Archaeological Survey of a Wetland Preservation Tract, Long County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted Phase I archeological survey and Phase II testing on a ca.526 ha wetlands mitigation tract in the Altamaha River floodplain in Long County, about 6 km south of Ludowici. The work was conducted from May to August 1996. The tract is essentially composed of two large, northwest-southeast trending sand ridges surrounded by swamp. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) purchased the property to preserve it as natural wetlands as mitigation for a highway project in nearby Glynn County. We estimate that the project area is about 35 percent dry land (ca.180 ha) and 65 percent swamp. Both ridges had been clear cut in the past four or five years and prepared for replanting of pine seedlings. Seedlings had been planted on the northern ridge, but not on the southern ridge. Because of the clearing and planting, there was a moderate amount of surface disturbance and exposure throughout the project area which facilitated the discovery and delineation of sites. Shovel testing was also employed to insure detection of sites, better delineate site boundaries, and to learn about the subsurface nature of the sites. The survey encountered widespread, but generally sparse, distributions of aboriginal ceramics on both ridges. Small amounts of chert artifacts (flakes) were also encountered, along with a few loci of historic brick, glass and ceramics. Because material was sparse on the surface, even more sparse in shovel tests, and in some cases had been moved by timbering, tree planting and road repair, it was difficult to isolate and delineate distinct sites. We used as our definition of a site the occurrence of at least five artifacts on the surface within a 30 m area (provided it was not road fill) or subsurface artifacts. Thirty-four field sites were recorded, of which 22 are considered sites (Table 1). Seven sites are located on the northern ridge and 15 on the southern ridge. Somewhat surprisingly, five of the sites contain a historic component, although only two of these seem to represent a house site. Deptford components are most numerous (at eleven sites), followed by St. Simons (four sites), St. Catherines/Wilmington (four sites), Savannah (three sites), Irene (three sites) and Swift Creek (two sites). Based on the initial phase of intensive survey, we recommended that 17 of the 22 discovered sites were not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, mainly because artifact density was too low to suggest that they would have further research potential. Five sites were recommended as potentially eligible in management summaries, and these were revisited and tested with additional shovel tests and between two and eight 1x2 m test units. Based on the testing, we recommend that two of these sites, 9LG69 and 9LG83, do not meet eligibility criteria, but that 9LG68, 9LG75 and 9LG79 do meet eligibility criteria for the National Register. Site 9LG69 is situated in an unusual setting, on a hammock, but had an extremely low artifact density. 9LG83 also had a low artifact density and no indications that it would contain features or other types of important information.