An Archaeological Inventory of Alamance County, North Carolina
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVENTORY OF ALAMANCE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA Alamance County Historic Properties Commission August, 2019 AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVENTORY OF ALAMANCE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA A SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE ALAMANCE COUNTY HISTORIC PROPERTIES COMMISSION August 5, 2019 This inventory is an update of the Alamance County Archaeological Survey Project, published by the Research Laboratories of Anthropology, UNC-Chapel Hill in 1986 (McManus and Long 1986). The survey project collected information on 65 archaeological sites. A total of 177 archaeological sites had been recorded prior to the 1986 project making a total of 242 sites on file at the end of the survey work. Since that time, other archaeological sites have been added to the North Carolina site files at the Office of State Archaeology, Department of Natural and Cultural Resources in Raleigh. The updated inventory presented here includes 410 sites across the county and serves to make the information current. Most of the information in this document is from the original survey and site forms on file at the Office of State Archaeology and may not reflect the current conditions of some of the sites. This updated inventory was undertaken as a Special Project by members of the Alamance County Historic Properties Commission (HPC) and published in-house by the Alamance County Planning Department. The goals of this project are three-fold and include: 1) to make the archaeological and cultural heritage of the county more accessible to its citizens; 2) to serve as a planning tool for the Alamance County Planning Department and provide aid in preservation and conservation efforts by the county planners; and 3) to serve as a research tool for scholars studying the prehistory and history of Alamance County. With these goals in mind, it is important that the archaeological inventory be updated on a reasonable basis (approximately every 10 years) to keep it current. Several individuals contributed to the creation this document, including but not limited to: Author, Lawrence Abbott, 2017 – 2019 Archaeological Inventory Co-Authors, Jane Madeline McManus and Ann Marie Long, 1986 Archaeological Survey 2018-2019 Historic Properties Commission Members Rodney Cheek, Chair Ravi Balan, Vice Chair Lawrence Abbott Bryan Dalton Martha Friddle Marcus Orr Gale Pettiford Laurie Smith Chris Wells 2017 Outgoing Members (HPC) John Braxton Alamance County Planning Staff Tonya Caddle, Planning Director Marlena Isley, GIS Specialist Katie Harper, GIS Addressing Specialist TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………. ii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………... iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………... 1 CHAPTER 2: THE PROJECT AREA……………………………………………………… 4 CHAPTER 3: THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND……………………………………….. 18 CHAPTER 4: PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORK………………………………... 43 CHAPTER 5: METHODS AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA…………………………….. 47 CHAPTER 6: RESULTS OF THE INVENTORY………………………………………... 60 CHAPTER 7: A SYNTHESIS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES IN ALAMANCE COUNTY…………………………………………………... 135 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK…………………………………………………………………….. 141 REFERENCES CITED…………………………………………………………………… 149 APPENDIX I: PROJECT SCOPE OF WORK……..…………………………………....... 167 i LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2-1: The Project Location, Alamance County………………………………………… 4 Figure 2-2: The Physiographic Location of the Project Area………………………………… 5 Figure 2-3: The Project Area, Geological Regions…………………………………………… 6 Figure 3-1: Flake Tool Collected Within Pre-Clovis Levels in Virginia………………………. 20 Figure 3-2: Clovis Projectile Point of the Paleoindian Stage…………………………………. 22 Figure 3-3: Projectile Point Sequence for the Piedmont of North Carolina………………….. 23 Figure 5-1: An Abbreviated Sample of Metavolcanic Rocks…………………………………. 53 Figure 5-2: Other Rock Types Used by Prehistoric Populations for Tools………………….... 55 Figure 5-3: An Abbreviated Sample of Prehistoric Ceramics, General Project Area………….. 57 ii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2-1: Soils on Alluvial Plains, Characteristics Based on Kaster (1960:21)………………. 10 Table 2-2: Soils on Local Alluvium, Characteristics Based on Kaster (1960:21)……………... 11 Table 2-3: Soils on Uplands, Characteristics Based on Kaster (1960:21-22)…………………. 11 Table 2-4: Fauna Within the General Area of Alamance County……………………………. 17 Table 3-1: Cultural Chronology for the Piedmont of North Carolina……………………….. 19 Table 4-1: Previous Archaeological Work in Alamance County, Surveys……………………. 44 Table 4-2: Project Types in Alamance County, Number of Sites Recorded…………………. 