The Carroll Site (9PM85): Report of Investigations Conducted by the Pennsylvania State University in 1989

Archaeological excavations at the Carroll site (9Pm85) in 1989 were conducted as part of a 4-year research project by the Pennsylvania State University dealing with the changing settlement history of late prehistoric protohistoric peoples In the Oconee River basin. In particular, the Penn State research examines one aspect of the settlement system of this region -- swidden agricultural farmsteads In non-riverine (upland) locations. Large numbers of such sites -- perhaps in the tens of thousands -- are believed to exist in the Oconee region from this time period, based on extensive surveys by the U.S. Forest Service and the University of Georgia. Prior to the Penn State work, however, no upland sites had ever been extensively excavated. Important work on riverine sites, including major mound-towns, was carried out In the 1970's by the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Georgia, and the LAMAR Institute, resulting in the establishment of a fine-scale ceramic chronology of the late prehistoric/protohistoric (Lamar) period as well as critical comparative data on the non-upland settlement system. The Penn State project is seen as a logical extension of this earlier work, one which provides information on the changing settlement history, economics, and demography of the Lamar period. The Carroll site was selected for excavation by Penn State for three reasons. First, recent analyses by Kowalewski and Williams (1989) revealed that the site's principal occupation dates to the Dyar phase (A.D. 1520-1580) of the Lamar period. Penn State's goal of excavating representative farmsteads from each of the four Lamar phases required that such a site be examined. Second, the records from excavations conducted at the site in 1936 (see Chapter 2) indicated that important aspects of architecture and community arrangement at Carroll were unusual In comparison to Lamar sites excavated by Penn State in 1987 and 1988. Additional excavations at Carroll in the undisturbed portions of the site (approximately 80%) promised to clarify earlier Interpretations and ground the 1936 work in a more useful analytic context. Third, Carroll and a very large number of sites like It lie within the boundaries of the Oconee National Forest in the piedmont of north central Georgia. Archaeological excavations by Penn State were anticipated to reveal information on the scale and degree of preservation of prehistoric remains on such sites, leading to a more informed view of their current and future archaeological potential and a more responsive plan for their management by the U.S. Forest Service.