Historic Preservation of Prehistoric, Colonial and Plantation Structures on the Coast

Now’s the time to mark your calendars and register for the Society for Georgia Archaeology’s Fall Meeting, which will be Friday-Sunday, 15-17 October. Reservations for room and board must be in by 8 September 2010. This year’s theme is Historic Preservation of Prehistoric, Colonial and Plantation Structures on the Coast.

Tabby ruins on the Coast.

The Fall 2010 meeting of the Society for Georgia Archaeology will take place on St. Simons Island and environs from Friday-Sunday, 15-17 October 2010. The general theme of the meeting is Historic Preservation of Prehistoric, Colonial and Plantation Structures on the Coast. Instead of the traditional set of formal papers, we are holding a moveable feast of archaeological sites with discussions led and sustained by knowledgeable members of SGA.

Those of you arriving early on Friday might want to visit Fort Frederica National Monument, which closes at 5. There you might track down Chief of Interpretation, Jon Burpee, to ask him about his new findings about the old town. While you are in the area, you are strongly encouraged to visit the Harrington one-room schoolhouse, built in the 1920s by African-American tradesmen for their children and grandchildren, and now the focus of urgent historic preservation as a “Place in Peril” in the vanishing history of coastal Georgia. In particular, the Harrington School invites Fall Meeting attendees to visit between 5-7 pm. In the evening you will find plenty of great places to have dinner on St. Simons or further afield in the Golden Isles.

On Saturday morning we will convene briefly in the Sea Palms meeting hall for short orientation talks by David Crass, State Archaeologist and Head of Historic Preservation, and Dennis Blanton, President of the Society for Georgia Archaeology. We will then move out and have a working lunch at Gascoigne Bluff, where LAMAR Institute archaeologist Dan Elliott will conduct ground-penetrating radar at a promising new site near the tabby slave cabins, with permission of access from the Cassina Garden Club. The docents will have the cabins open for us and will answer any questions you may have about them. Also greeting us and taking care of us there and elsewhere will be members of the Golden Isles Archaeological Society.

Attendees should plan ahead to carpool on Saturday afternoon to remote, seldom visited, sites in Brunswick and Glynn County, guided by archaeologists Fred Cook, Keith Stephenson, and other experts. Among key sites we will visit, with permission of Morningstar Academy and the landowners, are the old plantations of Elizafield and Evelyn, which were first excavated by James Ford and Preston Holder during the “Golden Age of Archaeology” in the 1930s. Once thought to be an Indian mission and thus developed as Santo Domingo State Park, Elizafield has beautifully preserved tabby ruins where sugarcane was milled and processed. Evelyn has several preserved Savannah and Swift Creek Indian mounds, including Bartram’s famous “tetragon terrace,” as well as the tabby foundations of the 19th-century plantation house and the historic Brunswick-Altamaha canal, all quietly integrated into a modern neighborhood.

On Saturday evening Fort Frederica is holding a festive lime-burning, one of the essential steps in Colonial tabby-making (other steps are off-site revelry, before and after).

On Sunday we plan to continue the tour with expert guides to special sites in Darien and McIntosh County, including a tour by Harriet Langford of Ashantilly, the mainland tabby home of Thomas Spalding. With access arranged by Fred Cook from the developers of the property, we will close the meeting at The Thicket on Tolomato Island, site of the Carnochan tabby sugar mill and rum distillery, formerly identified as a Spanish mission, and the unusually well-preserved slave cabins. There are some great places to have lunch in Darien, whenever we get hungry.

We are reserving rooms, a hospitality suite, and a meeting hall for you at the beautiful Sea Palms Resort. Sea Palms has given us bargain rates, starting from $109 for a deluxe room with two double beds and a screened porch or sunroom overlooking the spectacular marshes or a lagoon. You carpoolers are also welcome to room-pool, as you see fit (or as you fit). You must make your own reservations by downloading this form and sending it by fax or email to Sea Palms by 8 September 2010 to get the special rates.

We also must tell the caterers by 8 September how many of you want box lunches on Saturday. Here’s the form for pre-registration and for ordering your box lunch.

October is a glorious time of year on the Coast. We look forward to seeing you all down here for a memorable Fall meeting. If you have any questions, or would like to contribute your knowledge to discussions at the sites, please email me by clicking here.

Cordially, Kevin Kiernan, Chair, Fall 2010 Meeting

Five days off between my last stint and today, when I went back to my second home of Ft. Frederica. You may recall I spent last spring parked at the fort while I visited school children there and in all the Glynn County elementary schools with Mrs. P*.

Well, I got to go back to work the Ft. Frederica Archaeology Festival. (Of course, I couldn’t help but be the star of the show.

I hope I didn’t take away everyone’s attention from all the other interesting stations they had set up under tents.)

Kids and families and adults at the festival learned about all the different parts of archaeology and got to try their hands at different activities under the tents. Here are some photos so you know what I’m talking about. The left one shows my side view all day. And, in the right photo, it’s ok fellas, I don’t bite, you can come in.

I was parked under a nice shady oak tree, right on the grounds of Fort Frederica, which is a neat historical and archaeological site. It was a colonial town founded by General Oglethorpe. He built a fort around the town to protect the settlers and soldiers from attack by the Spanish who lived in Florida at the time. Apparently everyone in the 1730s and 1740s—the Spanish, French, and British—all wanted to own North America and each tried to do so by taking pieces of it. I think I remember seeing some books about it on my shelves, back when I used to be a bookmobile. Archaeologists actually excavated at Ft. Frederica in the past. Today it is one of America’s National Parks.

Anyway, I was parked there, surrounded by all this history, when all of a sudden during the day TWO archaeologists came on board. One of them, Dr. Honor Kamp* actually excavated at Ft. Frederica!! He knew all about some of the settlers that lived there—what they ate, what they did for a living, how they got along with their neighbors in the 1700s, and what happened to them! Then, later, another archaeologist, Real Dan*, came by who did a big archaeological survey just next to the grounds of Ft. Frederica. He was showing visitors how archaeologists use a ground penetrating radar machine to see underground.

(Real Dan is not one of my handlers, but he helps me a whole lot. I think it’s because he is married to Veronica*, who is one of my handlers. So he feels compelled—or gets drafted—to help.) Anyway, it was so cool that these archaeologists who had worked right there years ago, were checking ME out! I even met some of Dr. Honor Kamp’s students, who were just learning how to become archaeologists. They will need lots of practice before they can run projects.

Diary, I will leave you with a few more photos of my old and new friends at Ft. Frederica.

* Handler’s Note: Abby thought it best not to use real names in many cases, especially when referring to her “handlers”—those people responsible for driving her and administering programs, and to some people she meets in her travels.

Save the date for this year’s Fall Meeting, to be held in the Brunswick/St. Simons Island area on Saturday, October 16th. The meeting organizer is SGA Board Member Kevin Kiernan. Read more details on this website as plans are firmed up.

Portion of the British Library’s copy of the 1562 map by cartographer Diego Gutiérrez and engraver Hieronymus Cock. Note in the upper left of this screen grab the
word “APALCHEN;” this is a precursor of the word “Appalachia,” still used for this region.

What’s in a map? Have you used overlay capabilities of the free computer program Google Earth? Here we take the section of the 1562 Gutiérrez map that spans the coastline of what is now Georgia and map it to today’s coastline to see what we can learn.

First, the map. This version is from the British Library’s online collection (currently, the map’s link is here). As our own Library of Congress notes,

In 1562 Diego Gutiérrez, a Spanish cartographer…, and Hieronymus Cock, a noted engraver from Antwerp, collaborated in the preparation of a spectacular and ornate map of what was then referred to as the fourth part of the world, America. It was the largest engraved map of America to that time.

Further, the Library of Congress online notes:

Gutiérrez’s magnificent 1562 map of America was not intended to be a scientifically or navigationally exacting document, although it was of large scale and remained the largest map of America for a century. It was, rather, a ceremonial map, a diplomatic map, as identified by the coats of arms proclaiming possession. Through the map, Spain proclaimed to the nations of Western Europe its American territory, clearly outlining its sphere of control, not by degrees, but with the appearance of a very broad line for the Tropic of Cancer clearly drawn on the map.

