Phase III Archaeological Investigations at the Hayes Site (15Cl67) Carroll County, Kentucky

Summary

Between March 8 and 22, 2004, Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. (CRAI), personnel conducted phase III data recovery excavations at the Hayes site (15Cl67) in Carroll County, Kentucky, to mitigate adverse affects of the installation of a force main sewer line associated with the proposed Carrollton Wastewater Treatment Plant. Mr. Terry A. Roach requested this work on behalf of Carrollton Utilities to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This project is federally funded and falls under the responsibility of the State Environmental Protection Agency (Permit Number KY0020265) and is administered by the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, Department for Environmental Protection.

Phase III excavations consisted of work in two different areas (Localities A and B). Work at Locality A consisted of the hand excavation of eight 1-x-1-m units and the mechanical stripping of a 3-x-10-m block, and excavations at Locality B consisted of ten 1-x-1-m units. Four cultural horizons were documented during these investigations: a Woodland occupation of indeterminate age (at Locality A), a Terminal Late Archaic component (at Locality A), a Late Archaic occupation (at Locality A), and a late Middle Woodland component (at Locality B).

Little can be said about the indeterminate Woodland component at Locality A because of the small sample recovered. The Terminal Archaic occupation at Locality A dated to cal B.C. 790–400 and the recovery of Merom Cluster hafted bifaces place it within the Maple Creek phase. Six cultural features, chipped stone production debris, and a few stone tools were also recovered. This occupation represents one of the few known Maple Creek short-term camps in the region. The Late Archaic component was represented by five cultural features found in the strip block at Locality A. This component dates to cal B.C. 1670 and might represent another Maple Creek occupation. Because all cultural material associated with these Late Archaic features was removed during stripping, little can be said about site function or occupation duration. The late Middle Woodland occupation at Locality B was represented by a 50-cm thick sheet midden and a secondary juvenile human burial that dated to cal A.D. 230 and was associated with Lowe Cluster hafted bifaces and Falls Plains ceramics. The frequency and diversity of artifact classes recovered from this component indicate that it represents a long-term residential occupation.

The Hayes site is a very important site for understanding Late Archaic and Middle Woodland lifeways in Northern Kentucky. The current project was confined to a very narrow corridor that encompassed only a small portion of the site. If future construction activities occur on this landform, more archaeological work should be conducted and should not be confined to the originally defined site boundaries, because geomorphic analysis indicates that the whole landform holds the potential for additional buried archaeological deposits.

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Radiocarbon Date: 1670 to 230 (from BC 1670 to AD 230)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contributor(s): Jessica Allgood; Renee Bonzani; Alexandra D. Bybee; Linda Scott Cummings; Jonathan P. Kerr; Andrew V. Martin

Notes

General Note: This submission was funded by the Food Connection Student Opportunity Grant from the University of Kentucky and was entered with the assistance of Ivaylo Ivanov, undergraduate student at the University of Kentucky.

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