Richard B. Russell Multiple Resource Area

Last updated

The Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake are located on the upper portion of the Savannah River drainage and its tributaries in Georgia and South Carolina. Many reservoirs were constructed in the southeast during the twentieth century, and archaeological investigations were conducted in many of them. [1] The Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake are named after former U.S. Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. From 1969 to 1985, numerous cultural resource investigations were undertaken in the reservoir also known as the Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake and the Richard B. Russell Multiple Resource Area. [2] The work in the reservoir documented human occupation from the Paleoindian period all the way through to Historic Period.

Contents

Site

The projected area encompassed a total of 52,000 acres, much of which witnessed was surveyed by archaeologist in the late 1960s and 1970s. About half of that the project area 26,650 acres, was located in the floodpool and the remainder was in the adjoining public use lands and was less intensively examined. [2] The reservoir was the last undammed section of the Savannah above the fall line, and was flooded between 1983 and 1984. [2] The construction of the reservoir lead to many historic investigations under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. [2] A synthesis of the archaeological investigations was produced in 1988 by David G. Anderson and J. W. Joseph. [2]

Archaeological findings

There were some 730 historic and prehistoric sites located in the reservoir. [3] Many of the sites were found through intensive survey of approximately 5,400 hectares while there were larger excavations at around 30 locations. [4] These 30 sites were chosen for a more intense examination after consulting with the Georgia and South Carolina State Historic Preservation offices. [3]

Key sites

There were many important historic and prehistoric archaeological sites that were discovered in the Richard B. Russell Reservoir that helped give us a better understanding of when the initial inhabitants arrived, and about the different types of traditions that were located there. Some of these sites include:

Prehistoric sites

(9EB92, 9EB207, 9EB208, 9EB219)

Historic sites

Selected Books and Monographs

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anderson County, South Carolina</span> County in South Carolina, United States

Anderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 203,718. Its county seat is Anderson. Named for Revolutionary War leader Robert Anderson, the county is located in northwestern South Carolina, along the state line of Georgia. Anderson County is included in the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. Anderson County contains 55,950-acre (226 km2) Lake Hartwell, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake with nearly 1,000 miles (2,000 km) of shoreline for residential and recreational use. The area is a growing industrial, commercial and tourist center. It is the home of Anderson University, a private, selective comprehensive university of approximately 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbeville County, South Carolina</span> County in South Carolina, United States

Abbeville County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 24,295. Its county seat is Abbeville. It is the first county in the United States alphabetically. Abbeville County is traditionally included in the Upstate region of South Carolina. For a time, the county was included in the Greenwood, SC Micropolitan Statistical Area, but as of 2018 it was no longer included.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elbert County, Georgia</span> County in Georgia, United States

Elbert County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,637. The county seat is Elberton. The county was established on December 10, 1790, and was named for Samuel Elbert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elberton, Georgia</span> City in Georgia, United States

Elberton is the largest city in Elbert County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,653 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Elbert County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savannah River</span> River in the southeastern United States

The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the northernmost part of the border. The Savannah River drainage basin extends into the southeastern side of the Appalachian Mountains just inside North Carolina, bounded by the Eastern Continental Divide. The river is around 301 miles (484 km) long. The Savannah was formed by the confluence of the Tugaloo River and the Seneca River. Today this confluence is submerged beneath Lake Hartwell. The Tallulah Gorge is located on the Tallulah River, a tributary of the Tugaloo River that forms the northwest branch of the Savannah River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Strom Thurmond</span> Man-made lake in Georgia and South Carolina, United States

Lake Strom Thurmond, officially designated J. Strom Thurmond Reservoir at the federal level, and Clarks Hill Lake by the state of Georgia, is a reservoir at the border between Georgia and South Carolina in the Savannah River Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard B. Russell Lake</span> Man-made lake created by the construction of Richard B. Russell Dam in South Carolina

Richard B. Russell Lake is a reservoir created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by construction of Richard B. Russell Dam on the Savannah River bordering Elbert County, Georgia and Abbeville and Anderson counties in South Carolina. The lake impounds primarily the Savannah River but also includes Beaverdam Creek on the Georgia side and Rocky River on the South Carolina side. Filling of the lake began in October 1983, and was completed in December 1984 for a full pool elevation of 475 feet (145 m). Lake levels do not change much because the lake is designed to operate within 5 feet (1.5 m) of full pool compared to Hartwell and Thurmond, whose 35 feet (11 m) and 18 feet (5.5 m) of conservation storage respectively causes their levels to change more dramatically. This causes the lake to always look full.

Joseph Ralston Caldwell was an American archaeologist. In the late 1930s he conducted major excavations in the Savannah, Georgia area at the Irene site as part of Depression-era archaeology program. He also led excavations at other archaeology sites in Georgia, such as the Summerour Mound site in the early 1950s. He was among those conducting extensive excavations prior to the development of Lake Hartwell and Lake Strom Thurmond, which flooded numerous archeological sites.

Oxidizable carbon ratio dating is a method of dating in archaeology and earth science that can be used to derive or estimate the age of soil and sediment samples up to 35,000 years old. The method is experimental, and it is not as widely used in archaeology as other chronometric methods such as radiocarbon dating.