In our modern world of satellites and lasers, we are accustomed to using maps that more accurately portray the landscape around us—and the ocean floor, the surface of the moon, and more!

Gutiérrez, however, was working with far different data so that his map approximates and estimates what is now Georgia’s coastline. And, since the commission was made more to support territorial claims of the Spanish leadership under King Felipe II (reigned from 1556 until his death at age 71 in 1598) than to provide guidance for mariners, the emphasis was not on the accuracy of Georgia’s coast.

This orientation of the overlay aligns the stretch of the coastline from the notation “Río de Santa Elena” northeastward to the North Carolina’s Outer Banks. This area was chosen because the Florida peninsula is disproportionately wide and the map seems generally less precise along the Florida coastline than along the Carolinas’. In addition, the Georgia bight is more exaggerated than we know it actually was (the coastline bends westward too much).

“Río de S. Elena” as oriented here lines up with the location of the Spanish settlement called Santa Elena, which was on what we now call Parris Island. This archaeological site, which includes a French Fort that predates the Spanish occupation, was declared a National Historic Landmark in January, 2001.

This alignment means that southwest of the “Río de S. Elena” is the notation “R. de tierra llana.” “R.” most likely stands for “Río” or River. “Tierra llana” means flat lands, or plains.

So, which river do you think the cartographer is indicating by “River of the Flat Plains”?

We also have demonstrated this Google Earth overlay operation with an 1864 map of downtown Atlanta. Read about that here.

Visit a frequently updated blog called Savannah Under Fire to read about the latest discoveries of Coastal Heritage Society archaeologists, supported by the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program. The group is investigating Revolutionary War archaeological sites throughout downtown Savannah.

In a recent blog entry, ArchaeoLaura notes:

Savannah is losing archaeological sites at an alarming, rapid rate. We all care about Savannah’s history; let’s work together to preserve and protect it.

Yes!

The blog discusses artifacts found, upcoming talks, current fieldwork, and a wide variety of other topics. Read the blog and find out when upcoming excavations will be held!

Consider attending this all-day event at Cumberland Island, intended to familiarize educators with archaeology resources for the classroom that can enhance learning opportunities in math, science, art, and social studies.

Participants will meet at St. Mary’s waterfront, noted on map below, on Saturday May 22, 2010 at 8:00 am. The National Park Service will arrange transportation to the island. You must bring your own snacks and lunches, although a community dinner is provided. Dorm space on the island is provided; program ends on Sunday, May 23rd.

Registration is $10 and reservations are first-come first-served, with a cap of 25. If you are interested in attending please contact Amber via email by clicking here or call (904) 819-6498.

Click here for a one-page brochure with details about this teacher training workshop.

For more information about sponsors visit Project Archaeology online here or the Florida Public Archaeology Network online here.

Satellite image from Google Maps, showing outlines of abandoned rice fields in marsh area.

Peter A. Coclanis, in the online New Georgia Encyclopedia, writes:

Rice cultivation began in South Carolina in the late seventeenth century but did not become deeply entrenched until the second or third decade of the eighteenth century. Recent scholars have demonstrated that Africans and African Americans contributed much more than brute labor to the development of the rice industry that developed along coastal South Carolina and, later, coastal Georgia. More specifically, most scholars now believe that much of the technology involved in rice cultivation in this area originated in rice-producing regions in West Africa and was transferred across the Atlantic by slaves.

Coclanis, in his book The Shadow of a Dream: Economic Life and Death in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670-1920 (1989, Oxford University Press), argues that low-country plantations were less self-sufficient in foodstuffs than contemporaneous plantations. This meant they needed access to foodstuffs imported from other areas. Thus, Coclanis says, the antebellum low-country transportation system linked production areas with interior and coastal ports, which inhibited the development of nearby market towns and of a broad network of transportation routes (pages 146 and 147).

Rice (Oryza sativa), then, is an Old World crop, which became quite important in the economy of antebellum coastal Georgia. In the satellite image from Google Maps captured from along coastal Georgia and shown above, you can see the outlines of old rice fields. Seen from the edge of the marsh, the fields are less visible, unless you happen to be sighting down the field edge or along a drainage canal.

Nowdays, rice is not grown commercially along the Georgia coast, although the states of Arkansas, California, Louisiana, and Texas have substantial commercial rice agriculture. Rice farms in the modern USA use little hand labor, instead employing specialized equipment to adjust the elevation of the fields to improve conditions for flooding, prepare the seedbeds, and cut and thresh the rice.

So, why not is rice not now grown commercially here in Georgia? You might want to consider such factors as soil fertility, cost of labor (for example, the absence of the plantation economy and slavery), and productivity in pondering this…. Also, most of the rice grown in antebellum days was exported from North America, while much of the rice grown in the USA currently is used here. What effect might this have? Can you compare export costs between Georgia of, say, the early 1800s and today?

SGA leadership touring Sapelo Lighthouse.

When the SGA leadership visited the coast in February 2010, many of us also toured Sapelo Island with archaeologist Dr. Ray Crook, who has worked on the island for decades. We took the morning ferry out underovercast skies, watched the sun arrive with us at the island dock, and returned to the mainland late in the afternoon. We took a break to enjoy a Geechee lunch at mid-day.

We met at the Sapelo Island Visitor Center, which is next to the ferry dock north of Darien. The Center has some informational displays, a telescope we used to spot the incoming ferry to time our exit into the chilly wind to wait for the ferry’s arrival, and books and souvenirs for sale.

We were very lucky to take the “new” ferry, a 70-foot long catamaran named the Katie Underwood. Ms. Underwood was the last midwife on the island, who delivered babies there through 1968. The Katie Underwood began ferry service in 2006.

On the island, our first stop was Long Tabby, which is also where the Sapelo Island Post Office is, along with DNR offices, and the tabby ruins of Thomas Spalding‘s sugar mill, built by 1809. Spalding also owned Ashantilly, the plantation on the mainland where we convened our SGA meeting the day before. The sugar mill had a warehouse-dock combination right next door, for shipping the sugar. The dock is gone except for some pilings, and the warehouse is mostly gone above ground. Ray also told us the plantation architecture is atop a prehistoric occupation. In fact, this is true for many plantation buildings on Georgia’s barrier islands. A good spot is a good spot to anyone, we figured, whether you were staying for a few months to gather food from the estuaries in 1000 BC or build a tabby sugar mill in the early AD 1800s.

The lighthouse at the south end of the island has deep red and brilliant white stripes; it is one of five remaining lighthouses on Georgia’s barrier islands. The lighthouses were built to make commercial shipping safer. US lighthouses are all painted with distinct, unduplicated patterns so mariners never will confuse them. The building contract for the first lighthouse at the south end of Sapelo was let in 1819. This lighthouse was inactivated after damage by a hurricane in 1898; it was restored and reopened in 1998. The most difficult part of the restoration was reconstruction of the interior curving staircase; each step had to be made and installed before construction of the next one up could begin. Apparently, the 1820 facility grew to include a keeper’s house, cistern, and oil house. Also near the lighthouse is the foundation of an 1898 gun emplacement.

We made a brief stop at the Reynolds Mansion to take photographs. The mansion is owned by the state, and you can rent a room there. According to the Mansion website:

The original Mansion was designed and built from tabby, a mixture of lime, shells and water, by Thomas Spalding, an architect, statesman and plantation owner who purchased the south end of the island in 1802. The Mansion served as the Spalding Plantation Manor from 1810 until the Civil War. It fell into ruin after being damaged by Union attack during the Civil War and was later purchased and rebuilt by Detroit automotive engineer Howard Coffin in 1912. Tobacco heir Richard Reynolds purchased the property in 1934, donating land and facilities to the University of Georgia for marine research. Following Reynolds’ death in 1964 the Mansion and most of the island was obtained by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1975. Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and University of Georgia Marine Research Facilities are still located on the island.

The wing of the Mansion in the pictures encloses a swimming pool. Facing this wing, a sharp-eyed archaeologist spotted an orange tree from the lovely gardens that once surrounded the Mansion. Only remnants of it remain. Archaeologists learn to spot “foreign” vegetation that indicates deliberate planting or horticulture by prior human inhabitants.

