The Yuchi Town Site (1RU63), Russell County, Alabama: An Assessment of the Impacts of Looting (Redacted)

Yuchi Town is a large, late prehistoric and historic site located in a remote area of Fort Benning, GA. The site has escaped serious impacts from development or military training, but has, in recent years, become the focus of extensive illegal looting. To collect information needed for future management efforts, Fort Benning sponsored an archaeological assessment of the site. The primary focus of this investigation was to document the nature and extent of the impact of looting on the cultural deposits at Yuchi Town. Ancillary research topics focused on issues of subsistence, settlement, acculturation, and site formation processes. Most of the investigated looter holes extended through the plowzone into previously intact cultural deposits, and a number of them disturbed human remains and architectural features. Despite these impacts, Yuchi Town remains a very important source of archaeological and historical information, and a site of great social and religious significance to living Native American peoples. As such, the Yuchi Town site warrants continued preservation by Fort Benning.