Archeological Excavations at the Lake Acworth Site (9CO45): a Palisaded Mississippian Village in the Upper Piedmont of Northwest Georgia

Between November 14 and December 13, 1991, New South Associates conducted archeological data recovery excavations at the Lake Acworth Site (9Co45), a palisaded Mississippian village now located within the lands leased to Cobb Country, Georgia, at Allatoona Lake, Georgia. The project was sponsored by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners and administered by Golf West Companies of Fresno, California. The site was initially recorded as a consequence of archeological investigations conducted by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service in the late 1940s and early 1950s (Caldwell 1960, 1957; Caldwell and McCann 1947; Miller n.d.). Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. revisited the site during a survey of the Allatoona project land holdings above the flood pool in 1985 and 1986 (Ledbetter et al. 1986). At that time it was recommended that the site be further evaluated should future development plans entail destructive impacts. Due to plans initiated by Cobb County Parks and Recreation Department to build the Lake Acworth Regional Park Golf Course on the portion of the public use area occupied by the site, an archeological testing program was conducted by New South Associates in the summer of 1990 under contract with the Mobile District Corps of Engineers (DACW01-90-C-0144). Testing demonstrated that the site was eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The site retained a high degree of integrity in spite of historic agricultural impacts and it was shown that it could contribute to resolving many of the long-standing problems that exist in the Allatoona Lake prehistoric cultural sequence. Close cooperation between the Mobile District Corps of Engineers, Cobb County, and Golf West Companies resulted in design modifications to the original plan of the golf course which substantially reduced direct impacts to the site and ensured that a large portion of the site would be preserved for posterity. The artifacts recovered during the excavations will be curated at a federally-approved curation facility in either Georgia or an adjoining state. Three separate golf course features would partially impact the site: the eastern edge of the practice range, a segment of the club house access road, and the southern edge of the 17th Fairway. A scope of work for partial archeological data recovery was drawn up by Golf West Companies in consultation with Mobile District Corps of Engineers archeologist, Dottie Gibbens. New South Associates, Inc. was selected to conduct data recovery operations at the site through competitive bidding. A two-phased approach to archeological investigation was undertaken in each of the three impact zones. The initial phase consisted of test unit sampling of the plow zone, while the second phase involved mechanical removal of the plow zone to reveal prehistoric architectural features and other evidence of village occupation. Two-hundred ninety-two cultural and natural features were recorded during this investigation, all occurring in the proposed access road right-of-way. Major discoveries included a rather massive Wilbanks Phase palisade wall segment dating to the mid-thirteenth century A.D.; a large circular structure of unknown age; four small, circular structures which may have functioned as corn cribs; and eight late Etowah and Wilbanks phase roasting pits. This report presents the results of data recovery at 9Co45.