Archaeological Survey and Site Testing of Proposed Highway 441 Improvements, Wilkinson and Baldwin Counties, Georgia

This report presents the results of an intensive survey and site testing project along a 35.3 km (22 mi) length of US Highway 441 that is scheduled for widening from two to four lanes. The project is mostly in Wilkinson County, but extends into Baldwin County, to just south of Milledgeville. The generally 61 m (200 ft) wide construction corridor was first surveyed by Southeastern Archeological Services in 1992, and then two sections that had been rerouted (to avoid a cemetery that was discovered) were surveyed by the company in March 1993. Also, two sites recorded by the original survey as potentially eligible to the National Register of Historic Places were tested and evaluated in April 1993. Seventeen sites, twelve occurrences and three other cultural features were recorded. None of the occurrences are recommended eligible to the National Register, as they represent very sparse or highly disturbed deposits that are unlikely to contribute important information. The cultural features consisted of a still that may not be 50 years old and two segments of the old routing of US 441. One of these segments is an earthen causeway over Laurel Creek and the other is a wood and asphalt bridge that was built between 1916 and 1938. The bridge was not formally evaluated by this project, but we believe that none of these three features would meet criteria for the National Register. The seventeen sites include a variety of prehistoric and historic site types (Table 1). We recommend that 15 of the sites fail to meet eligibility criteria. These include all four small sparse prehistoric artifact scatters, two larger multi-component prehistoric sites, all nine nineteenth-twentieth century house sites and one of two cemeteries. For all of these sites, criterion d was most applicable, and none were judged likely to yield important information. One cemetery site, 9WK34, was evaluated as potentially eligible. This cemetery was avoided by highway redesign, and will not be affected by the project. Further research into this cemetery was thus terminated. Two larger or more artifact-rich sites, 9WK31 and 9WK32, were tested by this project to better determine eligibility to the National Register. 9WK31 is a very large site that is barely impacted by the proposed highway construction. The portion of the site within the proposed corridor is clearly not eligible to the National Register, due to sparsity of material, lack of features, poor stratification and mostly due to the fact that the corridor portion of the site is nearly totally destroyed by previous earth moving activities. Because we tested only a small portion of the entire site (ca.8%), we cannot state here that the remainder of the site is also not eligible, so we classify the site as possibly eligible. We believe that it is clear that the proposed highway construction will have no adverse effect on the site. 9WK32 is a smaller site, situated mostly within the proposed highway corridor. We recommend that 9WK32 is not eligible to the National Register. No features were encountered in the seven test units and artifact density was not especially high, ranging from 53 to 412 artifacts per square meter. More importantly, natural soil strata and cultural zones are very difficult to discern and may reflect complex post-depositional disturbances. The site is poorly, if at all, stratified. Because Holocene period alluviation of the site cannot be ruled out, it does not readily lend itself to the study of post-depositional bioturbation. In summary, it is unlikely that further excavation at the site would contribute additional important information, beyond which has already been gathered by the survey and testing.