Article date: December 16, 2000

By Ashley May

The Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority considered a cost sharing request Friday for the second phase of an archaeological study on a 12- acre site near the Avtex Superfund site’s former administration buildings.

Artifacts believed to have been left by prehistoric American Indians were uncovered in the first phase of the study, which was conducted in August by Fairfax-based Parsons Engineering Science on the only portion of the 500- acre plant site that remained undisturbed.

The team found flakes of stone, pieces of ceramic and fire cracked rocks in two places on about 12- acres, evidence that prehistoric American Indians once occupied two clear sites, both near the administrative building of the plant. While neither site yielded actual tools, a broken stone point found on the southern site looks as if it might be a "bitface" broad spear point, archaeologist Cynthia Auman has said. Because it was incomplete and broken, there is no way to determine exactly what it is or when it was tooled, she said.

Without a known tool pattern, it is hard to determine who occupied the site, how long ago, or for how long, she said.

FMC Corp., a former owner of the Avtex Superfund site and the major private party responsible for its cleanup, had plans to use topsoil from the archaeological study area to fill in basin areas near the river as they are cleaned up as part of the federal Superfund site’s remediation effort.

Because the land cannot be disturbed further until a more detailed study is undertaken, EDA Executive Director Stephen A. Heavener recommended the board ask FMC Corp. to pay for phase two, the active archaeological dig phase.

On Friday, William G. Cutler, FMC’s remediation project manager, showed EDA members examples of the stone and tool fragments, and proposed a cost sharing plan between FMC and the authority. If FMC pays $50,000 and a $50,000 lease payment to the EDA is eliminated, then the phase two study is funded, he said.

EDA members considered the offer and asked if the cost could be reduced further if the scope of the project was limited. Cutler said that Parsons already has reduced its initial estimate for the phase two study from $160,000 to $93,000.

Engineers may be able to identify parts of the study area that won’t be needed for development, reducing the cost of the study further, he said.