The Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake are located on the upper portion of the Savannah River drainage and its tributaries in Georgia and South Carolina. Many reservoirs were constructed in the southeast during the twentieth century, and archaeological investigations were conducted in many of them. The Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake are named after former U.S. Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. From 1969 to 1985, numerous cultural resource investigations were undertaken in the reservoir also known as the Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake and the Richard B. Russell Multiple Resource Area. The work in the reservoir documented human occupation from the Paleoindian period all the way through to Historic Period.
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Site
The projected area encompassed a total of 52,000 acres, much of which witnessed was surveyed by archaeologist in the late 1960s and 1970s. About half of that the project area 26,650 acres, was located in the floodpool and the remainder was in the adjoining public use lands and was less intensively examined. The reservoir was the last undammed section of the Savannah above the fall line, and was flooded between 1983 and 1984. The construction of the reservoir lead to many historic investigations under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. A synthesis of the archaeological investigations was produced in 1988 by David G. Anderson and J. W. Joseph.
Archaeological findings
There were some 730 historic and prehistoric sites located in the reservoir. Many of the sites were found through intensive survey of approximately 5,400 hectares while there were larger excavations at around 30 locations. These 30 sites were chosen for a more intense examination after consulting with the Georgia and South Carolina State Historic Preservation offices.
Key sites
There were many important historic and prehistoric archaeological sites that were discovered in the Richard B. Russell Reservoir that helped give us a better understanding of when the initial inhabitants arrived, and about the different types of traditions that were located there. Some of these sites include:
Prehistoric sites