Southwest Georgia Archaeological Survey 2001-2004

From November 2001 to May 2004, archaeologists with the LAMAR Institute conducted a regional study of 14 counties in southwestern Georgia for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation Division (HPD), Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA). This project was performed in accordance with the Scope of Services authored by HPD (Crass 2001) and the study areas included: Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, and Worth (Figure 1). This report provides a synthesis of the previous state of archaeological knowledge of these 14 counties and summarizes the findings of the LAMAR Institute's archaeological field survey and collector survey. This archaeological survey had two primary purposes. First, based on background research and interview of local sources, high site probability areas were defined for each county. A sample of the high probability areas containing ground surface visibility in each county was subjected to systematic surface survey to identify and map archaeological sites in the project area. Additionally, area landowners were interviewed. Archaeologists examined and documented (when feasible) the pertinent artifact collections of many of these landowners. Part of this goal was to establish positive relations in the region between archaeologists, HPD, and the public in that region of Georgia. The second purpose of the project was to generate an archaeological survey report, which would meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Documenting Archaeological Sites. This report includes a section on management recommendations for the identified archeological site types and a section on critical research questions that arise from the management concerns.