Next Ray took us to Behavior Cemetery. Once a slave community with dispersed homes rather than a centralize layout, Behavior is now abandoned and most of the structures are now below-ground archaeological features. The Behavior cemetery is still in use. In fact, a funeral was held the day before we arrived. According to the National Park Service website:

Behavior Cemetery is a unique post-Civil War African American burial ground located in the center, south end of Sapelo Island. It is one-and-one-fourth miles west of Hog Hammock, the sole surviving African American community on the island. The cemetery reflects African American burial customs. Early grave markers include short posts at either end of the graves and epitaphs on wooden boards nailed to the surrounding trees, while more recent tombstones are made of local cement, with some granite and metal funeral home markers.

Ray also taught us the proper way to enter a Geechee cemetery. Geechee refers to the descendents of slaves still living on Sapelo (and in other coastal areas), and maintaining some of their African linguistic and cultural heritage. Geechee peoples believe that spirits occupy the grave yard, and to enter one must first ask the spirits’ permission. Geechee people chose not to live near a cemetery, to keep a safe distance from the spirits.

As Ray has noted (“Gullah-Geechee Archaeology: The Living Space of Enslaved Geechee on Sapelo Island,” in the March 2008 Newsletter of the African Diaspora Archaeology Network:

Geechee people have lived on Sapelo Island for about 250 years. Their exceptionally strong sense of place is permanently connected to the island where they “catch sense” in their youth and are buried when they die. Here they tilled the fields and harvested gardens, fished the tidal creeks, hunted game and gathered plants along the marsh edges and in the forests, and engaged in a variety of work activities. [page 2]

After a Geechee lunch, this one characterized by yellow and orange foods (including canned corn, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, yellow poundcake), we drove north up the west/inland side of the island, wallowing through deep mudholes that had been filled by rains over the previous two days. We stopped at Kenan, a prehistoric archaeological site that Ray told us is the largest mapped archaeological site east of the Mississippi River. The site is civic-ceremonial and residential. Most people lived in homes scattered across a huge area.

Many ruins of the Chocolate plantation are still standing, but only two still have a roof, and therefore any protection from the elements. One is a Sears Roebuck Catalogue Home. The other This presents a difficult historic preservation situation, especially if funds are few or non-existent, as with this state-owned site. As Ray Crook noted in the 2008 newsletter article cited above,

During the late 1790s, the Chocolate tract was farmed by Lewis Harrington with the labor of 68 slaves. In 1802 that property became jointly owned by Edward Swarbreck and Thomas Spalding, who leased out at least a portion of the tract until 1808. Swarbreck, a Danish sea merchant with Caribbean connections who traded in cotton and other commodities, including slaves, then directed his attention to Chocolate. His plantation layout followed a familiar and very formal design…. The Big House, built of tabby, overlooked the Mud River and expansive salt marshes. His residence was flanked by outbuildings and other support structures. Two parallel rows of slave quarters, spaced some 10m apart and separated by a broad open area 50m across, were constructed behind the Big House. Vast agricultural fields extended to the north and south. Evidence of at least nine slave quarters, typically tabby duplexes with central chimneys and finished tabby floors, each side measuring about 4.3m by 6.1m, survives today as ruins and archaeological features at Chocolate. These represent an enslaved population of some 70 to 100 people distributed among at least 18 households…. [page 3]

Deteriorating, roofless structure at Chocolate Plantation.

Archaeological research at Chocolate is detailed in a 2007 report by Nicholas Honerkamp, Ray Crook, and Orion Kroulek titled “Pieces of Chocolate: Site Structure and Function at Chocolate Plantation (9MC96), Sapelo Island, Georgia” and downloadable here. They write that:

Besides presumably raising cotton, there is direct evidence that Swarbreck (or at least his slaves) grew sugar cane and had it processed into molasses and sugar at Thomas Spalding’s sugar mill located on the southern end of Sapelo. In a 12 January 1815 letter to Charles Harris, reproduced here in Appendix A, Swarbreck discusses the virtues of Thomas Spalding’s sugar mill, and the considerable value ($17,600) of the quantity of sugar and molasses that Swarbreck saw in Spalding’s “Curing House.” Swarbreck also mentions that he was sending an example of his own finished product: “Agreeable to your wish, I Present you with a small sample of sugar & molassis that I brought from sapelo Island, manufactur’d by Mr. Spalding from my own Sugar cane which place I left the 7th Inst.”

Tabby construction at Chocolate during Swarbreck’s tenure was an enormous undertaking, unparalleled at any other place on Sapelo Island. Preparation of the tabby mixture – consisting of equal parts of shell, lime from burned shell, and sand – involved collecting salt-free oyster shell from shell midden deposits found at nearby Native American archaeological sites (such as at the Shell Ring and at Long Row Field), transporting it to the construction site, burning a portion of the shell for lime, and preparing the mixture with sand and water to be poured into wall forms to cure. Roughly 1050 cubic meters (~37,000 cubic feet) of shell was brought into Chocolate to construct Swarbreck’s tabby buildings. This volume equals the oyster shell that would be represented in about 350 Native American shell middens, each measuring 3 meters in diameter and 50 centimeters in height. [pages 7-8]

From Chocolate Plantation, we continued farther north to the Sapelo Island Shell Rings, which, for many of us, was the high point of our adventure. This feature is just what it sounds like—a ring of shell deposits. Actually, there are three rings near each other on this part of Sapelo, but we only visited the largest, which is huge at over 100 yards across and more than 9 feet high (larger shell rings are known, though, just not on Sapelo). In the 1950s, archaeologists Antonio Waring and Lewis Larson dug a trench through this shell ring, which reveals that the deposits show layering, with some layers of mostly shell, and other layers with more dark, humic materials mixed with the shell. Probably, because they were mined for their shell to make tabby and road fill, there were more shell rings along the coast than can be found today. Shell rings date (mostly) to the Late Archaic, over five thousand years ago. Evidence suggests people lived atop the ring and discarded the shell between their houses. Most of the shell is oyster, but many other shellfish species are included, including the bones of terrestrial and other marine creatures.

What a great day we had touring Sapelo! Most of us were rather tired as we took the ferry back to the mainland en route to returning to every-day life, but we were also sad to end our adventure on one of Georgia’s barrier islands.

Thank you

Many people made this trip possible, and are owed a big debt of thanks. Thanks!

SGA Board Member Kevin Kiernan did the organizing of the whole weekend. DNR manager Fred Hay organized vehicles and helped with all aspects of our on-island time. Members of the Geechee community opened the cemetery to us and cooked our lunch and brought it to us. And, Ray Crook gave us the benefit of his decades of research, not only on Sapelo, but also along the coast.

Online reading on Georgia’s barrier islands

Dr. Crook’s webpage, with downloadable copies of his reports and articles, published since the 1980s.

Dr. Crook’s article on Jekyll Island, on thesga.org website.

Ginessa Mahar’s article on Late Archaic shell rings on St. Catherines Island on this website.

Some University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology Laboratory of Archaeology Series Reports detail coastal research.

On Sapelo Island’s past, by the Georgia DNR and by Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve.

On Sapelo, including Chocolate Plantation.

On tabby, a mix of sand, shell, lime, and water that hardens somewhat like cement.

Main, east fascade of Ashantilly plantation house.

The SGA and its members owe a big debt of thanks to the wonderful, kind folks at the Ashantilly Center, an historic plantation house and grounds just north of Darien.

The SGA Board and Officers met on Saturday, February 6th, 2010, at the Ashantilly library, named after the home’s builder, Thomas Spalding, at the south end of the plantation house. Spalding owned land on both the mainland and on Sapelo Island (which many of us visited on Sunday), and Ashantilly was the family home.

SGA leadership, from left: Brian Floyd, President Dennis Blanton, Stephen Hammack, David Mincey, Thomas Gresham, Pamela Baughman, Sammy Smith, Tammy Herron, Catherine Long, Lynn Pietak, Carolyn Rock, and meeting organizer Kevin Kiernan.

Spalding named Ashantilly after his ancestral home in Scotland. The Ashantilly historical marker was dedicated in late October 2009. It is planted on Ridge Road “behind” the main plantation house. The marker reads:

Built ca. 1820, Ashantilly was the mainland residence of prominent antebellum planter Thomas Spalding (1774-1851), owner of the nearby Sapelo Island plantation. The house, likely built by Spalding’s slaves, was constructed of tabby, an equal mix of oyster shell, sand, water and lime. Ashantilly was named for Spalding’s ancestral home in County Perth, Scotland. He died at Ashantilly and is interred in the family burial ground adjacent to the property. William G. Haynes, Jr. (1908-2001), proprietor of the Ashantilly Press, was the last private owner of Ashantilly. In 1993 the Haynes family donated the property to the Ashantilly Center, Inc.

