Archeological Delineation of the Freeman Cemetery in Arcade

The Freeman Cemetery is a small, family burial ground located in the sparsely developed southeast portion of the town of Arcade (Figure 1), in south central Jackson County. The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is considering moving the cemetery to facilitate the widening of U.S. Highway 129. To gather information for the decision making process, DOT contracted with Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. (SAS) to archeologically delineate the extent of graves, i.e., the boundary of the cemetery, in accordance with Georgia Code Section 36-72-5(2). This code section states that the number and location of graves believed to be present is to be determined by use of "minimally invasive" techniques. While some debate exists in the archeological community about the definition of minimally invasive, it generally refers to remote sensing techniques and probing. On July 20, 1995, SAS archeologists Thomas Gresham and Robert Benson visited the Freeman Cemetery to archeologically delineate it by visual inspection and the systematic use of a 9 mm diameter metal probe to detect grave shafts with no surface markings. The cemetery is located 80 m (263 ft) south southwest of the intersection of U.S. Highway 129 and the driveway to Mr. Charles Segars' home (Figure 2). Mr. Segars owns the land upon which the cemetery is situated. The cemetery is also 116 m (380 ft) due south of the intersection of U.S. Highway 129 and a county road the angles into the highway from the west (Figures 1 and 2). At the time of the visit, the cemetery had been recently cleared of thick undergrowth by family members and a chain link fence had been erected around the visible graves. The fenced area is on the edge of intersecting utility line corridors that cut through a pine plantation (Figure 3). The cemetery appears to be at the edge of a terrace, as the land slopes sharply near the middle of the fenced-in area (Figure 3). Within the fence are four discernible grave depressions and a linear berm of field stones (Figure 4). A map of the cemetery was produced based on visual inspection (Figure 5). Four graves (1-4 in Figure 5) are discernible as shallow, linear, east-west depressions. They appear to be somewhat paired, with graves I and 2 slightly further apart from graves 3 and 4. A couple of probes quickly confirmed that these are graves, as the soil was much less consolidated than surrounding soil. The rock berm was carefully examined and a possible grave (labeled as 5? in Figure 5) was noticed. It was discernible as a somewhat rectilinear arrangement of fieldstones. It remains questionable as a grave because probing indicated that unconsolidated soil was much shallower here than in the known graves. Also, it is in line with the stone berm, an unusual, but still possible, location for a grave. The north-south depression just east of the stone berm was probed and found to contain about 30 to 40 cm of unconsolidated soil. It is almost certainly not a grave (or graves), but appears to be related to the construction of the stone berm. The exploration for additional graves focused on the areas beyond the known graves, in line with the pattern of the known graves; that is, the area north of grave 4, south of graves I and 5?, west of graves 1-4 and east of the depression. These areas were extensively probed and in all cases no other graves were encountered. Because of the rock we could not probe much within the rock berm, but a few successful probes indicated that no graves are present underneath the rock. Thus, the probing confirmed the visual evidence that no more than five graves exist in the plot, and all are contained within the chain link fence. The nature and function of what we have termed the stone berm remain unclear. There are two possibilities as to what it represents. It could be a disturbed rock terrace, probably built to partially contain, define or protect the small cemetery. As shown in Figure 3, the land form makes a sharp break at about the stone berm. However, a terrace is not really discernible beyond the cemetery, so if the stone is indicative of a terrace, it was probably one associated only with the cemetery, and not larger agricultural fields. The rock may be a remnant of a stone wall enclosure that enclosed the four (or five) graves. It is possible that the south and west portions of the wall were obliterated during the clearing and construction of the power lines that intersect just to the south and west of the cemetery. The south and west portions of the cemetery are within the power line easements. No rock could be found at the edges of the power line easements, so if a portion of the wall was removed, it became quite dispersed. We also could not determine the function of the linear depression just east of the rock berm. It appears to be a construction type of feature, possibly related to the stone berm. In regard to the primary goal of this study, we conclude that the Freeman Cemetery has four known and one possible grave, as shown in Figure 5. The graves are contained within the 30 by 30 ft fenced area shown in Figure 5. The fence should be considered the boundaries of the cemetery.