Phase II Evaluative Testing at Site 9TE123

In September 2014, Georgia Power Company ( GPC) contracted with Brockington and Associates, Inc. to complete Phase II archaeological testing at Site 9TE123, located in central Terrell County, Georgia. The goal of this study was to examine the portion of Site 9TE123 located within the Area of Potential Effects (APE) of the project area, and evaluate it in terms of eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The investigation was conducted pursuant to compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (as amended). The study was conducted by personnel qualified under the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards (36 CFR Part 61-Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation).

GPC intends to install a 25-inch self-supporting monopole as part of an improvement effort to the 46kV Dawson Primary-Parrott transmission line. The current plan is to place a new transmission structure approximately 18 feet (ft) east of the current existing structure. The project area consists of an approximately 150-ft transmission line right-of-way (ROW) that intersects with archaeological Site 9TE123. GPC shares this ROW with Georgia Transmission Corporation, and only utilizes 50 ft of the total transmission line ROW. We have considered the entire 150-ft wide ROW within Site 9TE123 as the project APE.

Site 9TE123 was first recorded by Southeastern Archaeological Services (SAS) in 2004 as a 90-meter (m) by 40+-m prehistoric lithic scatter. No diagnostic artifacts were recorded, though Gresham (2005:101) believed the site generally represented the Archaic Period. SAS had recommended Site 9TE123 potentially eligible for the NRHP, and that additional testing would be necessary to evaluate NRHP status if the site could not be avoided during future development (Gresham 2005).

Brockington conducted Phase II archaeological testing at 9TE123 to provide a definitive NRHP eligibility recommendation for the portion of the site located within the project APE. This task was accomplished by conducting background research, implementing field excavations to examine the potential for intact archaeological deposits, completing laboratory analysis of all artifacts recovered, and assessing the potential for the site to address topics regarding past lifeways. The portion of the site outside of(north of) the proposed project's APE was not investigated during the current study; therefore the research potential and NRHP eligibility for Site 9TE123 as a whole remains unknown. It should be noted that during the previous survey (Gresham 2005), investigators identified the highest density of artifacts in this area outside the APE.

Within the project's APE, investigators recovered nine prehistoric plain ceramic sherds and 523 lithics from three 1-by-2-m test units. Of the 523 lithics collected, 15 were tools or tool fragments and 508 were pieces of lithic debitage. Just one diagnostic artifact, a Late Archaic Savannah River Stemmed projectile point, was identified. Although the relatively high density of artifacts recovered from TU202 and TU203 provides important data regarding site function (chert processing station, tool manufacture, etc.), needed information associated with specific cultures or changes through time was not obtained due to the very low numbers of diagnostic materials, mixed contexts (Late Archaic mixed with general Woodland/Mississippian), and lack of features. It is possible that soil disturbances may have resulted from clearing to create the transmission line corridor, likely with heavy machinery. Further investigations at the portion of 9TE123 located within the project APE are therefore unlikely to provide significant and substantial amounts of data that can be used to address pertinent research questions regarding the Prehistoric occupations in the region. We recommend that this portion of 9TE123 within the project APE be considered not eligible for the NRHP. We recommend archaeological clearance for the portion of the site situated within the project's APE; no further management considerations within this portion of9TE123 are warranted.