According to the Center’s website, William Haynes Jr., with his sister, Annie Lee Haynes established Ashantilly Center:

to organize and implement a program of conservation, including Ashantilly property and its legacy, to provide a vehicle for continuing education, scientific advancement and charitable endeavor which focus on the natural and built environments integral to the Georgia Coast.

The generous hosting included three tasty meals, culminating with a Low Country Boil. We also enjoyed a special tour of the upstairs of the house. Because Ashantilly is primarily an educational institution and not a museum, it is not open for tours.

Ashantilly Center members also kindly hosted SGA attendees in their homes, which meant attendees did not have to pay for hotel rooms. (The SGA does not pay the leadership’s expenses to attend Board meetings.)

All meeting participants, many of whom travelled for hours to attend this retreat, agreed that our day at Ashantilly and our time with the Ashantilly Center people was extra-special.

Links

The Ashantilly Center’s website is here.

The Ashantilly Center’s blog is here.

Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia has been the focus of an important archaeological discovery over the last three years. In August of 2006 during excavation for a fiber-optic utility line in the heart of the Airfield’s cantonment, construction workers encountered several bones quite unexpectedly. All work on the utility trench ceased immediately and the Installation’s archaeologist, Brian Greer, investigated the disturbed burial and determined that the remains were that of one individual buried in a coffin. It was at that point the Installation realized there was a strong possibility that an unknown cemetery may have been lost to time.

New South team member Andrew Belcourt shovel skims a burial feature taking care not to disturb the remains that lie beneath (photograph courtesy of New South Associates, Inc.).

In order to complete the excavation of the utility trench and avoid disturbing any other graves that may be in the vicinity, a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) unit was brought in to guide the remaining portion of the trench. As a result of the GPR, additional suspected graves were noted nearby and the path of the utility trench was altered slightly to avoid any further disturbances. Additional work was halted and the Installation initiated a larger radar sweep of the surrounding area. The location under examination consisted of two boulevards, a paved parking lot, and several grassy medians. After extensive radar sweeps of the location, the potential for a significant number of burials was suggested by the radar.

Upon the realization that this initial single burial may actually be part of a much larger unknown cemetery, the Installation contracted the services of New South Associates, Inc. in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District. The initial goal was to determine the size and origin of the cemetery. Although archaeological surveys had been previously conducted nearby, no signs of any cemetery were ever encountered. According to base records, the parking lot and boulevards had been in existence for over 50 years.

Remnant of the only inscribed grave marker recovered (photograph courtesy of New South Associates, Inc.).

Upon the discovery of the initial burial, the Installation contacted the State Historic Preservation Office. Through close coordination and monitoring by staff archaeologists, the Installation was able to successfully complete the installation of the fiber optic cable without disturbing any additional suspected remains.

The discovery of a cemetery in such an environment created a challenge to the contracted mortuary archaeologists. Since the cemetery lies beneath asphalt and concrete, a significant amount of time and effort was required to remove this obstruction. The parking lot and road removal was carefully monitored by the Installation and New South Associates, Inc. over several days to ensure no burials were damaged. After 2 acres of asphalt and concrete were removed, the underlying soil was exposed. Due to the sandy nature of this hill, the grave outlines were not discernable until approximately 10 cm above each burial. Typical burial shafts that would normally be visible closer to the original surface had been obliterated over time. After weeks of careful backhoe excavation and hand shoveling by New South Associates, a total of 37 burials were discovered.

Of these 37 graves, a sample was examined to determine their condition and potential for eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as a cemetery of significance. With minimal intrusion, it was determined that the cemetery represented an African-American cemetery dating from the 1880s to the 1910s. Furthermore, the condition of the burials indicated good preservation, and therefore the cemetery was considered to be a potential candidate for the NRHP.

This small bisque lamb figurine represents one of the various grave goods found during excavation of the cemeteries (photograph courtesy of New South Associates, Inc.).

Initial examination of Installation documents and historic maps did not provide any clues to the origins of this lost cemetery. Therefore, the Installation looked to the public for help. Since the area was planned for further development, the Installation solicited public input from the surrounding communities through newspaper announcements, television interviews, and public meetings. Unfortunately, no members of the public came forward with information pertaining to this cemetery. Although this cemetery was just over a hundred years old, it appeared the memory of its existence had faded completely.

After efforts to solicit comments from the public, consultation with the SHPO, and through the course of an Environmental Assessment, it was determined that the best course of action was to archaeologically excavate the cemetery and respectfully reinter the burials within an existing cemetery elsewhere on the Installation (known as Belmont Cemetery). With future upgrades to the road and parking lot associated with the construction of a new barracks complex for the Rangers, a research plan was developed through a Memorandum of Agreement with the Georgia SHPO in order to mitigate the adverse effects of relocation of this NRHP eligible cemetery.

Custom engraved cufflink depicting an unknown church (photograph courtesy of New South Associates, Inc.).

Upon completion of the regulatory process, the mortuary archaeologists began the long task of hand excavating each grave, mapping every burial, and carefully recovering all grave materials for future reburial. Over the next several weeks, all burials were fully documented and the remains transferred to secure mortuary caskets for future reburial. The entire contents of the coffin, including the coffin fragments themselves, were stored with each burial. This entire assemblage was measured and photographed in order to document all available clues to the identity of the individuals interred.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Installation, another cemetery was being investigated. During the 1950s and 1970s, several burials were encountered during construction of an exercise course for the Rangers. At that time, all remains were excavated and moved to Belmont Cemetery. In 1994, during upgrades to the exercise course, an additional burial was encountered. Work halted and the burial was moved to the Belmont Cemetery. Due to the number of burials encountered, the Installation initiated a GPR survey of the exercise field in 1995. Several potential graves were identified and a sample of these radar “anomalies” were excavated. No additional graves were encountered, and it was believed that the likelihood for additional burials was very low to non-existent. However, a small portion of the exercise field had not been sampled due to large oak trees and other obstacles that interfered with the radar. With mortuary archaeologists and an available radar unit already on site, the Installation decided that an attempt to examine the areas missed by the previous radar survey was in order.

An unusual collection of 9 sets of eyeglasses from a single burial (photograph courtesy of New South Associates, Inc.).

Initially, the radar results of this second look indicated only a small number of potential graves. All suspected graves were examined archaeologically, and it was not until the very last radar anomalies were examined that a single grave was encountered. As a matter of procedure, a 20-foot area around this grave was excavated to ensure no other graves had been missed by the radar. It was this 20-foot expansion that eventually led to the removal of almost an acre of topsoil to expose the boundaries of this other lost cemetery. After all exploratory work was done, an additional 385 burials were recovered from this missing portion of the 1995 radar survey.

1889 map depicting “Negro Cemetery”.

During the investigation of this second cemetery, an extensive document search in the city of Savannah finally revealed a single map from 1889 labeling the area as a “Negro Cemetery.” Coupled with the examination of the skeletal remains as well as the age of coffin materials recovered, it was determined that this second cemetery was an African-American cemetery dating from the same time period as the first cemetery (i.e. 1880s to 1910s). Similar to the first cemetery, the remains were relatively well preserved and held the potential to provide significant information about a segment of the population of Savannah that has gone virtually unrecorded. Consequently, this cemetery was also deemed significant as a historical cemetery and underwent the same regulatory and decision making processes to respectfully move the graves to a more peaceful resting place in the Belmont Cemetery.

After all regulatory requirements were met and all burials were carefully excavated, the remains were all reinterred to the Belmont Cemetery. This cemetery was established in 1951 when the Army encountered several unmarked graves during the expansion of the airfield, and it proved to be the most suitable resting place for the newly discovered remains.

Final resting ground for the 2 relocated cemeteries- Belmont Cemetery named after the Old Belmont Plantation.

