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Addendum to Archaeological Survey and Site Testing of Proposed Improvements to State Route 72; Madison and Elbert Counties, Georgia

Author(s)
Report Number
2936
Year of Publication
2001
County
Abstract

In October of 1998, an 18.8 km (11.7 mi) long corridor for the proposed rerouting of State Route 72 in Madison and Elbert Counties was archeologically surveyed. The draft archeological survey and site testing report for this proposed reconfiguration of S.R. 72 concluded that one of the 21 recorded archeological sites, site 9MD115, a Lamar period farmstead, was eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (Pluckhahn 1999). With this knowledge, GDOT archeologists and project engineers rerouted the proposed corridor around the site, requiring the survey of 1,200 m of new right-of-way. This was archeologically surveyed in March of 1999, and in an addendum to the draft report, it was reported that no sites were found (Gresham 1999). In April 2001 project engineers proposed realignments to two sections of the proposed highway corridor, mainly to lessen or avoid impacts to wetlands. The western section is just west of Comer and the eastern section is' about a kilometer west of the Broad River (Figure 1). Southeastern Archeological Services conducted intensive archeological survey of those two realignments on April 24 and 26, 2001. SAS archeologist Rob Benson directed the fieldwork and was assisted by technician Margaret Spalding. Principal Investigator Tom Gresham oversaw the project, conducted archival research prior to fieldwork and authored this addendum report.