Cultural Resources Survey Proposed Wastewater Land Application System Expansion Site City of Covington Newton County, Georgia

R. S. Webb & Associates conducted a cultural resources survey of the proposed City of Covington Wastewater Land Application Expansion Site in Newton County, Georgia. The assessment was conducted on behalf of the City of Covington to locate and identify cultural resources within the project area and assess resource significance based on National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) criteria [36 CFR Part 60.4(d)] . The project area covers approximately 448.4 hectares and is located in Newton County, south of Covington and east of Yellow River. The project area surrounds the existing Covington/Newton County land application site. A survey of the existing facility was conducted by Ms . Nain Anderson (1977) and Mr. Tim Mistovitch (1980). Forty sites, 29 isolated finds and 38 isolated rock piles were detected during the field survey of the proposed expansion site. One state-recognized prehistoric site, Site 9NE4, is located within the project area. This site was originally recorded by Robert Wauchope in 1940 and revisited by Anderson in 1978. The site was revisited during the current study. Thirty-six of the sites and 27 of the isolated finds yielded prehistoric artifacts. Over 90 percent of the prehistoric assemblage is related to lithic extraction or bifacial reduction activities, followed by tool manufacture, hunting, processing and camping. Most of the prehistoric occupations (n=55) could not be assigned to a specific prehistoric time period. Seven sites and one isolated find yielded diagnostic artifacts, indicating occupations dating to the Early Archaic (n=3), Middle Archaic (n=2), Late Archaic (n= 1), Woodland (n=4) and Woodland/Mississippian (n= 1) periods. Twenty-one sites, three isolates and the 38 isolated rock piles represent historic occupations or activities. The historic sites and isolates include known or probable house complexes/remnants (n= 10) and discard scatters (n= 14). Based on the artifacts recovered, eight of the house complexes were occupied from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, while the other two house sites date to the 20th century. The discard scatters range from the late 19th through the middle 20th centuries. The 38 rock piles were all interpreted as resulting from 19th and early 20th century agricultural field clearing activities . Thirty-seven sites and all of the isolated finds/rock piles detected during the current survey are recommended as ineligible for the NRHP. The three remaining sites are considered potentially eligible for the NRHP. _These sites include: two buried prehistoric lithic sites on the levee of Yellow River (Sites 9NE122 and 9NE123) and the prehistoric component of Site 9NE4. It is recommended that these three sites be avoided, protected and preserved in-place. If these sites cannot be avoided, testing is recommended to evaluate their National Register eligibility status .