The Debatable Lands

Savannah. Chatham County. The Low Country. This is the place we call home. And yet, the homes in which we live, the malls in which we shop, the schools that we attend, and the roads that we travel are on lands what were inhabited before us. Over a span of 12,000 years, Native Americans built villages and forts, burial grounds and playgrounds, and summer and winter camps. When Europeans finally arrived, they built their towns on or near these earlier inhabited sites.

The Debatable Lands informs visitors about the history of Chatham County and Coastal Georgia prior to Oglethorpe's arrival in 1733. A combination of important archaeological artifacts, maps and visuals is used to identify the significant time periods of Georgia's pre-history, to depict the cultural characteristics and influences that changed the local culture, and to portray the significant archaeological sites in Chatham County. The Debatable Lands ends with the arrival of Oglethorpe, explaining the culture of the Native Americans whom he encountered on the bluff overlooking the Savannah River and the relationship he and the colonists developed with them.