Finding Aid, Barbour County Arbitrary (Multiple) 1968-1979 and N.D. Investigations

Summary

The Veterans Curation Program utilizes the standard archival practice of unique naming of collections. The purpose of this practice is to avoid redundant and confusing collection names commonly found with archaeological investigations. Therefore, this collection is referred to as Barbour County Arbitrary (Multiple) 1968-1979 and N.D. Investigations. This name is consistent throughout the finding aid, the file folders, and the box labels. The extent of this collection is two-tenths (0.2) of a linear inch.

No reports were present for the Barbour County Arbitrary (Multiple) 1968-1979 and N.D. Investigations. The artifacts were grouped together because they lacked much provenience information and could not be linked to specific investigations, principal investigators, or investigating institutions with any degree of confidence. The dates and information associated with these artifacts seem to indicate that the artifacts were collected after the creation of Walter F. George Lock and Dam in 1964. It seems that most of the artifacts were recovered through informal collections during investigations conducted to assess the impact of Walter F. George Lake on the sites, as well as collections that were taken during efforts to construct a steel breakwater in the late 1970s to halt erosion (Schnell 1973; Knight and Mistovich 1984; Atz et al. 2000).

Literature on some of the sites within the Barbour County Arbitrary (Multiple) 1968-1979 and N.D. Investigations exists, but the material recovered and the dates of collection do not always match any artifacts in this arbitrary collection. Sites 1BR42, 1BR43, 1BR62, and 1BR69 are all discussed in Frank T. Schnell’s 1973 assessment of Walter F. George Lake. He states that sites 1BR42 and 1BR43 were both originally discovered by Harold Huscher in the late 1950s and goes into detail about site 1BR43Schnell also describes sites 1CM1Br, 2CM1Br, and 3CM1Br, which could possibly correspond with sites 1CMBR1/1BR (CM)1, 1CMBR2, and 1CMBR3. He explains: [T]hese numbers are assigned as Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts temporary numbers.

These numbers are purposely different in form from the usual numbers so that they cannot be confused with permanent numbers. The first digit is the sequential number for that county, the CM stands for “Columbus Museum,” the second set of digits represents the state number, and the final set of letters (i.e. Br) indicates the county” [Schnell 1973].

This explanation could also apply to site numbers 1CMBR4 to 1CMBR17, but there is no reference made to these temporary site numbers in the Walter F. George literature. Many sites in this collection were also re-visited in 1984, by Knight and Mistovich, and can be found described in Chapter VI of Walter F. George Lake Archaeological Survey of Fee Owned Lands Alabama and Georgia (Knight and Mistovich 1984). Sites 1BR78 and 1BR79 had negative shovel test pit bags included with their artifacts indicating an archaeological survey. The Barbour County Arbitrary (Multiple) 1968-1979 and N.D. Investigations appear to represent a number of different smaller investigations within Barbour County, Alabama over a period of time.

These sheets were removed from boxes of the corresponding artifact collection. The sheets were copied on to an acid free paper for conservation purposes and included in an archival collection. The original documents were placed in re-sealable, 4-mil polyethylene bags and remain with the artifact collection.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Landowner(s): US Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District

Sponsor(s): US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Repository(s): University of Georgia, Laboratory of Archaeology, Athens, Georgia

Prepared By(s): Veterans Curation Program

Submitted To(s): US Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District

Notes

General Note: The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include the artifact database, artifact report, finding aid, and scanned asset key. Additional digital materials held by the VCP include artifact inventory sheets, box labels, document folder listing, initial data collection sheet, personal notes, and preliminary inventory worksheet. For additional information on these materials, refer to the finding aid.

File Information