CRM: Vogtle - Effingham - Thalman 500kv Transmission Line, Resource Testing and Recovery Planning

Cultural Property GP-SN-12 was discovered during the Resource Inventory II study of the proposed Vogtle -Effingham - Thalmann 500 KV Electric Transmission Line (Garrow 1984). Two sections of the property are within Designated Work Areas (DWAs or study areas) for transmission line tower construction. A program of archaeological testing was conducted during April of 1985 to assess in detail the research potential and to provide data for planning any necessary subsequent work within the DWAs. It should be noted that the non-DWA remainder of the property within the project corridor will continue to be protected from disturbance under Georgia Power Company's Tentative Resource Treatment Plan (Shive 1984). GP-SN-12 is located in Screven County, Georgia, on a partially wooded and partially open, low sandy bluff overlooking Brier Creek. Presently, Brier Creek is about 500 meters south of GP-SN-12, although its floodplain/swamp extends to the edge of the cultural property. The Resource Inventory II study of GP-SN-12 yielded prehistoric lithics diagnostic of the Early Archaic period, and lithics and ceramics diagnostic of the Late Archaic, Early Woodland, and Late Woodland periods (Garrow 1984). Historic artifacts dating between approximately 1870 and the present were also identified. Subsurface shovel testing revealed that prehistoric materials were present to a depth of approximately one meter, suggesting that the subsurface integrity of the cultural property was intact. The horizontal distribution of artifacts from surface and subsurface contexts indicated that the cultural property extends east to west approximately 600 meters, and north to south approximately 150 meters. Figure 1 shows the location of GP-SN-12 along the Vogtle-Effingham-Thalmann corridor, and Figure 2 presents a plan of the cultural property showing the two Designated Work Areas.