Archaeological Investigations at the Pumpkin Pile Site, Polk County, Georgia

Archeological site 9Po27, the Pumpkin Pile site, is a large prehistorically occupied area located in southwestern Polk County, Georgia. It is situated on Pumpkin Pile Creek near the headwaters of the Cedar Creek drainage area (Figure 1-1). The site was archeologically investigated as a result of developmental plans for the proposed construction of several U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service impoundments within the Big Cedar Creek watershed. Initial investigation of site 9Po27 (Willingham 1982) produced abundant evidence of well preserved cultural deposits dating to the Early and Middle Woodland periods. Willingham proposed that testing and data recovery would be necessary for the site if plans for the construction of an impoundment were to continue. Plans did proceed with the recognition that a primary impact was to be a proposed borrow area that would remove a substantial part of the site (Figure 1-2). The Big Cedar Creek Watershed Project is being designed to reduce flood damage in the Polk County area. According to the original plans, the impoundment would be a "dry facility," one that is dry for most of the year and which occasionally retains rising flood waters. The Pumpkin Pile site would lie about 400 ft (122 m) upstream from the dam, in a floodplain area designated as the primary borrow area for construction of the earthen dam. In addition to being destroyed or partially destroyed by borrowing operations, the site could be impacted by heavy equipment traffic, ground disturbing activities not directly related to borrowing, removal of ground cover and subsequent erosion, vandalism through looting or pot hunting, and erosion by fluctuating lake levels Recommendations resulting from the survey of Pumpkin Pile were adopted by the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) as a scope of work for data recovery. Willingham stated that testing was first necessary to determine the site's significance, but he also proposed a combined testing and data recovery plan as a cost and time saving measure (Willingham 1982:61). Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. was selected by SCS to implement this combined plan. During the course of field investigations it became clear that the scope of work developed by SCS would not sufficiently mitigate the loss of information of the Pumpkin Pile site. Following consultation with personnel of SCS and the State Historic Preservation Office, a revised plan was developed whereby fieldwork would be completed at the level of effort proposed by the original scope of work, and following this field work, recommendations would be made by SAS concerning the scope of further work as well as a preservation plan for the site if impacts could be avoided. At the conclusion of fieldwork SAS recommended that the Pumpkin Pile site meets the requirements (under criterion d) for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (SAS.1991). It also was the opinion of the Principal Investigator that archeological investigation conducted at the site had not sufficiently recovered information from the site to mitigate its loss Following consultation between Mr. Thomas Gresham (SAS), Mr. Ray Swicegood (SCS), and Mr. Chip Morgan of the Historic Preservation Section (HPS), the SCS decided that the cost of further archeological investigation sufficient to mitigate the site would be prohibitive. The SCS opted to relocate the borrow pit and preserve in place site 9Po27. A clear statement of significance is presented in the preservation plan developed to insure protection of the site. This report presents the results of archeological excavations at the Pumpkin Pile site. Much of the data recovered from this archeological investigation resulted from systematic shovel testing at 10 m intervals (N=243), followed by systematically excavated backhoe trenches. (Figure 1-3) using the same grid coordinates (N= 176) (Figure 1-3). Hand excavated test pits (N=7) and two large machine excavated blocks measuring approximate 160 m2 and 260 m2. accounted for the remainder of the field excavations. Much of the report will be directed to the presentation of data concerning the cultural remains recovered from these excavation units and the large number of features identified on the site. The report will document these material remains within the context of our present knowledge of Woodland Period cultural and settlement systems. The data from the Pumpkin Pile site, survey data from Willingham's (1982) survey, and recently acquired survey and testing data from the nearby West Georgia Reservoir area.(Gresham 1990; Stanyard 1991) will be compiled to examine the site within a cultural context as related to the Early Woodland Kellogg phase as defined for the Etowah River Valley (Bowen 1989) and the less securely dated Cedar Bluff phase from Weiss Reservoir area on the Coosa River of eastern Alabama (DeJarnette et al. 1973; Walthall 1980).