Palmetto Bluff, LLC, proposed to develop the Palmetto Bluff Phase I Development Tract in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Previous archaeological investigations by Brockington and Associates, Inc., documented significant archaeological sites within this tract (Poplin 2002). The Shell Crescent site (38BU1791) was designated as a Geographic Area of Particular Concern (GAPC) by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the Office of Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) for its Woodland and Mississippian period components. In 2001, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the SHPO, OCRM, and Palmetto Bluff, LLC, was signed, calling for data recovery at Shell Crescent prior to development: Data recovery excavations took place from June to November 2002. This report details .the methods, results and interpretations of Phase Ill data recovery at Shell Crescent.

Data recovery investigations were conducted as proposed in the SHPO-approved treatment plan for site 38BU1791. This data recovery investigation recovered samples of significant information from the site. These samples were employed to address research questions consistent with the period components and type of occupation outlined in the treatment plan. Completion of these investigations is sufficient to resolve the adverse effect that proposed golf course development and other land disturbing activities will have on this National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) site. Land disturbing activities at the Shell Crescent site (38BU1791) should be allowed to proceed as planned. Field investigations included the excavation of 206 shovel tests and small test units spaced at 7.5-meter intervals, 25 larger hand excavated units, and 19 backhoe scrapes which totaled l,183 square meters, constituting 7.3 percent of the site. A total of 67 potential features were identified. Twenty-three of the identified features were a mixture of root and tree disturbances. Of the 44 confirmed features, 7 postmolds, 21 small shell filled pits, 3 large shell filled pits, 3 non-shell pits, 5 facies, 5 wall trenches, and a dog burial were identified. The artifact assemblage was large, consisting of 28,382 ceramic sherds and other objects. Diagnostic ceramics distinguished five occupations, three of which were non-contributing to the site's NRHP eligibility (Stallings, St. Catherines/Savannah, and Historic period).

The contributing components consist of Deptford/Wilmington and Irene phase occupations. The Deptford/Wilmington occupation is represented by a large scattered midden, diagnostic ceramics (plain, cord-marked, and check stamped), and nine features. Diagnostic ceramics and radiocarbon dating provide a mean corrected date range of AD 350-510, placing the occupation in the early Middle Woodland period. Artifact and feature distributions suggest that there were four primary areas of activity during the Woodland occupation; a primary refuse disposal area, an area for pottery manufacture, and two residential areas.

Subsistence data indicate that the Woodland inhabitants were relying on shellfish and supplementing their diets with a variety of fish, turtles, and terrestrial mammals. Evidence of repeated occupation, reliance on a varied spectrum of natural resources, and evidence for multiple activity areas indicate that Shell Crescent served as a multifamily residential base and was occupied frequently in a seasonal cycle or was perhaps occupied for more than a single season during the Early Middle Woodland period.

The Mississippian Irene occupation at Shell Crescent consists of a large sheet midden made up of artifacts and shell, numerous features, a large artifact assemblage, two structures, a small shell mound, and six distinct activity areas. Identified activity areas include two residential areas, a ritual sector, a formal refuse disposal area, and two zones containing single episode trash pits. Subsistence data demonstrate a lesser reliance on mammals within the faunal assemblage and indicate that aquatic resources, particularly fish, appear to be the diet staple for site residents. Subsistence data and residential patterns point toward a winter occupation and it appears that Shell Crescent functioned as a fishing hamlet during the Irene occupation.

The artifact assemblage representing the Irene phase possesses characteristics of early, middle, and very late Irene assemblages and cannot be easily categorized. The ceramic assemblage contains a unique variety of stylistic attributes and a new variant name, Irene Shell Crescent Variant (SCV), has been designated. The presence of design elements such as diamond check stamping and cob marking, combined with radiocarbon dates, indicate that the Irene SCV assemblage may represent the transition from Savannah to Irene types. However, remarkably, the assemblage also contains characteristics suc... Visit https://dataone.org/datasets/doi%3A10.6067%3AXCV8FJ2HNC_meta%24v%3D1368213819836 for complete metadata about this dataset.

In 2009, John Milner Associates Inc. (JMA) was retained by the U.S. Department of the Army, St. Louis District, Corps of Engineers (Corps) to conduct National Historic Preservation Act Section 110 archeological compliance surveys at Corps facilities throughout the northeastern United States. The focus of the work was on Section 110 compliance on Corps fee-title land. Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), as amended, requires all federal agencies to establish a historic preservation program for properties under its jurisdiction and to integrate historic preservation considerations into agency plans and activities. Specifically, it calls for agencies to inventory fee simple lands for historic properties, to evaluate those properties for local, state, and/or national significance, and to nominate significant properties to the National Register of Historic Places. Section 110 further specifies that steps be taken to protect historic properties from disturbance or destruction through agency activities. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Section 110 investigations are American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funded, and the stated goals of the act are, in part, to preserve and promote employment. This particular investigation employed cultural resources management specialists from 25 January 2010 to 31 January 2011. Thirty-five individuals were employed or retained their employment in the course of this investigation. The employee positions included: Project Manager; GIS Specialists; GIS Technicians; Archeologists; Archeological Technicians; Lab Technicians; Report Illustrators; Archaeobotanist; Zooarchaeologist; Editor; and Administrative Assistants. Because the surveys were conducted on federal property only, the work was not subject to State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) review. Accordingly, standardized report guidelines were developed and followed in the preparation of this report. Wherever possible, specific guidelines issued by the applicable SHPO were also followed, and courtesy copies of the report were provided to each applicable SHPO. Implemented under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the work was governed by and undertaken in accordance with provisions of Contract No. W912P9-09-D-0536. Section 110 compliance survey projects were solicited from each of the Corps districts in an area bounded roughly by Maine, Virginia, Missouri, and Minnesota, scopes of work were drawn up and negotiated, and the work undertaken by a consortium of cultural resource firms under the lead of JMA. Initially, Section 110 surveys were assigned to JMA in 14 Corps districts, including Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Huntington, Louisville, New England, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rock Island, St. Paul, and St. Louis. Subsequently, three additional districts (Nashville, Jacksonville, and New Orleans) were assigned to JMA. In all cases, the surveys were closely coordinated with the applicable district's cultural resource specialist. This document reports on the methods, procedures, and results of a Phase 1 archeological survey and Phase 2 archeological site evaluations of the Buffalo District Corps’ 384-acre Mount Morris Dam Intensive Use Area (the Project Area), Towns of Leicester and Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York.

From July 20th to July 22nd, 2010, Chambers Group personnel conducted a cultural resources inventory of the project area. The recordation and inventory resulted in the recordation a single newly identified prehistoric site (CrNV-2-9605) and five isolated finds (CrNV-2-1490 to 1494). The prehistoric site is a small lithic scatter composed exclusively of chalcedony with two formed tools. CrNV-2-9605 is recommended as not eligible to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under all Criterion. The isolated finds consist of a single prehistoric flake and four pieces of historic debris. All of the isolated finds are categorically not eligible for the NRHP per the State Protocol Agreement between the BLM and Nevada SHPO. The report included in this submission details the findings of the study.