Archaeological Data Recovery Investigations at 9GE1660 and 9GE1661: Two Archaic Sites Greene County, Georgia

In April 2019, Brockington and Associates, Inc. (Brockington) completed a Phase III data recovery of 9GE1660 and 9GE1661 (9GE1660/1661), two adjacent Archaic period sites in Greene County, Georgia. The sites are in a strategic, resource-rich location east of the Oconee River within Reynolds Lake Oconee, a private residential development. Through consultation with the Georgia Historic Preservation Division (HPD), the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District (USACE) determined that only the portion of Site 9GE1660/1661 with preserved cultural deposits was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Therefore, these portions of 9GE1660/1661 are subject to a Programmatic Agreement between the USACE, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and Reynolds Lake Oconee. Sites 9GE1660/1661 contain the remnants of Early, Middle, and Late Archaic occupations, associated with an opportunistic quartz quarry location. This report details the results of Brockington’s archival research, field investigations, and laboratory analyses for 9GE1660 and 9GE1661 and interprets these results considering several research questions surrounding Archaic habitation of the Oconee River Valley and the Piedmont region. Fieldwork consisted of two stages (Stages 1 and 2) that accomplished the systematic hand-excavation of 107.75 square meters (sq m) within targeted portions of the site. This includes 111 50-by-50-cm units during Stage 1 field investigations (27.75 sq m) and 22 larger excavation units during the Stage 2 field investigations (80 sq m). We recovered 3,031 artifacts from the site and conducted several analyses, including detailed lithic analysis on the recovered debitage and tools. We identified one possible subsurface Archaic period cultural feature in Locus 3, a lithic reduction workstation (Feature 604) that was used for tool manufacturing from lithic raw materials procured nearby from a quartz quarry. Sites 9GE1660 and 9GE1661 contain the remnants of multiple Archaic occupations (Early, Middle, and Late Archaic). The Early Archaic component consists of a series of short-term seasonal camps; this component appears to be the most frequent at the site. The Middle Archaic and Late Archaic components appear to be minimal and intermittent, with site use likely focused on exploitation of quartz materials and upland resources. Lithic reduction practices focused on use of higher quality materials for tool manufacture. We also identified several activity areas suggesting behaviors related to upland subsistence practices. These activity areas included discrete areas located at 9GE1660/1661 for butchering of wild game, likely white-tailed deer, and animal hide scraping and processing.