Archaeological Investigations at the Meridian Site, McIntosh County, Georgia

The Meridian Site (WGC 1683) is a large prehistoric archaeological site located along the marsh edge adjacent to Hudson Creek at Meridian in McIntosh County, Georgia (Figure 1). Indications of the site first were reported in February, 1982 consequent to an examination of a proposed dredged material disposal area by Judy Wood of the Savannah District Corps of Engineers (Letter from David Wahus to Lewis Larson, 11 March 1982). Another portion of the site was inspected in February, 1990 during a preliminary archaeological survey conducted by the Office of the State Archaeologist at the request of Game and Fish Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (Memorandum from Lewis Larson to David Walter, 16 February, 1990). The survey was requested to determine if the planned construction of a parking lot would effect archaeological resources. Design of the parking lot was revised to avoid a shell midden area of potential significance. Neither of these brief initial inspections revealed the size, character, or significance of the site. Following development of a concept plan for construction of new interpretive facilities at Meridian for visitors departing for Sapelo Island, an archaeological assessment was designed to determine the nature of the site, its significance, and whether or not proposed construction activities would destroy significant information within the site. This archaeological assessment was carried out over a four-day period in April, 1994 as portion of a West Georgia College archaeological field methods class. Subsequent mitigative excavation at a small section of the site was undertaken over a three-day period in August, 1994 with a hired crew of West Georgia College students. This report details the methods and results of the archaeological investigation, provides recommendations regarding the eligibility of the Meridian Site for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places and provides management recommendations for additional mitigation of adverse project impacts upon the site. The assessment section of this report considers the facility areas of the proposed visitor's center consisting of asphalt parking areas (approximately 1.75 acres); a concrete walkway / deck / interpretive center building (approximately .25 acres), an interpretive trail (approximately 5.0 acres), and a sewerage drain field (approximately .09 acres) (see Figure 2). Mitigative excavation focused only on site contexts within the limits of the proposed sewerage drain field. All records and artifacts resulting from this investigation are curated at the Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeological Laboratory at West Georgia College (Accession No. 51; Catalog Numbers 133-167). The catalog inventory of artifacts and samples recovered for this project is presented in Appendix A of this report.