The Middle to Late Woodland at the Flint River Headwaters - Data Recovery at 9HY95, 9HY98, and 9HY104, Shoal Creek Reservoir, Henry County, Georgia

Data recovery excavations were conducted at 9HY95, 9HY98, and 9HY104 in the autumn of 1996. The three prehistoric sites faced potential adverse effects related to the construction of the proposed Shoal Creek Reservoir. The research was conducted under a Memorandum of Agreement and Data Recovery Plan accepted by the State Historic Preservation Office, the Corps of Engineers, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Cultural resources clearance to construct is recommended. The methods included a combination of limited hand-excavation and the machine-assisted scraping of 25 percent of each site area. Specialized laboratory analyses included zooarchaeology, ethnobotany, radiocarbon dating, and ceramic technology. Sites 9HY95 and 9HY104 both showed evidence of limited use in the Middle-Late Woodland, probably a resource-specific extraction or processing sites. Both sites were also lightly utilized in the Archaic. Site 9HY98 had substantial evidence of at least seasonally permanent occupation at several points in the Middle-Late Woodland. One to two houses were apparently occupied in three episodes of site use (A.D. 300-400, ca. A.D. 500, and A.D. 540-790). In the A.D. 300-400 occupation, two pit houses were present, suggesting cold weather use of the site. The pottery shows a technical and stylistic creolization of Cartersville Simple Stamped, Swift Creek Complicated Stamped, and Cartersville Check Stamped types. The site occupants had access to Hopewellian or Hopewell-derived ideotechnic items including worked mica, quartz crystals, clay figurines, and ocher.