Elbert County – Enormous Stature
AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY,
Unearthing of a Prehistoric Burial
Ground on Broad River.
There is a point on the old Davenport place, now the property of R. K. Reaves of Athens, between Martin’s and Jones’ ferries, where a bend in the river forms a completed horseshoe. During the high freshet last summer, the river for the first time broke over this barrier, and its raging waters removed the earth to a depth of several feet. After the stream had subsided and returned to its original channel, it was discovered that the waters had exposed to view an aboriginal burial ground, and a space of several acres was thickly strewn with human bones and all manner of stone and clay implements, such as battle-axes, arrowheads, pipes, pottery, etc. Many of them were in a perfect state of preservation and of peculiar design. The hands on the place collected quantities of these curiosities. But the strangest part of the discovery is that all the skeletons unearthed were of giants, being persons of enormous stature. Some of them were perfect, as we learn. It is believed that they belonged to the race of mound builders that inhabited this land even before the Indians, and of whose existence no history remains. They have doubtless slept in their graves for centuries. No one had any idea of the existence of this old burial ground until it was exposed by the high water.
- The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, November 27, 1888, Image 7