During African-American History Month in February 2009, the Installation coordinated a rededication ceremony presided over by the Installation’s Garrison Commander and Chaplain. Members of the community were invited to this important ceremony, which was held for both cemeteries. Although no descendants have been identified from these two cemeteries, the rededication ceremony provided important closure to one individual in attendance. Mr. Drayton, who learned of the upcoming ceremony through his family, sat quietly in the audience. It was quickly learned that Mr. Drayton’s grandfather was buried in the original portion of the Belmont Cemetery when it was established in 1951. For Mr. Drayton, the ceremony “was a wonderful thing,” and he considered it “one of the greatest days of his life.” Until that ceremony, Mr. Drayton and his family never knew where their grandfather’s grave had been relocated. For now, at least one of the unknown markers in the Belmont Cemetery has a name and is among the honored dead.

Research continues by New South Associates on the information collected during the excavation of these important cemeteries; one goal is to find names for the remaining forgotten individuals. From this work, future researchers will begin to shed new light on the lives of African Americans during the Post-Emancipation era in the Savannah area. New South Associates’ final report of investigation is nearing completion and is expected to be completed in the months ahead. From these two cemeteries, a significant amount of information pertaining to the lifeways of African-American residents of the Georgia Coastal Plain will shed light on a relatively recent, yet forgotten past.

Archaeological crews from the American Museum of Natural History have been excavating on St. Catherines Island for over 30 years. This fall we returned to the island with a very specific, yet far reaching research plan.

Over the past four years, much of our research has focused on two Late Archaic shell rings (2400–1800 B.C.); the St. Catherines Shell Ring and the McQueen Shell Ring. These sites are roughly 70 m in diameter and are represented by a ring of deposited marine shell that measures about 10 m wide and 2 m deep and an interior “plaza” that measures between 30–40 m in diameter (see The Profile, Winter 2008 for a brief synopsis). Our research at these sites thus far has been comprised of geophysical prospection (soil resistivity, ground penetrating radar, gradiometry, topography, and shell density) and both minor and major archaeological testing (shovel test pits, vibra-cores, test units, trenches, and block excavations). Despite all of this work, we have been ignoring one of the most intriguing aspects of these sites; the surrounding landscape.

To better understand the archaeological landscape around the rings, we conducted a shovel test pit survey (at 20-m intervals) around the St. Catherines shell ring in the fall of 2008. Out of 458 shovel test pits, only 7 produced ceramics that are contemporaneous with the shell ring. The data suggests that the ring was the only substantial Late Archaic presence in this section of St. Catherines Island. This interesting revelation sparked a series of questions concerning the landscape the shell rings occupy. For instance; do contemporaneous sites exist outside the shell ring? During what other time periods did people utilized this space? What are the stratigraphic differences/similarities between the rings?

Marc Lorenc and Leigh Davidson excavating a shovel test pit at McQueen Shell Ring.

With these questions in mind we devised a survey that would incorporate our previous shovel testing while at the same time improving on the quantity and quality of information previously gained. A 20-m shovel testing interval was conducted within 250 m of the shell ring while an additional finer 10-m interval was used within 150 m of the ring.

Fieldwork for this project has just wrapped up and therefore, specific results of the survey are pending. However, preliminary distribution maps generated in the field have provided some interesting insights. The area immediately surrounding the shell rings seems to lack any Late Archaic material, suggesting a lack of significant contemporaneous activity around the rings that would lead to deposition events. The only contemporaneous Late Archaic material comes from 3–4 isolated test pits 100–150 m away from the ring.

GIS map of the McQueen Shell Ring (shell density in blue at center) surrounded by proposed 10- and 20-m interval shovel test pits. The green circle marks the 150-m radius; the blue circle marks the 250-m radius.

This survey has given us a fantastic opportunity to juxtapose two intriguing archaeological sites and their archaeological surroundings. Currently we have plans to complete the artifact analysis and integrate those data with our current GIS platform in the effort to better understand the distribution of material culture and the landscape setting upon which these shell rings exist.

With over 7000 visitors from across and outside the state, CoastFest 2009 broke all records for attendance this year. Held on the first Saturday of October on the grounds of the Coastal Resources Division of the Department of Natural Resources, at the northern foot of the stunning Sidney Lanier Bridge in Brunswick, CoastFest is an annual extravaganza of interactive exhibitions and sideshows relating to Georgia’s coastal heritage.

For over ten years the Society for Georgia Archaeology has set up its tents and tables to introduce Georgians to the fascinating history that lies underfoot. This year, thanks to the daring and endurance of Tom Gresham, who agreed to drive it from Athens to Brunswick, the ArchaeoBus made its maiden voyage to the coast to participate in the events. The DNR let us park the bus and provided power right next to the SGA Big Top. Rita Elliott volunteered for the entire day to shepherd the hoards passing through the ArchaeoBus and into the cul-de-sac of our SGA archaeology tables. She was also our photographer.

Although unable to attend this year, Tammy Herron, the doyenne of displays, brought her extraordinary collection of artifacts, mounted posters, and interactive games to Savannah, so they could be brought down for the CoastFestivities in Brunswick. Ellen Provenzano, archaeology coordinator for the Glynn County Schools, added her collection of artifacts and games from Fort Frederica, and as always worked throughout the day. There was a steady stream of students, showing off what they had learned in Glynn County’s award-winning archaeology program.

In addition to CoastFest breaking its attendance record, the SGA shattered its old tally of volunteers. Along with those already mentioned, Betsy and Michael Shirk took the long drive to Brunswick to add their years of experience at CoastFest. The many local volunteers, including Jerry and Connie Fonseca, Aidine Kiernan, Sonja Olsen Kinard, Larry Lynch, Susan Pope, and Roseann Williams, not only learned how to sort and guess the identity of artifacts, but also to make decorated coil pots out of sand-tempered Play-Doh as if they were professional archaeologists.

The theme of the day was “Save Georgia’s Dirt!”, commemorated in a snazzy sticker we distributed to everyone who came to our activities. The motto was also used on the DNR’s “passport” for children to have stamped by us, after they had learned the answer to the question, “Why do we need to ‘Save Georgia’s Dirt’?”

Abby, the ArchaeoBus, has had a busy summer and fall. Summer found Abby enjoying the Athens library scene, where she shared more than archaeology books with library patrons. Tom Gresham delivered informal programs as he brought Abby to the Athens Regional Library and the Oglethorpe County Library. ArchaeoBus Outreach Specialist Kathy Mulchrone ably assisted Tom in the latter program. Kathy, ArchaeoBus Outreach Specialist Teresa Groover, and Rita Elliott prototyped the formal program at the Athens Regional Library. This allowed them to consider changes and improvements to the program content and delivery methods. Thanks to Kathy and Teresa, and to Tom for his ongoing efforts on this project. We also appreciate the Athens Regional Library’s continued support of the ArchaeoBus and the interest of the Oglethorpe County Library and many others throughout Georgia.

Figure 1. Throngs visit the ArchaeoBus.

By October Abby was ready for a visit to Georgia’s coast. She made her debut in Brunswick at the 11th Annual CoastFest, sponsored by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Abby played to standing room only crowds as she sat adjacent to The Society for Georgia Archaeology booth (Figure 1). Both the bus interior and SGA’s outside interactives under the tent fostered a large and heartwarming display of intergenerational learning between children, parents, and grandparents, and between scouts and their leaders (Figure 2). Abby was available for 7,500 visitors at CoastFest.

Figure 2. Abby appealing across generations.

Abby is back in school now under the firm hand of Ellen Provenzano in Glynn County, Georgia. Since mid-October Ellen has taken Abby to two schools. This includes Sterling Elementary School, where 115 4th graders and 8 teachers participated in informal programming, and Altama Elementary School, where 86 4th graders, 7 teachers, and 2 administrators interacted with Abby. Ellen has also brought Abby to Fort Frederica National Monument for several hours of programs reaching 34 visitors of all ages, and to the Golden Isles Archaeology Club with an attendance of 15 adults. Ellen is making Abby do extracurricular work, and has her scheduled to visit an additional three to four schools in Glynn County before the end of the year. At that time, Ellen and Rita will do a final prototyping of the formal program for middle school students using the new materials and content created from the first prototyping session in Athens. A big thank you to Ellen, who has already reached 267 students with Abby and will likely engage another 300 in the next few weeks!