David G. Anderson is an archaeologist in the department of anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who specializes in Southeastern archaeology. His professional interests include climate change and human response, exploring the development of cultural complexity in Eastern North America, maintaining and improving the nation's Cultural Resource management (CRM) program, teaching and writing about archaeology, and developing technical and popular syntheses of archaeological research. He is the project director of the on-line Paleoindian Database of the Americas (PIDBA). and a Co-Director, with Joshua J. Wells, Eric C, Kansa, and Sarah Whitcher Kansa, of the Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA)

Phyllis Morse (Anderson) is an American archaeologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeast Georgia</span> Region of Georgia in the United States

Northeast Georgia is a region of Georgia in the United States. The northern part is also in the north Georgia mountains, while the southern part is still hilly but much flatter in topography. Northeast Georgia is also served by the Asheville/Spartanburg/Greenville/Anderson market.

The Rembert Mounds (9EB1) is an archaeological site in Elbert County, Georgia in the area that is now under the Clark Hill Reservoir on the Savannah River. The last excavation of the site occurred just before the reservoir was built; Joe Caldwell and Carl F. Miller conducted the excavation during a three-week period between January 12 and June 1, 1948. However, they are not the first people to examine the site. William Bartram first described the mounds in 1773 as: "an imposing group of one large and several smaller mounds standing adjacent to some extensive structures [which he called tetragon terraces]." In 1848, George White claimed "the smaller mounds had been nearly destroyed." Then, Charles C. Jones, Jr. stated that "only traces of the smaller mounds remained and the tetragon terraces were no more than gentle elevations." Less than 10 years later, in 1886, John P. Rogan excavated part of the site under Cyrus Thomas and found only the largest mound and one of the smaller mounds still standing. Rogan's excavation was the last before Caldwell and Miller's excavation in 1948. However, there was a flood in 1908 that almost completely destroyed the large mound.

The Mill Branch archaeological site is located in Warren County, Georgia west of Augusta and south of Thomson. It is located in the Brier Creek watershed. A reservoir was deemed necessary to assist in kaolin processing during times of drought. For this project to commence, a permit was needed from the Corps of Engineers, which required a cultural resource impact study to first be done. J.M. Huber Corporation contracted Southeastern Archaeological Services to do an initial survey of the area in 1988 with additional data recovery in 1990. J.M Huber Corporation determined that two sites surveyed by Southeastern Archaeological Services, specifically 9WR4 and 9WR11, could not be avoided or preserved. Huber no longer owns this property. These two sites were excavated between April 23 and May 31, 1990. The field report, Archaeological Investigations at Mill Branch Sites 9WR4 and 9WR11 Warren County, Georgia, was published in 1995 and compiled by R. Jerald Ledbetter.

The Rucker's Bottom site (9EB91) is an archaeological site in located on the upper Savannah River in Elbert County, Georgia.

The Chauga Mound (38OC1) is an archaeological site once located on the northern bank of the Tugaloo River, about 1,200 feet (370 m) north of the mouth of the Chauga River in present-day Oconee County, South Carolina. The earthen platform mound and former village site were inundated by creation of Lake Hartwell after construction of the Hartwell Dam on the Savannah River, which was completed in 1962.

The Beaverdam Creek Archaeological Site,, is an archaeological site located on a floodplain of Beaverdam Creek in Elbert County, Georgia approximately 0.8 km from the creek's confluence with the Savannah River, and is currently inundated by the Richard B. Russell Lake. The site consisted of a platform mound and an associated village site.

The Georgia–Carolina Memorial Bridge was a highway crossing over the Savannah River between the states of Georgia and South Carolina that was in service from 1927 to 1981. The completion of this bridge marked the beginning of the end for Savannah River ferry traffic.

Ruthann Knudson (1941-2018) was an American archaeologist. She is best known for her work on North American Paleoindian (Plainview) lithics. As a woman in early cultural resource management, Knudson was a strong advocate for the accurate representation of women in reservoir salvage archaeology. Additionally, she was also important in drafting and advocating for the National Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 1980.

Bennie Carlton Keel is an American archaeologist who has made contributions to the foundational understanding of Cherokee archaeology and culture, North Carolina archaeology, and to the development of Americanist cultural resource management (CRM).

References

  1. Reservoir Construction in the Southeastern United States: The Richard B. Russell Project as an Example of Exemplary Heritage/Cultural Resources Management. 2001 (David G. Anderson, Bennie C. Keel, John H. Jameson, James E. Cobb, and J.W. Joseph). MS.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Technical Synthesis of Cultural Resource Investigations, Richard B. Russell Multiple Resource Area. 1988 (David G. Anderson and J.W. Joseph). National Park Service, Interagency Archeological Services-Atlanta, Russell Papers. p. 3.
  3. 1 2 Beneath These Waters, Archeological and Historical Studies of 11,500 Years Along the Savannah River. (2000 online edition) Sharyn Knae and Richard Keeton, 1993; second edition 1994.
  4. The Savannah River Chiefdoms: Political Change in the Late Prehistoric Southeast. (1994) University of Alabama Press. P. 235.