An Intensive Archaeological Survey of the Proposed Bypass of the City of Jefferson, Jackson County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., conducted an intensive archeological survey of a proposed bypass of the city of Jefferson, in Jackson County, Georgia. The project corridor consists of approximately 12 km (7.5 miles) of new road segments and expanded right-of-way. The area of potential effect varies from 5 m to 130 m wide, but generally measures about 100 m for most of the proposed route. The project corridor had been previously surveyed at the reconnaissance level by Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) archeologist Teresa Paglione 1990. Her field notes indicate that no significant archeological sites were identified. The current survey fieldwork was conducted in October 1996. All high probability areas (any area with < 15 % slope) along the proposed right-of-way were surface inspected and shovel tested on a 30 m interval. Low probability areas (areas with >15% slope) were surface inspected and randomly shovel tested. Sites were tested with a 15 m or 20 m interval shovel testing pattern. The survey resulted in the identification of four previously unrecorded sites (Table 1) and three artifact occurrences. Two of the sites consist of prehistoric lithic scatters, and one is the remnants of a historic era house or farmstead. The fourth site contains both prehistoric and historic components. Based on the survey data, all of the sites are recommended ineligible to the National Register of Historic Places due to the sparsity of artifacts, disturbance from grading or erosion, and the likelihood that the sites will provide little additional, substantial information as the result of future investigations.