LOCATION: This project is a bridge replacement over Turkey Creek. The bridge replacement is a part of a larger project involving reconstruction of a two-lane facility -- S.R. 257 between Dublin and Dexter. SURVEY: The site files at Georgia State University had a number of sites listed for Laurens County, all of which were located by the 1965 Heart of Georgia Survey. Sites were reported along Turkey Creek, but not at the bridge replacement. It thus seemed likely that survey of this area of Turkey Creek would turn up a site. Upon field examination of the project area and the larger project of which it is a part, it was discovered that construction was already under way. The area around Turkey Creek had been graded, filled, or otherwise altered. Nothing was left to survey. Continuing along to another part of the S.R. 257 project, the bridge construction over Rocky Creek was found to have affected 9hsLs, a lithic site adjacent to the east of the old bridge. A small collection of chert flakes and partial cores were taken from a cultivated field a little north of present construction (see map). Given the presence of sites in the vicinity of Turkey Creek Bridge and the affected site 9hsLs, it seems reasonable that the bridge replacement construction has irretrievably affected a portion of the State's archaeological resources.
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