Dyar site
 Location within Georgia today
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| Location |
Greensboro, Georgia, Greene County, Georgia,  USA
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| Region | Greene County, Georgia |
| Coordinates | 33°35′35.95″N 83°16′15.6″W / 33.5933194°N 83.271000°W |
| History | |
| Founded | 1100 |
| Abandoned | 1600 |
| Periods | Lamar Phase |
| Cultures | South Appalachian Mississippian culture |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1969 |
| Archaeologists | Chester DePratter |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | platform mound, plaza |
| Architectural details | Number of temples: 1 |
The Dyar site (9GE5) is an archaeological site in Greene County, Georgia, in the north central Piedmont physiographical region. The site covers an area of 2.5 hectares. It was inhabited almost continuously from 1100 to 1600 by a local variation of the Mississippian culture known as the South Appalachian Mississippian culture. Although submerged under Lake Oconee, the site is still important as one of the first explorations of a large Mississippian culture mound. The Dyar site is thought to have been one of the principal towns of the paramount chiefdom of Ocute, perhaps Cofaqui.
The platform mound located at the site was described in 1975 as being in the shape of a truncated cone approximately 10.3 metres (34 ft) high and with a base 52 metres (171 ft) in diameter. On the eastern edge of the mound in the central area of the site was an plaza surrounded by domestic structures making up an oval shaped village of 2.13 hectares.
Platform mounds are built up in a series of stages that can span generations. The Dyar mound itself began during the Stillhouse Phase with a large civic structure with a sand floor and built with single set post construction. Over this a layer of 70 centimetres (28 in) thick blue-black clay was added. On top of this was added a 40 centimetres (16 in) layer of grey clay loam and on which another structure was added. Stillhouse Phase Etowah Complicated stamped pottery sherds were found at this layer. Stage II begins with another layer of 30 centimetres (12 in) grey clay loam added. Stages III, IV, V, and VI are in sequence 35 centimetres (14 in) of dark and then white clay, 45 centimetres (18 in) red and grey clay, 70 centimetres (28 in) of grey and tan clay, and 37 centimetres (15 in) of dark grey and reddish tan clay, each stage with its own structure. Stage VII consists of 25 centimetres (9.8 in) of grey and orange and 25 centimetres (9.8 in) of yellow clay. A step up on the western side of the summit indicates that this stage was the first to have multiple levels and multiple structures, possibly two large structures on the western side and a smaller one on the eastern side which was found to have had a burned floor. Stage VIII was a layer of brown clay 14 centimetres (5.5 in)to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) thick. The eastern side at this stage is 40 centimetres (16 in) lower than the western side and covered by a layer of construction debris though to have come from the razing of an old structure on the western side. Stage IX is 80 centimetres (31 in) of brown and grey clay with the multiple levels continuing. Pottery sherds from this layer are thought to date from the Duvall Phase. Stage X is a thin 10 centimetres (3.9 in) layer of light grey clay followed by Stage XI which is another thick 57 centimetres (22 in) layer of gray and tan clay. Stage XI is thought to date from the Ironhorse Phase. All stages above this date to the Ironhorse and Dyar Phases. Stage XII is a 60 centimetres (24 in) layer of yellow and grey clay. The structure at the western side has a semi-subterranean floor cut into its surface, the first seen on the mound. At this stage the difference between the eastern and western levels is 40 centimetres (16 in) to 50 centimetres (20 in). Stage XIII was a layer 62 centimetres (24 in) of yellow-orange and grey clay. The eastern level has a 10 centimetres (3.9 in) to 18 centimetres (7.1 in) cap of yellow clay. This stage and Stage XIV, an indeterminate layer of gray sandy clay, were not found to have structures. It is not known if they did not have structures at this time or if the evidence for these structures or subsequent layers has been lost.
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