Submitted by New South Associates (770-498-4155)

In possibly our busiest winter to date, New South Associates is currently at work on two data recovery projects and is about to begin a third, in addition to a number of survey and testing projects, including smaller corridor or bridge surveys conducted in Bartow, Lowndes, Douglas, Coweta, Paulding, and Washington counties.

Data recovery excavations at the Gay Farms site complex in Randolph County are ongoing. Recently, we took a two-week break from excavations at the historic site to focus on the prehistoric component. The site represents a Late Archaic campsite and several diagnostic points were recovered. Brad Botwick is currently in Augusta, directing the data recovery excavations at site 9RI1110. The site is associated with the Springfield Community, an early free African-American site. Excavations at the site are expected to address questions about African-American life in Augusta between 1865 and the turn of the twentieth century.

At the recent SEAC meetings in Little Rock, R. Jeannine Windham of New South Associates presented research of the Plum Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank located in Miller County. Her paper, A GIS Approach to the Plum Creek Quarry/Workshop Site Complex, was included within a symposium focusing on the interior Coastal Plain. Several papers within this symposium focused on research in southwest Georgia that presented a unique perspective to landscape utilization within the heterogenic landscape of long leaf pine forests and wetlands that is pervasive in the region.

In December, Jeannine Windham will begin excavations at 9BR34. This multi-component site is located on a levee and terrace of the Etowah River. It is our hope that excavations will provide greater information pertaining to Middle Woodland hinterland occupations in the Etowah Valley and Late Archaic lithic reduction of chert and slate.

Posted online on Friday, December 1st, 2006