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CIRCLE ROLLER DISCOIDALS
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Bruce Butts
Winterville, Georgia
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| An assortment of circle roller discoidals found in Georgia and Alabama. Top left:
green granite discoidal found in Baldwin County, Georgia. Front left: polished golden quartz discoidal,
2 3/8 inches in diameter, from Ft. Gaines, Georgia. Bottom center: gray and white speckled granite
discoidal found in Madison County, Georgia. Above that is a polished white quartz discoidal from Rabun County,
Georgia. Top right: discoidal found at the Princess Mound complex. Bottom right:
black and gray discoidal with white inclusions from Green County, Georgia. Far right: black quartz
discoidal from Wilcox County, Alabama. From the collections of C.H. Baggerly and Bruce Butts. Photo by Bruce Butts. |
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One of the most interesting artifacts is the discoidal, and the circle roller disc
is my favorite type. Maybe it is because the majority of the circle roller discoidals come from within 100 miles
of my home. When I display my collection, people always ask about the different shape of the circle roller.
Most people have heard the stories about "chunkee," where the Indians rolled the
round stones and threw spears at the point where the disc would stop. Most people quickly realize that the circle
rollers would roll in a circle instead of the straight line like the other discoidals. The most often asked question
is "why a circle?"
Circle rollers were used for an entirely different type of game. You could probably call
it "chunkee bowling." There have been two "bowling" alleys actually found still intact. One
alley actually had seventeen circle rollers found on the alley and in the pockets where the circle roller would
curve into, apparently to score points.
In 1932 William Colburn discovered three alleys while excavating the Princess
mound on the J. J. Greenwood farm in Rabun County, Georgia. On the south side of the mound, a group of field rocks
was discovered. At the same level, a hard baked-clay runway was also found. The runways were about 2 1/2 feet wide
and perfectly level. At the end of the runways, groups of rocks were arranged so that when the circle roller was
rolled down the alley, the disc would curve into certain pockets. (See the diagram.)
| Baked clay runways; possibly chunkey alleys. It has been proposed that these were the receiving
end of circle-roller discoidals based on a survey of North Georgia archaeological sites. The field rocks were presumably
used to aid in scoring. |
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Another chunkee alley was found at another site in Monroe County called Towaliga. This is
near where the Ocomulegee and Towaliga Rivers come together. The alleys at this site were 160 feet long and 6 feet
wide, but basically built just the same otherwise as the alleys at the Princess mound. These two sites are approximately
80 miles apart.
During the excavation at the Princess mound, there were 32 discoidals found.
These included biscuit, barrel, and Tennessee types, along with the 17 circle rollers. Most circle rollers show
some damage along the widest edge, since this is the part that would hit the ground first. Most are found
within 100 miles of Rabun County, Georgia. I own one found on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and I have seen pictures
of circle rollers from as far away as Arkansas, but it is my understanding that these are very rare finds the farther
you go from Georgia. Most of the circle rollers pictured with this article are from the northeast corner of Georgia
where the bowling alleys were found.
REFERENCES
Wauchope, Robert
1966 Archaeological Survey of Northern Georgia. Vol.31, #5, part 2, p.188, p.193, Fig. 123, p.441.
Stephens, B.W.
1957 The Discoidal Thrower-Human Effigy Pipe," Central States Archaeological Society Journal, Vol.3, Number
4. |
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© 1990 C.S.A.S.I.
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