Phase II Archaeolgoical Testing of 9LS239 on the Level (3) Fiber-Optic Line in Laurens County, Georgia

As part of the cultural resource investigations for the Level (3) fiber-optic line, TRC Garrow Associates was contracted to carry out test excavations of 9LS239 (formerly designated Laurens County Site 2) to evaluate its potential eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This site is located in Laurens County, southeast of Dublin, along Nathaniel Drive. Because cultural materials were found to extend for a distance of 5,000 feet along the project corridor, the site could not be avoided through directional drilling. On April 18-21, 2000, nine 1-x-1-m test units were excavated along the project corridor, across the southeastern half of the site. The site also was visited and evaluated by Dr. David Leigh, a geomorphologist with the University of Georgia. The archaeological investigations produced one diagnostic artifact, a Middle Archaic Morrow Mountain projectile point. No cultural features were located. Artifacts were found from the surface to depths of 130-175 cm below surface. Materials may have been present deeper than 175 cm below surface in one test unit, but excavation was discontinued due to a large wall collapse. The highest density of artifacts was found 30-100 cm below surface. Despite the great depths below surface at which artifacts were found, study of the site's geomorphology suggests that all artifacts originated on the present surface and moved through the loose sandy soils through bioturbation and other post-depositional processes. The landform on which the site occurs is an ancient dune, formed during the Pleistocene by sands blowing eastward out of the Oconee River valley. After the Pleistocene, such landforms remained relatively stable, without any appreciable accretion of sediments that would have buried cultural materials. The current ground surface would have been the surface throughout the Holocene, including during the Middle Archaic. In the loose sandy soils typical of dune formations, artifacts easily can become dislocated vertically-even to great depths, as we found at 9LS239. These sandy soils also discourage the preservation of cultural features. Dr. Leigh located the base of the dune deposits at 2 m below surface, where a buried soil occurred. This soil predates the presence of humans in North America. Because the entire site occupied the same landform, the same soil profiles can be found across the entire site, providing little variance from what was encountered in the test units across the southeastern half of 9LS239. The archaeological and geomorphological investigations at 9LS239 suggest that there is little potential for features at the site, and that artifacts have been subjected to substantial postdepositional dislocation. Furthermore, there were few diagnostic artifacts or other tools among our excavated assemblage, thus little can be learned about activities carried out at the site beyond flint knapping. Therefore, it is TRC Garrow Associates' opinion that 9LS239 does not hold the potential to yield information important to our understanding of prehistory. We recommend that 9LS239 is not eligible for the NRHP, and that no further archaeological work be required at this site.