Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted archival/background research and archeological field survey for a proposed new Children's Garden at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, located off of South Milledge Avenue and on the Middle Oconee River about 5 km (3 mi) south of downtown Athens and the main University of Georgia campus. The Children's Garden will be constructed on the location of the Botanical Garden's lower parking lot, the one that serves the administration building, formerly the Callaway Conference Center. This existing graded, paved and landscaped parking area is located on a ridge that has been wooded throughout most of the twentieth century (Figure 1). The University of Georgia's Architect's Office supplied us with a set of project plans, which included demolition plans and new construction plans. From this set of plans, mainly the two just cited, we determined the maximum area of potential effect for the project, which was an area of just over 1 acre. The field work was conducted on October 26, 2017.
The existing parking area is a long oval of asphalt paving ringed inside and outside by concrete sidewalks, with a central linear berm of soil and plantings (Figure 2). The area of potential effect also includes a relatively undisturbed, 20-x-20-m (70-x-70-ft) area of wooded ridge slope adjoining the west end of the parking oval (Figure 3).
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