Abby’s increasing success would be impossible without the help of several dedicated individuals. A huge thanks to volunteers Tom Gresham and Ellen Provenzano. The phrase “working tirelessly” does not even begin to sum up their endeavors. Appreciation also goes to Kathy Mulchrone and Teresa Groover for their work. The ArchaeoBus Committee continues to stand on alert to help as needed. A handful of “guardian angels” have graced us with their help at the most opportune moments this past year. This included Steve Hoyt who rescued a despondent Abby (and driver Tom) on the side of the road in Macon when her alternator broke. Thank you Steve for your speedy mechanical abilities and your much appreciated generosity! And speaking of saving…Tony Shore has saved untold numbers of potentially twisted ankles by building sturdy steps for visitors to use to exit the bus. We appreciate Clay Helms’ electrical work involving the much needed hefty power cord for the bus. Our programs are benefitting from the donations of Native American replica pottery and tools made by Brian Floyd and Scott Jones. Starr Wright appeared exactly when needed to help solve a significant technology issue in the nick of time. Thanks to all of Abby’s guardian angels! Another set of individuals who form the loose coalition known secretly as the ArchaeoBus Spouses Support Group (Dale Provenzano, Gisela Weis, and Dan Elliott) are thanked for their long-suffering through bus rides and car/bus drop off schedules, late night and weekend work assignments, dead batteries, absentee spouses, jammed locks, and blown bulbs!

Abby’s year in review includes: the construction of her interior infrastructure, exhibit creation and installation, mechanical repairs and upgrades, development of the formal program (including hands-on activities) for middle schoolers, development of Teacher Guidelines and associated resource materials for the SGA web site, and writing the initial draft of the administrative manual and guidelines. Abby was not finished until May of 2009. In spite of this, she still managed to reach 8,492 people, primarily through informal programs.

Figure 3. ArchaeoBus funding sources.

Figure 3 is a chart showing the breakdown of all funding sources to date (2007–2009). Currently, all but approximately $5,000 of this has been spent in a successful effort to take the vehicle from a bookmobile to a 21st century ArchaeoBus. We give a resounding cheer of thanks to all of our sponsors and funders for their much appreciated financial support. This includes The Georgia Transmission Corporation, BestBuy, The Council on American Indian Concerns, The Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists, Southern Research, and Mr. and Mrs. Carleton Crabill, Jr.. Some funds were earmarked, such as the BestBuy grant for technology and certain funds for programming. The Georgia Transmission Corporation made two contributions, the first for the vehicle “wrap.” SGA also provided a second infusion of funds this past May.

Figure 4. ArchaeoBus expenses.

How were these funds, totaling just over $20,000, allocated? As Figure 4 depicts, almost $6,000 has gone into the purchase of the vehicle, inspections, repairs, maintenance, and a large chunk to insurance. Just under $5,500 was spent on the prep and wrapping of the bus exterior. Just over $4,000 went to the construction of the bus interior and the fabrication and installation of the exhibit. A total of $4,000 has been spent on technology. The smallest portion of expenditures to date has been spent on programming, totaling just over $1,000.

Insurance and maintenance will continue to be a large piece of the pie. The wrap, interior and technology are complete, so we expect no huge expenses in this arena in the near future. Our smallest area of expenses, programming, is the very reason the bus exists. And now that we have the vehicle remade and repaired, we look forward to throwing our time, energy, funding, and resources into programming and expect that a year from now, programming will be most of the pie!

During the past six months with few attempts to solicit venues, we have exposed 8,500 people to the Archaeobus and archaeology. We expect to reach much larger numbers when we begin a concerted effort to deliver both formal and informal programming next year.

You may wonder about Abby’s New Years’ Resolutions. She resolves to be even busier in 2010 as she rolls into extensive programming. Abby will wrap up her coastal visit in January and return to Athens where she will be available for formal programming to 8th graders in the public private, and parochial schools of Athens-Clarke County. Throughout the year she will also visit non-school venues for informal programs. Abby may even venture to the capitol steps in Atlanta, so Georgia’s state lawmakers can meet her and discover Georgia archaeology. Track Abby on this website and see if she keeps her resolutions in 2010!

Portrayal of Native American life on Jekyll Island (original painting by Melissa Crawford, Art Major at the University of West Georgia).

People have called the small barrier island now known as Jekyll home for many centuries, but only the most obvious and recent reminders of that history are usually recognized today. Each year thousands of visitors are introduced to the splendid “cottages” and manicured landscapes of the Jekyll Island Club and their connection with the rich and famous industry giants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many also see the ruins of tabby structures that stand as silent memorials to English colonization of the Georgia coast during the 18th century and to the later plantation endeavors of the French owners of the island, the DuBignon family.

As important as these historic resources are, they represent only part of the total cultural heritage of Jekyll Island. What now stands above the ground is a fraction of the fragile evidence that marks this island’s remarkable past. Much more survives below the ground as archaeological evidence—the buried structural elements, landscape features, artifacts and food remains from the day to day lives of people over the millennia. At least 95 percent of the total patrimony of the island preceded British interests here. This place was the home of Native Americans for more than 4000 years before the first European arrived. Their history is Jekyll Island’s hidden cultural heritage, a past marked by traces of oyster shell on the ground surface and the buried archaeological remains left behind by countless generations.

Archaeological research has been undertaken from time to time on Jekyll Island for over 50 years, providing a basic sketch of the island’s cultural history. Dozens of archaeological sites have been recorded through survey efforts and limited excavations on the island and its nearby hammocks. The best-known historic sites—Horton House and Millionaire’s Village—were also the locations of major prehistoric sites, indicating that these high-ground areas that are easily accessible by water have remained prime real estate for many centuries. Other, mostly smaller, prehistoric settlements are located elsewhere on the island where good access was offered to important food resources.

The earliest known Native American occupation of Jekyll Island was by an early foraging culture associated with the St. Simons phase. Dating to as early as 2400 B.C., these people may have lived in permanent settlements used as central bases for collecting estuarine, riverine, and oak-forest food resources during a time of rising sea levels and evolving ecosystems. Overall population density was low all along the coast, with groups living on the barrier islands in settlements atop and around shell rings (large ring-shaped mounds of oyster shells and other food refuse) and along freshwater rivers on top of large shell mounds (which also were deposits shell and other refuse). Occupation was concentrated on the northern end of Jekyll Island at this time, perhaps the result of short-term visits by foraging groups from large nearby sites on St. Simons Island. However, the possibility exists that a shell ring may have been located along the northern edge of Jekyll Island in an area that now has been submerged by rising sea level and eroded by tidal actions and currents.

When sea level dropped to a temporary low-stand around 1,000 B.C., there were dramatic changes in the coastal ecosystem and St. Simons phase settlements were disrupted and their populations dispersed. An archaeological culture known as the Refuge phase then developed along the coast, perhaps representing descendents of the St. Simons phase groups, but no sites of this period have been recorded on Jekyll Island.

Occupation resumed on Jekyll Island sometime between roughly 500 B.C. and A.D. 700. Probably the first to resettle the island were small bands of semi-nomadic hunters-fishers-gatherers who were seasonal visitors to the island during the Deptford phase. These people overlapped with others of a different cultural tradition known as Swift Creek, marked by groups who immigrated to the coast from inland areas of Georgia. The largest identified Swift Creek settlement was located in the interior of the island and contained an earthen burial mound.

Sporadic occupation on the island occurred during the following Wilmington phase, beginning about A.D. 700 and continuing for some 300 years. Very little is known about the genesis of this culture and its adaptive patterns anywhere along the Georgia coast. It is suspected that small residential groups visited the island intermittently during this time for hunting, fishing, and gathering purposes.

Intensive Native American settlement occurred on Jekyll Island during the Savannah phase, beginning about A.D. 1000 and perhaps continuing until Spanish contact. This was associated with large populations who lived in permanent villages and had a mixed economy based upon horticulture (growing maize, beans, and squash) along with substantial reliance on estuarine and oak forest resources. A central adaptive characteristic of this socially and politically complex culture was the periodic movement of family groups from their villages during the year to harvest seasonally available resources in other areas. The prehistoric archaeological sites at the Horton House and Millionaires Village date primarily to the Savannah phase and, although severely disturbed in places by historical construction activities, they are two of the largest and most complex Native American settlements on Jekyll Island.

