Document Type

Book

Abstract

This report presents the results of archaeological research conducted by the Center for Archaeological Studies at the University of South Alabama for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) as part of a project to widen Alabama Highway 177, from its origin at US Highway 43 to Boise Cascade Road, in Clarke County near the City of Jackson. Archaeological field work began in 1996 with a Phase I cultural resources survey involving shovel tests placed along both sides of the highway (Shorter and Lawrence 1996). The presence of four previously recorded sites--1CK236, 1CK286, 1CK287, and 1CK290 - was confirmed and their boundaries were further defined (Figure 1). However, shovel testing and an intensive pedestrian survey at another recorded site (1CK288 a lithics scatter) failed to recover any artifacts. Two non-aboriginal nineteenth-century sites, 1CK87 and 1CK88, were found and recorded along the northeast side of the highway.

Shortly after this initial resting, the ALDOT elected to acquire new right-of-way for the highway widening project, primarily on the southwest side of the existing highway. Minor additions to the right-of-way along the northeast side of the existing roadway for drainage improvements were not expected to impact known archaeological sites. On the southwest side of Highway 177, however, the new right-of-way extended about 45 m from the centerline of the existing roadway. Planned construction would severely impact portions of four sites: 1CK236, 1CK286, 1CK287, and 1CK290. Phase 1 research at three of these sites--1CK23, 1CK286, and 1CK290--revealed the presence of relatively deep middens (averaging about 30 cm in thickness) and subsurface features, most dating to the Late Woodland Period. Testing at 1CK287 was inconclusive concerning sire significance, since artifacts were recovered but no midden or subsurface features were found.

Pottery recovered during the Phase I survey confirmed that all four sires had primarily been occupied during the Late Woodland McLeod Phase, which had previously been broadly dated to AD 600 to 1100. The McLeod Phase is a poorly understood segment of southwest Alabama's prehistory. Furthermore, the lower Tombigbee is the leas[ explored portion of that river valley (Futato 1989: 351). The last extensive research at McLeod Phase sites occurred in 1940 and 1941. At that time eight sites along the river north of Jackson were excavated by Carl F. Miller, Harry A. Tourtelot, and Theodore L. Johansen as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project (Wimberly 1960:vii). Their research was eventually reported by Steve B. Wimberly (1960) in his study of pottery from Clarke and Mobile counties. Therefore, the four McLeod sites scheduled for impact by the Highway 177 construction project were considered significant for their potential to add to our understanding of a Late Woodland phase that had not received any appreciable attention from professional archaeologists in over half a century.

Publication Date

6-1999

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