some retired USFS friends, I learned the general location, as well as the fact that it was "not a particularly remarkable site". It was situated near the property line between USFS and private property. In late 2018, I first went looking for this quarry. I found what might be a couple of bowl preforms that were in the very early stage of manufacture, but never did find much of a quarry. On subsequent visits in 2019, I found two bowl fragments in the embankment of the subdivision road just below the site. |
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I found this rock with a shallow groove pecked into the rock. An odd shape for a bowl preform, but who knows... |
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Nearby, this larger boulder had a shallow groove in a more conventional bowl shape. If this was a bowl preform, it was abandoned early in the manufacturing process... |
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This stone had the shape of a grooved axe head, although it was much too large for that... |
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I found this large piece, almost half of a bowl, in a road embankment below the "quarry" area. |
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Same bowl fragment, from another angle |
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A smaller bowl fragment, also found on the property below the quarry boulders. |