Archaeological Testing of Four Sites at the Clarks Hill Training Site, McCormick County, South Carolina

Under a cooperative agreement between the South Carolina Army National Guard and the University of South Carolina, the Cultural Resources Consulting Division of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology conducted archaeological testing at four sites on the Clarks Hill Training Site, located in McCormick County, South Carolina. Fieldwork for this project took place over a two month period, May and June of 2000, using a crew of between 3 and 5 individuals. At the three prehistoric sites tested, the methods employed included intensive shovel testing on a 5 meter grid across the entire site, supplemented by the excavation of larger 1 x 1 meter units. At historic sites, a 2 meter shovel test interval was maintained, and shovel tests were excavated on a modified grid consisting of one east-west axis and four north-south axes. Supplementary 1 x 1 and 1 x 2 meter units were also excavated. All excavated soil was screened through 1/4 inch mesh hardware cloth. A total of 298 shovel tests and 12 larger units was excavated during the course of the project. Testing resulted in the recovery of additional 1,670 artifacts from both surface and subsurface contexts which, when added to the artifacts recovered during the previous survey work, bring the total collection for the four sites combined to 1,809. None of the sites tested is recommended eligible for the National Register of Historic places, and no further work is recommended.