Cobb County, Georgia
34°00’55.8″N 84°29’37.9″W
2687 Sandy Plains Road – Marrietta, GA – 30066
The Sprayberry Rock is the most accessible petroglyphic boulder in the Lower Southeast. It now is now displayed on the grounds of the Wells Fargo Bank in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta. The boulder was discovered during the construction of a branch of the First National Bank of Atlanta on Sandy Plains Road. The boulder was inspected by Cobb County’s in-house archaeologist, Larry Meier, and determined to be authentic and dating from the Late Archaic Period, prior to the development of ceramic technology in Georgia (c. 2500 BC). The probable age of the petroglyphs range from 4000 BC to 2000 BC. In the early 21st century, First National was purchased by the Wachovia Bank, which more recently was acquired by Wells Fargo.
Although located in the Georgia Gold Belt, the Sprayberry petroglyphs are somewhat different than those farther north in the higher mountains of Georgia. There are several isolated mountains in northern Cobb County ranging in height from 1,808 feet (551 m) to 1292 feet (394 m). The boulder is soapstone and shows extensive evidence of soapstone bowls being carved from its flanks. Nevertheless, the boulder also has concentric circles and “cups” typical of the petroglyphs in the higher mountains and also Bronze Age Europe.
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