Archeological Investigations at 9Lc24, Lincoln County, Georgia

This report presents the results of archeological data recovery at 9Lc24, Lincoln County, Georgia, a multicomponent site on Clarks Hill Lake characterized by seven rock piles. Complete excavation of six of the rock piles, testing with small test units, a 5 by 5 m block excavation, and extensive soil chemistry testing were employed to fully understand the function and culture chronology of the site. Excavation results showed that the rock piles were of historic origin and represented farmers' efforts to consolidate quartz rock onto an existing 15 m wide vein of quartz. Excavation showed that a portion of this vein contained high quality quartz and was heavily exploited by aboriginal people as a quarry/ workshop, perhaps mostly during the Late Archaic period. The quarry assemblage contained cores, percussion flakes, bifacial thinning flakes, preforms, and bifaces. Small amounts of chert and metavolcanic cultural material were also present. A special quarrying tool, the 'hoe-pick' was observed and described. The site also supported a Late Archaic and late eighteenth/early nineteenth century occupation. The soil chemistry results showed high levels of calcium, phosphorus, and potassium at the rock pile/ground surface interface, which were the criteria established to be indicative of human burial. Since the rock piles clearly contained no burials, the utility of soil chemistry for determining the presence of completely decomposed burials is questioned.