University of Georgia Herman Street Parcel Clarke County Tax Parcel 172Al, B007

Per your request, we have conducted archival research and archeological survey on the above-referenced small tract of land to determine if it contains any graves, cemeteries or human remains or significant archeological sites. As outlined in the remainder of this letter, we found that the tract does not contain graves or significant archeological sites.

We examined aerial photographs from 1938 to 1955 and learned that there was not a structure on the tract during that period, although there may have been a small house just to the south, which fronted on Arch Street via a driveway. The compendium of cemeteries for Clarke County, Athens Clarke County Georgia Cemeteries produced by the Athens Historical Society in 1999 (Eve B. Weeks, editor) does not show a cemetery here. Various older maps of Athens (such as Strahan's 1893 map of Clarke County, Barnett's 1895 map of Athens, and the 1927 Soil Survey map of Clarke County) do not show a cemetery or structure here. The 1927 Soil Survey map does show three structures in a row beginning at the acute intersection of Arch and Herman Streets and a fourth structure to the east and north of these three. The three structures are small houses that still stand facing Arch Street. The fourth structure is almost certainly the house seen in a 1938 aerial photograph, which as mentioned, seems_ to lie just south of the subject tract. It is likely, however, that the yard area of this fourth house did extend into the subject tract. The 1938 aerial photograph shows the land immediately east of the subject tract (which is now a housing complex) as open, terraced farm land. Thus, as late as 1938 this area was rural, or at the very edge of town.

Our field inspection of the tract revealed that most of the lot is covered in ornamental vegetation, including large oak trees, privet, yuccas and ground cover of English ivy and liriope.

This exotic ground cover is even more dense in the surrounding vacant lots. We saw no evidence of foundations or chimney stubs that would mark the location of a house, either on the subject tract or on adjacent lots. We saw one small pile of field stones and brick fragments that may have been some sort of landscape feature. On the adjoining vacant lots there has been quite a bit of shallow ground surface disturbance, apparently produced by some heavy machinery. These exposures were visually inspected and no artifacts were observed. Two shovel tests were placed in the subject lot, and both yielded no artifacts. We are not sure precisely where the small house shown on the 1927 Soil Survey map and 1938 aerial photograph was located. It most likely was on the crest of the ridge just south of the subject lot. Since there is very little (almost none) evidence of that house, we assume it was either moved or was thoroughly razed.

We conclude that maps and records indicate that no graves or significant archeological sites exist on the lot and field inspection and the excavation of two shovel tests confirm that no graves or significant sites exist on the lot.