Little information is available about Native American occupation on Jekyll Island during the early historic period. The island was known to the Spaniards as the Isla de Ballenas (Island of Whales) and while 17th-century Franciscan missions among the Mocama natives evidently were located to the north on St. Simons Island and to the south on Cumberland Island, none were reported on Jekyll Island. However, archaeological evidence indicates there was a native presence on the island during the 16th and 17th centuries. Irene phase and Mission period native pottery types, more common at sites associated with the Guale in areas north of Jekyll Island, are rare but present at some of Jekyll’s archaeological sites. Pottery vessels associated with the Mocama in more southern areas of the Georgia coast appear to be very similar to earlier Savannah phase wares, suggesting the possibility that some sites on Jekyll Island now assigned to the late prehistoric period may contain materials that actually reflect Native American occupations during the Spanish Mission period.

Only the barest of details about Jekyll Island’s Native American past are known and much remains to be learned about this heritage. Archaeologists now have many more questions than they do answers. Buried beneath the feet of visitors to Jekyll Island is a complex and multidimensional puzzle of archaeological evidence, each piece an irreplaceable clue about the lives of people in the distant past who once called this island their home. As archaeological methods and scientific techniques advance, more and more will be learned about this hidden past and our lives in the present will be enriched by a better understanding of that heritage. However, the pieces of our puzzle are fragile and once destroyed are forever lost. In recognition of their importance to current and future generations, archaeological sites of Jekyll Island are protected under Georgia laws and Federal statutes, with civil and criminal penalties for their destruction or disturbance.

An artifact of Jekyll Island’s history of tourism.

Jekyll Island, owned by the people of Georgia and managed on their behalf by the Jekyll Island Authority, is a natural and cultural treasure to be both enjoyed and protected. Visitors to our remarkable island should be aware of the past hidden beneath their feet, marvel at its mysteries and untold stories, always act to sustain rather than disturb it, and walk away as advocates for archaeological preservation. The past is present on Jekyll Island and its legacies precious.

Transportation networks, and the potential for social connectivity across landmasses and via waterways and along coastlines is worth pondering as part of reconstructing an understanding of our human past that emphasizes continuity—social, political, technological, etc.—rather than a series of major events. Barry Cunliffe’s Europe between the Oceans: 9000 BC to AD 1000 (Yale University Press, 2008) is not inexpensive—due in part to its wonderful visuals—but it is worth tracking down as an example of this approach. Cunliffe makes the point repeatedly as he traces Europe’s past that this was not a large area, nor was it trackless. He views Europe’s landmass as a peninsula, which could be crossed, despite a few mountainous zones, by following river systems, or by circumnavigating the landmass. Cunliffe writes:

In Europe, distances are not great and knowledge could spread rapidly. The networks of communication pulsated with the flow of information—stories of exotic lands and people, technological know-how, systems of values and beliefs. At the notes where the exchanges took place…, the excitement of the new would have been palpable. Even the most remote communities would not have been totally immune from the flow of information. So it was that the disparate peoples of Europe, from the most innovative to the most conservative, became enmeshed in networks of contact that inexorably drove change. (page 29)

As reviewer Benjamin Schwarz noted in The Atlantic:

Geography forms the essential basis of Cunliffe’s history. The waters encircling Europe, the transpeninsular rivers that penetrated it, and its topography, currents, tides, and seasonal wind patterns all determined millennia-old sailing routes, and thus the goods and beliefs transported along them. From Cunliffe’s perspective, even the Roman Empire was just an interlude, and perhaps its main achievement was to institutionalize through its ports, roads, and market centers Europe-wide networks of exchange that had been operating since the Middle Stone Age.

By stressing historical continuity and adroitly employing a wide-ranging archaeological record to highlight mobility and interconnectedness, Cunliffe draws a startling picture. Europe, he demonstrates, was geographically and culturally merely “the western excrescence of the continent of Asia.” His archaeological and topographic analysis shows how for thousands of years the steppe lands linked central Asia to the Great Hungarian Plain, thus providing “easy access” from China to the Atlantic Ocean. Here was a corridor for trade and migration, starting with nomadic groups deep in prehistory and continuing through the preclassical, classical, medieval, and early modern eras with great hordes of Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns, Magyars, Bulgars, Moguls, and Tatars. Knowledge of, for example, the chariot seems to have moved from the Russian forest steppe (the earliest known examples date to 2800 B.C.) to the Carpathian basin in Hungary and, by the 16th century B.C., to Mycenaean Greece and Sweden. Sarmatian horsemen, originally from central Asia, served in northern England as mercenaries in the Roman army.

The core of the European peninsula, without northern Scandinavia.

The Caribbean area, including southern North America and Central America.

These two satellite views are screen-grabs from Google Earth (downloadable for free), and are at the same scale; north is “up” on both. Note how the maritime edges of Europe provide a different transportation scenario compared to continental North America. Clearly, the Arctic, the Great Lakes region, and the circum-Caribbean area are the only parts of North America with the topographic potential for similar maritime transportation networks.

Yet, summaries of the prehistory of the Southeast rarely mention much about circum-Caribbean transportation and exchange networks. Is this because data for them are scanty? Is it due to the fractured modern political boundaries of the region? Is it because such exchange networks just didn’t exist? Or…?

Click here to read The Atlantic review by Benjamin Schwarz, published in December 2008.

Click here to read about Sir Barry Cunliffe on Wikipedia.

An important event in the history of the telephone happened on Jekyll Island. If you wander around the historic area south of the Jekyll Island Clubhouse, now the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, you will find a plexiglass box encompassing an old telephone. A plaque erected by the Dixie Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America below the phone dated January 1965 reads:

The first transcontinental telephone call was transmitted by a telephone instrument of this type on January 23, 1915. Mr. Theodore N. Vail, President of American Telephone and Telegraph Company, talked from Jekyll Island to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone in New Your; Thomas A. Watson, Assistant to Dr. Bell, in San Francisco; and to President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C.

Thus, four men at four locations participated in that first transcontinental call. The AT&T website notes that:

At one point during the call, someone asked Professor Bell if he would repeat the first words he ever said over the telephone. He obliged, picking up the phone and repeating “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” To which Watson, in San Francisco, replied, “It would take me a week now.”

The modern company AT&T used to be American Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1908, Theodore N. Vail, President of the company, prioritized completion of a transcontinental telephone line. Their goal was to have the transcontinental line open in time for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, scheduled for 1915 in San Francisco.

The final pole for the transcontinental phone line was erected and the line strung in June 1914, but officials waited for the Exposition before they made the first call, to heighten the fanfare.

Why was Mr. Vail on Jekyll Island for this historic event? How does this compare to our modern satellite and cell phone services? Why are new phone systems in the Third World most commonly cell networks?

Panama-Pacific International Exposition on the web.

Downloadable digital copy of Exposition Fact-Book: Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco, 1915.

Jekyll Island Club Hotel website.

Each year the SGA sponsors an archaeology event at CoastFest in Brunswick. This year, in addition to interactive events under the SGA tent, the ArchaeoBus will have its resources available to the thousands of visitors who attend each year.

CoastFest is Georgia’s largest organized celebration of the state’s rich and vast coastal natural resources. Held annually on the first Saturday of October, this day-long educational festival is a free, highly interactive event for the entire family. Hosted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – Coastal Resources Division, CoastFest takes place at the division’s headquarters along the Marshes of Glynn in Brunswick, Georgia.

CoastFest is held rain or shine. No pets, please.

Admission: Free
Parking fee: None
Event Phone: 912-264-7218

Location:
Coastal Resources Division of Georgia DNR
One Conservation Way, Suite 300
Brunswick, GA 31520

Presented by:
Coastal Resources Division of Georgia DNR
One Conservation Way, Suite 300
Brunswick, GA 31520

National Geographic Traveler has highlighted fifty “Drives of a Lifetime.” A route along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts is one of the trips discussed. Several small detours would take you to historic places like the Tybee Island lighthouse.

The NatGeo overview reads:

Tybee Island Lighthouse in 2004.

