It’s mid-August in the Valley and the corn is ripening – 1500 AD

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & Planner

In background is the Temple of the Sun Goddess, Amana, and the elite village of Hontaoase. The Chattahoochee River runs along the base of the mountain range.

As stated in the original article that began this series on the Nacoochee Valley, 20 years ago, when I first began to apply the Artlantis Virtual Reality program to Historic and Pre-Historic structures, my biggest technical challenge was realistic portrayal of the agricultural fields and natural vegetation around the town sites.

One cannot understand how people lived in these Native American towns unless one understands the environments around these towns. As a result, my renderings of Native American communities have a very different feel than those, which French architects produce for new buildings.

Roanoke Colony survivor, Eleanor Dare, lived on top of the Amana Temple base from around 1589 to 1599 AD. Archaeologist Robert Wauchope, found a stone tablet, engraved with Elizabethan script at the foot of the temple platform, stating that she lived here and the dates.

This is the elite village of Hontaoase, which means, “Descendants of people, who irrigated their crops.” Apalache elite families lived in massive round houses. Apalache middle class and commoner families lived in separate neighborhoods or villages. Their houses were either rectangular or square and were identical to houses in southern Mexico.