45 Table 5-1: Archaeological Datasets Recorded for This Study……………………………….. 48 Table 5-2: Prehistoric Site Types Noted in Alamance County Compared to Those Noted by Binford (1980)………………………………………………………… 51 Table 5-3: Historic Site Types Noted in Alamance County…………………………………. 52 Table 6-1: 31AM174, Stoner Cemetery, 1937 and 1940 Inventories………………………… 85 Table 6-2: 31AM256, Sam Thompson Cemetery……………………………………………. 103 Table 6-3: 31AM335, Brown’s Chapel Cemetery, Listing of Marked Graves……………….... 119 Table 7-1: Temporal Affiliations of Prehistoric Sites Recorded for Alamance County………. 135 Table 7-2: Prehistoric Temporal Affiliations by Specific Periods……………………………. 137 Table 7-3: Temporal Affiliations of Historic Sites Recorded for Alamance County…………. 138 Table 7-4: Basic Functions of Historic Sites Recorded for Alamance County……………….. 139 Table 7-5: NRHP Assessment Criteria……………………………………………………… 139 Table 7-6: NRHP Assessments for Sites Located in Alamance County……………………... 140 Table 8-1: Mill Sites Located in Alamance County, Unrecorded at the OSA………………... 142 Table 8-2: Mill Sites Listed in the Architectural Inventory of Alamance County, Not Recorded at the OSA……………………………………………………………. 143 Table 8-3: Mine/Quarry Sites Located in Alamance County, According to Spoon………….. 143 Table 8-4: Active Mine/Quarry Sites Located in Alamance County, According to Carpenter………………………………………………………………………… 144 Table 8-5: Inactive Mine/Quarry Sites Located in Alamance County, as of 1982……………. 144 Table 8-6: WPA Cemetery Survey for Alamance County, 1937-1942………………………... 146 iii FRONT COVER: ALAMANCE BATTLEGROUND, 31AM397 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This document presents an updated archaeological site inventory of Alamance County, North Carolina. The purpose of this archaeological inventory is to compile a listing of archaeological sites formally recorded within the county by the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology (OSA) in Raleigh and to provide specific information regarding each of them to the Alamance County Historic Properties Commission (HPC) and Alamance County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). The information will also be submitted to the Alamance County Planning Department for their use in the future. Information is given for 410 archaeological sites recorded within the county. An initial archaeological survey/inventory was undertaken for Alamance County in 1986 by archaeologists from UNC-Chapel Hill (McManus and Long 1986). An updated version of the inventory has not been available since 1986, prior to the present document. An inventory of this nature is both needed and required by the Alamance County ordinance establishing the HPC (amended February 6, 2006). According to Section 3.5(a) of the ordinance: The Commission is authorized and empowered to undertake such actions reasonably necessary to the discharge and conduct of its duties and responsibilities as outlined in this ordinance and the N.C. General Statues, including but not limited to the following: (a) Undertake an inventory of properties of historical, prehistorical, architectural, archaeological, and/or cultural significance. In addition, the ordinance states in Section 4.3 that: The Commission shall use an inventory of buildings, structures, sites, areas, or objects of historical, pre-historical, architectural, and archaeological significance in the county as a guide to the identification, assessment, and designation of historic landmarks. The Commission shall update the inventory from time to time. The ordinance also states in Section 5.3 that the inventory shall be used in the same manner as described in Section 4.3 in the designation of historic districts. Based on the need outlined above, it was recommended to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) that an updated archaeological inventory was needed for the county and for use by the HPC to better conduct their business and to fulfill the requirements of the ordinance cited above. The production of an updated inventory was approved by the BOCC in May of 2017. This report provides information regarding the results of the updated survey/inventory. The report provides specific information regarding the nature and distribution of archaeological resources within Alamance County and uses the information to provide a synthesis of the data in terms of site types and temporal associations. In addition, the report provides information regarding site significance in terms of the guidelines established by the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). 1 This report is written using the American Antiquity journal style guidelines established by the Society for American Archaeology. The structure of the document follows the standards and required format established by the OSA for technical reports and contains the following chapters: Title Page Table of Contents – This includes a list of tables and figures. Management Summary – The management summary provides a short, concise synopsis of the project