Cultural Resources Survey and Archaeological Testing Brookwood Market Place Cumming, Forsyth County Georgia

The purpose of this Phase I investigation was to determine the presence or absence of precontact and historic cultural resources within the area of the proposed Brookwood Market Place project in Cumming, Forsyth County, Georgia. This archaeological survey will assist in establishing recommendations for further study or avoidance. The project parcel includes 55 acres which required field survey. A major portion of the tract has been cultivated and terraced. The terraces are over one meter high in some places. The tract also has major disturbances resulting from the preparation of a road bed and a parallel utilities trench. Wetland is present on the parcel and clear cutting of timber with the replanting of white pines has occurred in a large part of the remaining woodland areas. The Phase I cultural resource survey was completed in compliance with all known cultural resource guidelines and regulations of the state of Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Division. A cultural resources reconnaissance survey of the entire project parcel considered for development was undertaken along with excavation of shovel tests. The project is situated east of the Peachtree Parkway and Brookwood Road intersection. Densmore Road is located north of the project property. Supplemental shovel tests were excavated in areas of high potential for the recovery of cultural artifacts. Though the tract had been previously cultivated and a growth of weeds covered the property, ground surface visibility ranged from approximately 20 to 80 percent. No previously recorded archaeological sites are listed within one mile of the project in the University of Georgia state site file database. Two historic structures in varying degrees of degradation, one historical site, and two isolated precontact recoveries were discovered. On the basis of the cultural resource fieldwork completed, it is our recommendation that the proposed development be permitted at this location.