A Summary of Archaeological Investigations on the Veazey Tract, Greene County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., was hired by Reynolds Plantation in 2001 to conduct an intensive archaeological survey of 1300 acres of land on the east side of Richland Creek in Greene County, Georgia (Figures 1 and 2). The survey of the tract (known at that time as the Veazey Tract after the nearby community of Veazey) was conducted in the winter and spring of 2001, and resulted in the identification of nearly 120 sites. Based on the results of the survey phase, additional work was recommended for 32 archeological sites tentatively considered potentially eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (Ledbetter 2003). The additional work was considered necessary to firmly establish eligibility status (either eligible or ineligible), but the testing was not implemented.

Reynolds Plantation decided to put the project on hold at that time, and further field work was not conducted by SAS. Some laboratory work and archival investigation was conducted by SAS in the latter part of 2001. The final site count for the project was based on the results of the artifact analysis and further consideration of the integrity of each cultural resource. The final site count for the project has been determined to be 116 archaeological sites (for which site forms have been submitted). The survey area also contained 24 low density artifact occurrences (non-sites), and one modern flint knapping locus (see Jones and Ledbetter 2006:17-26 for a discussion of the modern flint knapping area). Figures 3 and 4 show the locations of sites and occurrences using state site numbers and field site numbers. Field sites were designated by the prefix “VA” for Veazey.

At the request of Dr. Mark Williams, director of the Georgia Archaeological Site Files, and the senior author, the records and artifact collections from the Veazey Tract survey have been transferred to the University of Georgia’s Riverbend Curation Facility for permanent curation. This provides protection for the records and will allow the survey material to be utilized for archaeological research. The following brief report is primarily a compilation of the archaeological records and data available from the survey. The primary information is found in the site forms begun in 2002 and submitted to the Georgia Archaeological site files in 2013 (Appendix A). A list of all artifacts recovered during the project is found in Appendix B (photographs of representative artifacts are included). Also included are

notes, artifact lists, and photographs of artifacts from revisited sites previously identified in the late 1970s as a part of the Wallace Mitigation Survey (Appendix C). The information procured for this earlier survey is found in the UGA artifact collections and the Wallace Reservoir Project Files at the Laboratory of Archaeology.