Archaeological Evaluation of the Riverside Court and Park Court Gas Service Lines Cartersville, Georgia

During May 2005, Archaeological Consultants of the Carolinas, Inc. (ACC), conducted an archaeological evaluation of proposed gas service lines in Cartersville Georgia. The lines are located along Riverside Court and Park Court, near the Etowah River less than 1 mile downstream from Etowah Mounds (9BR1). The service line corridors are situated on the north side of these streets, approximately 2 meters from the edge of pavement. The Free Bridge site (9BR6) is located in the project area. As recorded by Robert Wauchope from his work in the 1930s, this is a Native American mound and village site. A housing development now occupies the site area. Archaeologists David Hally and Adam King revisited the site in 1988, just prior to construction of the residential development. Their work consisted of a surface collection of the site area, but few artifacts were found. They found no evidence of the mound recorded by Wauchope. In 2005, an archaeological evaluation of a gas main along Douthit Ferry was conducted, and limited evidence of the site was found. However, the site area was avoided, as a directional bore enabled the gas main to be constructed beneath the site. Prior to the commencement of field investigations several utility lines within and adjacent to the project corridors were identified. Field evaluations primarily focused on evaluating the corridor along Park Court, as this best fits Wauchope’s location of the site. Eight shovel tests were excavated within the project right-of-way along Riverside Court. A total of five artifacts (three sherds and two flakes) was collected from two shovel tests. However, no evidence suggesting intact archaeological contexts was found in the project corridor. Limited examination of the corridor along Park Court was also conducted. Evidence of 9BR6 was not found in this area. Evaluation of the gas service lines along Riverside Court and Park Court found limited evidence of the Free Bridge site (9BR6). However, because of the limited size of the area evaluated for the gas service lines (i.e., confined to a narrow corridor along the edge of the road), it is difficult to comment on portions of the site away from the road edge. Regardless, the proposed gas service lines will not impact significant archaeological contexts.