Data Recovery Investigations at 9GE37, Structures 28 through 35

In February 2014, Brockington and Associates, Inc. (Brockington) initiated Phase III mitigative data recovery investigations at Structures (STRs) 28 through 35 at 9GE37, a mid-nineteenth-century Mill Village complex associated with the Curtright Factory located within Reynolds Plantation, in Greene County, Georgia. Reynolds Plantation is currently planning to develop the parcel that contains Site 9GE37, STRs 28-35. Reynolds Plantation has determined that proposed improvements to the property including the construction of new residential lots and associated roads and utilities, will disturb or destroy the house row. As stipulated in a Programmatic Agreement, data recovery archaeological investigations were required to mitigate the adverse effects to this Historic Property.

Portions of Site 9GE37 were first documented and excavated in advance of the construction of the Wallace Dam (Bartovics and Council 1978; DePratter 1976; Smith 1971) and recommended eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In 2003, SAS conducted Data Recovery investigations at 9GE37 (STRs 1, 2, 12, and 36) and 9GE1665 (STR 11), in addition to detailed mapping of the remainder of the house row (STR 28-35), which was to be preserved in place (O'Steen et al. 2009; cf. Ledbetter and Moffat 2002).

Mitigative archaeological data recovery fieldwork at 9GE37, Structures 28-35 was completed February-April 2014. The minimum effort outlined in the Data Recovery Plan was exceeded, and expectations about the potential site data were largely borne out. In the course of the data recovery of STRs 28-35, 3,341 artifacts were recovered from 130 l-by-1 m Excavation Units and metal detector survey. As specified in the Data Recovery Plan (Franz 2014:37), a minimum of 12 units were excavated within each of the eight structure locations as well as within the surrounding "yard" areas, focused on potential cultural features and artifact concentrations. Soils within the house row are generally eroded and deflated; topsoils and historic deposits (generally < l0 cm) were excavated.

As expected, few cultural features were found other than the visible foundation remains. Identified features include the largely scattered brick piers and chimney falls associated with the eight structures, as well as drip lines and a few intact sections of chimney brick. This meets expectations; as the structures would have had raised floors, it was not hearths or other structural details would not be present within the ground surface. Outside of the structures much of the ground is severely sloped and the area for additional outbuildings is limited except in the 'yard' around STRs 29 and 30. No subsurface (i.e., cut/fill) features were identified; this is likely the results of a combination of logging impacts and deflation of the soils. Low artifact density is attributed largely to erosion and deflation of the soils, with materials washed down-slope, away from the structure areas. As expected, all structures investigated appear to have gable end chimneys, and not central, saddle-bag type floor plans. And, at an average of five-by-seven m, they are also smaller than Structure 18 (5.5-by-11 m), the expected model for an end-chimney dwelling in the Curtright village.

All fieldwork proposed in the 9GE37, Structures 28-35 Data Recovery Plan (Franz 2014) has been completed, and construction activities at the site was allowed to proceed, following the acceptance of a management summary by the Georgia State Historic preservation office and US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, in July 2104.