Data Recovery of the Cherokee Brick Sites, Bibb County, Georgia

From June to October 2006, Environmental Services, Inc., (ESI) conducted data recovery excavations at three sites in Bibb County, Georgia: 9BI132 (Great Wolf), 9BI133 (Four Oaks), and 9BI134 (Prima Donna), collectively referred to herein as the Cherokee Brick Sites. These sites were initially recorded during an intensive archaeological survey of a 1 ,226-acre tract owned by Cherokee Brick and Tile Company into which they are planning to expand clay mining operations. The survey and all subsequent cultural resource studies have been conducted to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA 1966, as amended) in support of an application for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) Individual Permit (IP; Permit Number 990008450). As a result of the survey and subsequent testing/evaluation of the historic properties, three sites (31 BI132-134) were determined eligible for the National Register which would be severely impacted by mining activities and could not be placed within a preservation buffer (Bland et al. 2001). The archaeological data recovery excavations at 9BI132 (Great Wolf site), 9BI133 (Four Oaks site), and 9BI134 (Prima Donna site) yielded significant data on the prehistoric occupation of the Ocmulgee River floodplain near the Fall Line for occupations ranging in age from the Early Archaic through Mississippian periods. The data recovery excavations as executed comply with the requirements set forth in the approved research design, and recommend that at such time as the clay mining operations in the immediate vicinity of the Great Wolf, Four Oaks, and Prima Donna Sites are to begin they be monitored by a professional archaeologist.