Phase III Data Recovery at Four Prehistoric Sites in the Horton Creek Reservoir Project Area

Archaeological Investigations at four prehistoric sites along Horton Creek in Fayette County, Georgia are summarized. The excavations collected data pertaining to Transitional Paleoindian through Late Mississippian assemblages that occur at some distance from a major river, but instead occur along small creeks in the southern Piedmont region. Multiple components were recovered at each of the sites, which depicted changing subsistence-settlement patterns and social organization. The Transitional Paleoindian and Early Archaic assemblages recovered suggest small, short-duration special activity camps that served a limited number of individuals. More variability occurred in the Middle Archaic components. During this period, several of the sites appear to have been used as specialized activity camps, while others showed evidence of more diverse activities usually associated with longer (possibly seasonal) duration habitations of small family groups. The most extensive use of the project area occurred during the Late Archaic and Woodland periods with relatively large quantities of materials found at most of the sites. Unfortunately, these and later periods were usually disturbed by agricultural plowing. Although plowing diminished much of the potential of the four sites, the combination of wide area stripping and block excavations produced a wealth of new information concerning the Woodland period occupations of the region. In particular, two major Swift Creek components were identified and found to contain intact cultural features and extensive, well-preserved ceramic assemblages. One site contained evidence of a walled enclosure or structure. Also, the tool assemblage recovered from one of these sites suggests activities related to possible craft specialization. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the Swift Creek occupations indicate that these two sites were periodically inhabited between A.D. 500 to A.D. 900.