Reconnaissance Survey of Portions of Eastern Bryan County, Georgia

During July of 1973 the authors conducted site visits and reconnaissance surveys of selected areas in eastern Bryan County, Georgia. The portion of the county examined extended from the mouth of the Ogeechee River south to the mouth of the Medway River. This area is bounded on the east by salt marsh and several tidal creeks, the largest of which are Red Bird Creek, Kilkenny Creek, Lincoln Creek and Cubbage Creek. The western portion of the area examined is a generally low lying region drained by Tivoli Creek which flows south and empties into the Medway River (Figure 1). Most, but not all, of the area examined is on land owned by International Paper Company. A principal purpose of the survey was to provide International Paper Company with information on archaeological resources on their property. In addition, the intent was to collect some basic data on archaeological site occurrences in this portion of Bryan County. This brief report is preliminary and the sites discovered and discussed here do not in any way represent the total number of archaeological sites in the area. Only a small portion of the area was surveyed and it is presumed that many undiscovered sites exist in this area.Previous to this limited survey, very little archaeological work had been conducted in this portion of Bryan County. In 1970, Fred Cook visited the area and located and tested several sites. His information was made available to the authors and proved valuable in relocating several of the sites. One site in the area that has received some archaeological attention is the Seven Mile Bend site (9BRY6), located at a large hairpin bend of that name on the lower Ogeechee River (Figure 1). For many years local residents have collected artifacts from the eroding banks of Seven Mile Bend. In 1971, Fred Cook conducted limited excavations at the site (Cook n.d.). Other than his report, we have no record of any other work in the area discussed here.