For several years, our spring event has been a lecture that we sponsor with the Savannah College of Art and Design. This year on April 8, our speaker was Dan Elliott of the Lamar Institute, who talked about his excavations on Ossabaw Island in “Tip of the Iceberg: Archaeology and Architecture at North End Plantation, Ossabaw Island.” He began with a description of the three existing tabby slave cabins, then went on to discuss evidence of many more structures found beneath the ground surface—the 90% of the iceberg! The venue for the event was in the SCAD Student Center, an interesting architectural renovation of an old synagogue.

Our Annual Meeting is still in the planning stages, but should take place in late June or early July. Anyone in the Savannah area wishing to join us is welcome. Please contact Chica or Carl Arndt at (912) 920-2299 or Carndt2651@aol.com for more information.

Our club had a busy fall season starting off with our October 18 tour, where we visited the Effingham Old Jail Museum and the Reiser-Zoller House to see an amazing array of 19th and early 20th century tools and household furnishings—the stuff we often dig up in its fragmentary, rusted, and broken state! The Fall Meeting was held at “Vernon Hall” in Vernonburg, just outside Savannah, within a stone’s throw of what is supposed to be the final resting place of the “Water Witch”, a Union blockade vessel scuttled in the Vernon River in 1864. Our new Underwater Archaeologist, Chris McCabe gave an excellent talk on his search for the “Water Witch” and other projects. With our club members, Vernonburg neighbors and other invitees, we had standing room only. We are so indebted to Jeff and Ellen Bolch for their hospitality in lending their wonderful house (ca.1840, remodeled in 1875) for this meeting.

Other events included the Oyster Roast with the Elderhostel at the Marine Extension Service on Skidaway Island, and just recently, a chance to hear of some new research by local historian Barry Sheehy on Civil War battlefield sites and buildings associated with the slave trade, 1830–1860. Coming up this spring, CGAS will co-sponsor a talk at the Savannah College of Art and Design by Dan Elliott on archaeological work he has done on the slave row at North End Plantation, Ossabaw Island. The talk will take place on Wednesday, April 8, at 6:30 PM at 120 Montgomery Street, Savannah. Anyone in the Savannah area wishing to join us is welcome. Please contact Chica or Carl Arndt at (912) 920-2299 or Carndt2651@aol.com for more information.

Coastal Georgia Archaeological Society’s activities this summer were very low key, compared to 2007 when we worked on the Groves Creek site on Skidaway Island. We spent the summer of 2008 in air conditioned comfort at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum washing, sorting and cataloguing artifacts from excavations, lead by Mark Newell, made along the Canal from 2006-2008. The most interesting items came from the Locktender’s House site, where a variety of high status artifacts were found. These included transfer-printed pearlware, mocha ware, a Chinese ginger jar, and music box parts. Along the Canal itself, Lock 3 yielded what looked like black eyed peas and Lock 5 the remains of a hoist used to lift logs up to a now vanished sawmill.

The latest addition to the club’s fall schedule is the October 25th Fall Festival at the Bamboo Farm, where we plan to have an informational booth on “Plants and Archaeology.” Still in the works are an excursion to the Effingham Living History Museum and the Reiser-Zoller House, and a Fall Picnic and program on the Civil War vessel “Waterwitch.” The picnic will be held at the Canal Museum and feature an exhibit of the artifacts we worked on and a tour of the Locktender’s House site. Dates for these events are to be announced. Anyone in the Savannah area wishing to join us is welcome. Please contact Chica or Carl Arndt at (912) 920-2299 or Carndt2651@aol.com.

Spring ended with a flurry of activity for the Coastal Georgia Archaeological Society, with ArchaeoFest on May 31 and CGAS’ Spring Fling on June 7. With temperatures that did not evoke spring—a heat advisory was in effect—a small but hardy group braved the heat for a wonderful program, “Revolutionary War Savannah: Beyond Spring Hill” by Rita Elliott of the Coastal Heritage Society. She spoke on work done this spring to uncover remnants of the Revolutionary War fortifications built around Savannah. Excavations in Emmett Park, and Madison and Lafayette squares, all in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District, provided much interest for tourists and locals alike, as well as some great publicity. After the program, there was a tour of the Locktender’s House site at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal and an opportunity to look in the museum at some of the newly discovered artifacts from the site.

CGAS booth at ArchaeoFest 2008, Savannah.

At ArchaeoFest, held at Battlefield Park in downtown Savannah, CGAS volunteers manned two children’s activities: a Quiz Board, where artifacts are matched with their descriptions; and an Indian Pottery activity, where children had an opportunity to make and decorate their own Indian clay pot. It was definitely hands-on, very messy, and apparently very popular. CGAS’ future plans for the summer include washing and cataloging artifacts found this spring at the Locktender’s House site. Fall activities are expected to involve an excursion to the Effingham Living History Museum and the Reiser-Zoller House, and a fall picnic and program on the Civil War vessel “Water Witch.” Anyone wishing to join us is welcome. Please contact Chica or Carl Arndt at (912) 920-2299 or Carndt2651@aol.com.

This year our Society held its Fall Picnic on November 3 at Fife Plantation, later than usual due to warnings about heat and mosquitoes, the hazards of visiting a Savannah River plantation. Nevertheless, after a slightly chilly start, it was a perfect fall day with brilliant sunshine lending a glow to what were once rice fields and a sparkle to the windruffled waters of the many canals. We took a mile-long selfguided tour of the old rice dikes and “Oscar’s house”, the lone surviving 1920s era tenant house. Prior to our walk, our host, Robbie Harrison, gave us a wonderful hands-on talk about what really goes into preserving an old river plantation. Although no rice is raised there, the fields are kept grassed for the cattle and the canals and sluice gates or “trunks” maintained to regulate water flow. The problems he described ranged from salt water intrusion and repairs to gates, to eagles that killed a herd of sheep.

CGAS members touring Fife Plantation.

On October 18, CGAS members enjoyed attending the “Diversity of Coastal Archaeology” conference in Midway, and contributed by adding yet another dugout canoe to the known inventory. The canoe was probably built in Effingham County around 1870, and is on exhibit at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum. Our usual December meeting, at the Oyster Roast with the Elderhostel, has been cancelled, and we are in the process of planning another activity. Future events planned for spring 2008 include our annual archaeology lecture jointly sponsored with the Savannah College of Art and Design. Anyone wishing to contact CGAS can do so at (912) 920-2299 or Carndt2651@aol.com.

Ca. 1870 canoe from Effingham County.