Completion of the Initial Curation of Cultural Resource Materials, Carters Lake, Georgia

As the final phase of the initial curation of the cultural resource materials, Carters Lake, Murray County, Georgia, Brockington and Associates, Inc., made additional copies of all collected notes, field records, analyses, reports, and other pertinent data related to the project. We also created a finding aid for the documents. This phase of the curation also allowed us to scan the maps, diagrams, and large-scale drawings associated with this project. Like the documents, we developed a finding aid for the many CD-ROMs created by this process. These materials are currently stored at the University of Georgia, Riverbend Research Facility Archaeological Laboratory (RRFAL), Athens, Georgia. An additional part of this project dealt with Native American items on display at the Carters Lake Visitors Center. During preparation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act inventory for the Carters Lake materials, our staff discovered that several of the items on display were associated with Native American burials from the Little Egypt site (9MU102). As part of this project, we removed those items from the display and replaced them with replicas. The original items are now stored at the University of Georgia in the Special Collections Room. During Part I of the initial curation, conducted in early 1998, Brockington and Associates, Inc., staff commenced curatorial preparation with artifacts and documentation from the Little Egypt site (9MU102). They prepared the documentation and artifacts from Field Seasons 1 and 2 and Excavation Units 1, 2, and 6 for long-term storage based on current curation standards (Huddleston 1998a). During Part II, technicians prepared the remainder of the Little Egypt artifacts (Excavation Units 3, 4, and 5; excepting burials) and all documentation and artifacts from the Bell Field site (9MU101) and the Potts Tract site (9MU103) for long-term storage (Huddleston 1999). During Part III, Brockington and Associates, Inc., staff began curatorial preparation of artifacts and documentation from the Sixtoe site (9MU100). Technicians prepared the artifacts from Excavation Units A, B, C, D, E, H, I, and K, and all the documentation for long-term storage. In addition, technicians curated all of Dr. A.R. Kelly's professional correspondence and documentation currently held by the RRFAL, UGA. The staff also made recommendations concerning further work needed to prepare these artifacts and materials for future research and to ensure their stability in long-term storage (Sweeney and Huddleston 2000). In early 2001, Brockington and Associates, Inc., completed the fourth part of initial curatorial and archival preparation for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, archaeological artifacts, field records, photographs, maps, analyses, reports, and other pertinent data from Carters Lake, Murray County, Georgia. This phase of the work completed curation of the artifacts from Sixtoe (9MU100), specifically Excavation Unit J, and created a database of all maps and oversize documents associated with the project (Huddleston 2001).