Archaeological Data Recovery at the Big Tucsawhatchee Site (9PU20) Pulaski County, Georgia

In November and December 2005, Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. conducted Phase III data recovery excavations at the Big Tucsawhatchee site (9PU20), located on the terraces above Big Creek (formerly Tucsawhatchee Creek) along State Route 230 in Pulaski County, Georgia. This data recovery was undertaken as part of Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Project Number BRS-0679 (7), which involves a replacement of the bridge over Big Creek. Fieldwork consisted of the excavation of one 2 x 6 m, five 2 x 2 m, and three 1 x 2 m blocks, as well as the excavation of a series of shovel tests along the northern side of SR 230. Artifacts diagnostic of numerous occupation components were recovered from the site, including Middle Paleoindian, Early Archaic, Late Archaic, Early, Middle, and Late Woodland, Middle Mississippian, and Late Mississippian/Protohistoric. A detailed analysis of site structure and debitage densities determined that all occupation levels above that of the Late Archaic were heavily disturbed in the area of the site being investigated. The cultural features encountered during the data recovery date to the Late Archaic and Early Woodland occupations and suggest that the site may have been occupied for the extraction of subsistence resources in the form of nutmasts and for the procurement of raw materials. An outcrop of chert was located near the site, along an unnamed tributary of Big Creek. Structural analysis also detected the presence of a diffuse but intact Early Archaic occupation. Although multiple Paleoindian projectile points were recovered from the site, no occupation levels associated with this component could be isolated.