Archaeological Survey Fulton County, Georgia, Interim Report

The present Interim Report is not an analysis of all data gathered during the past four years. Anthropological interpretation of the archeology will be presented in only one or two cases where it was thought vital to the understanding of the priority given to a particular site. The main purpose of the Report is to bring about an awareness of the richness and importance of the  prehistoric and historic heritage of Fulton County and to emphasize the rapidity with which this material is being devastated by urban and industrial expansion.

This Interim Report represents investigations undertaken since January, 1971, until May, 1972. Sites, where prior work had been undertaken and are included here, have been revisited and the data or status brought up to date. Several new investigations are reported here for the first time. 

Priorities and recommendations are included with each site in the form of NOTES which follow the Survey Data Sheet. As this is only an interim study it is not intended for publication. Its main function is to serve as a guideline for planning, development and public works in order that as much of the County’s history and tangible heritage as possible be preserved intact for an indefinite period of time. Where a site and its context must be destroyed, priorities are set to effect preservation of the data in the form of salvage archeology. There will soon come a time when archeological methods and techniques will have been improved to the point that a major portion of interpretive data can be recovered. Unfortunately, there will be very few sites to apply the new knowledge and take best advantage of it.

Since destructive digging has become an active pastime with unknowledegable people, the sites and their valuable contents are very open to massive vandalism once the locations are known. It is strongly urged that this Interim Report be held as classified information and its use restricted to those departments of government to whom its contents pertain. 

It is also the purpose of this Interim Report to act as a request for local governmental support. In December, 1970, the Fulton County Commission approved a sum of $1,200 for work during that month, when student labor would be available to continue surveying possible archeological sites. Fourteen persons were so employed, 46 sites were visited of which 22 were new discoveries. The results of this work were catalogued in an APPRAISAL (attached here as "Appendix B"). Since December, 197 0, requests for data have continued to come in to supplement impact statements and various other planning projects. A total of 4320 man-labor-hours not including volunteer work hours, have been expended in research. Added to this are the 1960 man-labor hours of December, 1970. Various additional expenses include gasoline and transportation costs, tools and minor supplies. The $1,200 covered just the expenses of December, 1970, and since that date, no financial support has been received by the three persons regularly employed in the Fulton County investigations.

It should be stated that the data included in the Interim Report will be of great use and required as part of environmental impact data for all Fulton County projects which come under P.L. 91-90, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 .