New South Associates, Inc. (New South) conducted Phase II archaeological testing at site 9CH797 in the proposed new location of water tanks on the Priest Landing Skidaway Institute of Oceanography complex on Skidaway Island, Chatham County, Georgia. The work was conducted on behalf of the University of Georgia in compliance with recommendations from the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (GASHPO). Previous investigations of the site recommended 9CH797 as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and recommended further investigations of the site (Elliot and Holland 2006; Gresham 2020). The current project area was already paved when site 9CH797 was discovered and therefore was not investigated. This Phase II investigation sought to determine the condition and integrity of any cultural deposits under the asphalt parking lot.
Subsurface testing consisted of the excavation of one 1x2-meter unit in each of the four quadrants of the project area as well as a trench through the project area. Excavations indicated a high level of disturbance across the 0.4-acre portion of site 9CH797 investigated during the current project. A midden present within the project area may be redeposited from the construction of the parking lot. Precontact and historic artifacts were encountered during excavations, but the deposits had no vertical integrity. Based on the current excavation, there is little potential for this portion of site 9CH797 to contain intact cultural deposits or provide significant information about the precontact or historic past of the area, and no further archaeological work is recommended for governmental action.
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