Phase 1 Archaeological Survey of Tactical Areas 11 and 12, United States Army Training Center at Fort Dix (USATCFD), Burlington and Ocean Counties, New Jersey

The Cultural Resources Group of Rise Straw & Kolodner, Inc. (KSK) conducted a Phase I Archaeological Survey of a portion of the U.S. Army Training Center at Fort Dix (USATCFD), Burlington and Ocean Counties, New Jersey. Field testing for this project followed the guidelines established in the Fort Dix New Jersey U.S. Army Resent Command Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan (Parsons Engineering Science 2001), and involved the use of a stratified survey sample to examine portions of the study area determined to possess both a high and low potential for containing archaeological deposits. A total of fifteen test blocks were judgmentally located within each Tactical Area, with ten of those blocks situated in areas of high site potential and five in areas deemed unlikely to contain sites. Within each test block, the sampling of potentially artifact-bearing subsurface deposits was accomplished through the excavation of a series of systematic, close interval shovel test pits. The completion of field testing resulted in the recovery of no potentially significant archaeological deposits. While historic artifacts were identified within many of the test blocks, all recovered items were of a decidedly recent manufacture and none were indicative of any intensive pre-Reservation occupation or activity. The overwhelming majority of cultural materials consisted of spent small arms shell casings associated with recent and ongoing military training conducted at the base. No potentially significant surface features (e.g., World War I-era trench systems) associated with former base military training exercises were identified. Prehistoric artifacts from the project area were represented by a single jasper thinning flake recovered from TAC 12A-5, along the western banks of Old Hurricane Brook. Concentrated additional testing in this vicinity produced no additional evidence of a former Native American occupation. Based on the findings of this investigation it is KSK’s opinion that potentially significant prehistoric and/or historic cultural resources deposits are unlikely to be contained within this section of the fort. This file in an incomplete version of this resource. The report shows pages 69-82.