Menifee County: U.S. 460 Realignment, Phase III Data Recovery Mitigation, Item #: 10-117

The primary task for this project will be to interpret the spatial organization of the prehistoric components, and to do so we must be able to assign specific features to the various components that are represented. These include terminal Late Woodland, Middle Woodland, and possibly Early Woodland occupations based on radiocarbon dates and artifacts. Phytolith analysis may still be attempted, but this will be limited to selected features. This latest version of the budget also includes field time for hand excavation of three l-x-2-meter test units in a local access road area in the northeastern part of the site, using standard recovery and documentation procedures. This access road is positioned nearly directly above a rock shelter, and Phase 2 investigations in this locality produced intact deposits and a mixture of historic and prehistoric artifacts. The additional test units are designed to mitigate the adverse effects of construction of the access road by obtaining a larger sample of artifacts from documented contexts. If prehistoric features are encountered in this area, they will be excavated and documented using the methods applied to other features at the site. Finally, at the request of KYTC staff archaeologists, the field budget and supplies lines have been increased to allow the UK-PAR field crew to install silt fencing along the upper bankline of Mariba Fork. The silt fence will extend for about 100 meters along the northeast side of Mariba Fork. We do not anticipate excavation on the southwest side of this drainage, but there are sufficient funds to purchase additional fencing if our excavations warrant installation of silt fencing on that side of Mariba Fork.