RE-MAPPING ST. STEPHENS QUARRY, ALABAMA: AN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT WITH GEOLOGICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS

St. Stephens Quarry is a well know archaeological and geological site in south western Alabama. Geologically, the site exposes a section of interbedded Eocene to Upper Oligocene bioclastic limestones, marls and siliciclastic units that comprise part of the early Cenozoic Coastal Plain Province in Alabama. Archaeologically, it contains important Native American artefacts and building remains that date back to the early 19^th Century when the nearby town of St. Stephens served as the capital of the Alabama Territory. In the late 1980’s, the former cement quarry site was designated an historical park and opened to the public as a recreational area. Recently, the extent of the park area was increased following the acquisition of a large parcel of adjacent property. This expansion offered an excellent opportunity to enhance past undergraduate geology research that had examined the sedimentology, stratigraphy and diagenesis of the main quarry sites and to add a geological mapping component. The current study has produced a new sedimentary section that expands the stratigraphy of the site deeper into the Eocene (Yazoo Clay) and better defines the bluff-forming, carbonate-rich portion of the Oligocene interval (Bumpnose Formation to Chickasawhay Limestone). The geological map is especially welcome as it permits archaeologists to link the location of artefacts to topographic features and stratigraphic intervals across the park site.