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Title
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Subsurface Testing of 1Ds184 in Association with the Selma Gravel Mining Operation in Dallas County, Alabama
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Date
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1999
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Bibliographic Citation
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Gilchrist, Kathy, and McDonald Brooms. 1999. Subsurface Testing of 1DS184 in Association with the Selma Gravel Mining Operation in Dallas County, Alabama. Report submitted to Asphalt Contractors, Inc. Troy State University Archaeological Research Center, Troy.
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annotates
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• Originally recorded during reconnaissance and Phase I survey in the late 1980s, prior work by Julie Lyons and Paul Patterson.
• Phase II testing at 1DS184, a 12-acre multicomponent site near Blackwell’s Bend on the Alabama River, in advance of gravel mining activity.
o Testing included 68 shovel tests, 14 50-x-50 cm units, and six 1-x-1 m test units, distributed across four zones (“Areas I–IV”).
o Artifact assemblage spans Early Archaic through Postcontact, with what is interpreted as later Euro-American settlement remains.
o Assemblage includes ceramics, lithics, fire-cracked rock, daub, groundstone tools, mussel shell, and diagnostic historical ceramics and glass.
• Choctaw are not named explicitly, but the temporal and cultural span of 1DS184, particularly its Late Woodland through Postcontact components, is relevant for CRM contexts involving ancestral Choctaw:
o The Alabama River Valley served as a cultural corridor for western Muskogean-speaking peoples, including groups later identified as Choctaw, Moeli (Mobila Nation), or Tohomi (Tohome).
o The presence of sand-tempered brushed sherds, punctate ceramics, and check stamped types in association with ceramic and lithic continuity from the Woodland period suggests cultural persistence into the Postcontact era.
o Historical references to a tavern and ferry crossing near White Creek dating to 1814–1840s overlap with Choctaw removal-era settlement and displacement pressures.
• Report reflects 1990s CRM best practices: grid-based subsurface testing, artifact quantification, and clear mapping.
• However, the site is described primarily in material and chronological terms, with no mention of tribal identity or descendant communities.
• Historical Indigenous presence is discussed as “historic aboriginal occupation”
• Ceremonial or mortuary contexts (e.g., features destroyed in earlier gravel mining) are acknowledged but not contextualized.
• A decolonizing review would:
o Advocate for consultation with Choctaw Nation and other descendant groups to reassess cultural significance of Area IV.
o Highlight the site's potential to demonstrate continuity from Woodland to Postcontact Indigenous use, challenging narratives of abandonment or depopulation.
o Emphasize the cultural importance of middens, tool-making areas, and food processing spaces beyond just their research value.
• Highly relevant for CRM in the Alabama River corridor, especially in areas where Indigenous continuity is a research or compliance question.
• Site 1DS184 includes:
o Ceramic types linked to Pre- and Postcontact Indigenous populations
o Euro-American occupation layers that overlap with documented land transfers and colonial pressure, but could also represent Removal-era Indigenous occupants, a possibility not considered in this report (or much in current Alabama CRM practices).
o Evidence of destruction of cultural features due to gravel mining, making the remaining intact areas all the more important
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owner
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sprice@wiregrassarchaeology.com