A pungent, slightly salty smell permeates the air of the Low Country. Its source is the area’s pluff mud: the dark marsh soil left behind after the tide recedes. That smell—and term—is one of the Low Country’s many distinctive qualities. Other features that tend to leave lasting impressions on visitors include the wide, flat expanses of marsh grass, the shrill songs of tree frogs and katydids, the silhouettes of live oak trees, their long, arching limbs shrouded in silvery clumps of Spanish moss. Then there’s the seemingly omnipresent water—tidal marshes, rivers, estuaries, and the Atlantic Ocean—often with at least one shrimp boat trawling. On a road trip through the Low Country, Charleston and Savannah make convenient bookends. Some backtracking is required in between—out to the islands, and then back to the main road—but that just gives you more time to absorb the scenery. After all, this trip should not be rushed, but made slowly, Southern style.

Take this drive and you will see many historic buildings, including at the beginning city of Charleston, and at the end of the route in Savannah. Underground will be the remains of many archaeological sites. A few can be visited at museums and public parks.

After completing the driving tour, you could take short drive seaward from Savannah, and visit Tybee Island, where a series of lighthouses have helped sailors safely enter the Savannah River and go up to Savannah.

The Tybee Lighthouse website notes:

Ordered by General James Oglethorpe, Governor of the 13th colony, in 1732, the Tybee Island Light Station has been guiding mariners safe entrance into the Savannah River for over 270 years. The Tybee Island Light Station is one of America’s most intact having all of its historic support buildings on its five-acre site. Rebuilt several times the current lightstation displays its 1916 day mark with 178 stairs and a First Order Fresnel lens (nine feet tall).

Little known fact reported in the NatGeo story: the jungle scenes in the movie Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, were shot on Hunting Island, South Carolina!

Download an archaeological report and list of artifacts recovered during recent research to locate, identify, and determine the level of preservation of as many locales as possible in the City of Savannah that are related to the October 9, 1779 Battle of Savannah. In short, for this research, archaeologists and SGA members Rita and Dan Elliott assembled all map information about the battle, then combined it with a recent digital map of the city to discover where prospecting for intact remains might be productive. They focused ground-truthing in modern green spaces, which again reminds us of another value of green spaces beyond their “greenness.” They examined specific locations in Madison Square, Lafayette Square, Emmet Park, Colonial Park Cemetery, Cuyler Park, Dixon Park, and Myers Park.

The report, authored by the Elliotts, is titled “Savannah under Fire, 1779: Identifying Savannah’s Revolutionary War Battlefield” and is dated June 2009. In part, the report abstract notes:

The project was extremely successful. Archeologists located a defensive ditch (almost two meters deep) dug by the British in 1779, defended during the battle, and in-filled by the Americans in 1782. The ditch lies in what is now Madison Square. Brick fragments/rubble in the ditch was part of the brick from the barracks razed by the British less than two weeks before the battle. The brick was used in the defenses around the Central redoubts and was pushed into the British trenches following the British evacuation of the city in 1782. In nearby Lafayette Square, archeologists discovered artifacts that were likely discarded by British soldiers occupying the defensive lines near and in the Central Redoubts, and by civilians associated with the soldiers. Emmet Park revealed a deep (3.5 ft.) feature that may have been constructed as part of the river battery associated with nearby Fort Prevost. Not only did archeologists discover evidence of numerous unmarked graves in Colonial Park Cemetery, but also an anomaly that appears to be one of the ditches running toward a redoubt. Archeologists found no evidence of Revolutionary War activity in Cuyler, Dixon, and Myers parks.

Perhaps surprisingly, the archaeological resources identified by this research were found to be in excellent condition.

This research was conducted by archaeologists with the Coastal Heritage Society, and primarily funded through the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, with some matching funds from The LAMAR Institute. The Coastal Heritage Society, founded in 1975 and based in Savannah, has three historic archaeological sites: Old Fort Jackson National Historic Landmark, the Savannah History Museum, and the Roundhouse Railroad Museum.

Go to this page to download the report “Savannah under Fire, 1779″ and the project’s artifact catalogue. The report is a large PDF file, over 88 MB.

Jennifer Salinas and Elizabeth Drolet screening soil during the Back Creek Village shovel test pit survey.

This past October, the American Museum of Natural History returned to St. Catherines Island for three weeks of fieldwork, tackling a range of interrelated projects. We monitored on-going construction projects occurring on the island, launched a largescale shovel test pit survey at Back Creek Village (a late prehistoric site, occupied A.D. 1300–1580), and another at the St. Catherines Shell Ring (a Late Archaic site constructed 2200–1800 B.C.). We also excavated several shell-heavy units at McQueen Shell Ring (also occupied during the Late Archaic).

Back Creek Village consists of at least seven discrete shell middens perched around a very large depression, which seems to have been dug out during precontact times to enhance the flow of an artesian spring. We undertook the recent shovel-testing program to delineate the northern, southern and western site margins. Excavating 231 shovel test pits, spaced at 20-m intervals, we recovered mostly prehistoric and historic ceramics, a couple of lithics, and some faunal remains. Overall, we discovered 28 subsurface shell deposits. The artifacts are currently being processed and we can’t wait to interpret the information.

The St. Catherines Island Shell Ring is a perfect circle, a dense deposit of marine shell roughly 70 m in diameter, defining an interior plaza, which is virtually shell-free. In the fall survey, we were looking for Late Archaic components located outside of the shell ring. We dug 458 shovel tests pits along a 20-m grid. Surprisingly, most of the artifacts recovered were ceramics dating to the Late Prehistoric (Irene) period. Only on the last day did we recover any fiber- tempered ceramics, suggesting that the shell ring might not have significant outliers. But we won’t really understand the Late Archaic landscape until we work through these new data in more detail.

Matt Sanger excavating shell-heavy unit at McQueen Shell Ring.

Toward the end of the dig, we excavated six units in the shell-heavy portion of the McQueen Shell Ring. We were primarily interested in shell deposition and comparisons with different sections of the ring. We found that the shell deposits are not as deep as expected (only 30–50 cm). Although all shell deposits consist primarily of oyster, clam, mussel, and periwinkles, each unit seems to have a different combination of these taxa. Do these variable results indicate that the ring was being utilized in different ways or during different seasons? Decorated and undecorated fiber-tempered ceramics were recovered, as well as pieces of bone pins, possible whelk tools, and large quantities of fauna.

This fall trip ends the 2008 field season. There is plenty of lab work to keep us busy until the spring field season.

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.

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has been lucky enough to work on St. Catherines Island, Georgia for the last 30+ years. Since 2006, the museum has focused its attention on the Late Archaic Period (3000-1000 B.C.) on the island—specifically, we have been working on the St. Catherines Island Shell Ring. Shell rings are large, some say monumental, sites that occur only in the Late Archaic Period. Because of both their size, and the apparent planned nature of the sites, the function of shell rings has been a very contested issue. Likewise, to many archaeologists, the complexity found in shell rings brings up questions of sedentism, power, control over labor, and hierarchy to a period of time that just twenty years ago was considered populated by roving bands of egalitarian hunter-gatherers.

AMNH has carried out a variety of field methods on the shell ring including detailed topographical mapping, remote sensing surveys (including magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, and resistivity), and small-scale excavations. During May 2007, the museum decided to conduct a large block excavation within the interior of the ring. Historically, the interiors of shell rings have often been ignored, or only lightly tested, as most archaeologists focused on the areas of high shell deposit, which make up the ring itself. Based on earlier remote sensing results, along with the findings from a trench excavation, the museum decided that the interior of the ring held information that was key to understanding the function and usage of the ring. To uncover this information, the museum decided to open up a relatively large block excavation (roughly 24 square meters). The plan paid off and the field crew was excited to uncover over 20 large features in the center of the ring.

Figure 1. Topographical map of St. Catherines Island Shell Ring.

These features are all very similar in shape, color, and contents. All of them are circular, have straight walls, and flat bottoms. Their dark color appears to be caused less by burning (very little charcoal was recovered) and more by organic deposits. Not only was very little charcoal found in the features, but little cultural material of any type was found. However, several of the features did have a small amount of bone and fiber-tempered pottery, but over-all most were nearly devoid of artifacts. A single feature had a significant amount of shell in it while all the rest were empty of shell save for a single piece on occasion. The main attribute that distinguished the features was how deep they went. Some of the features were shallow—only 20-30 cm—while others went very deep; several went over a meter deep. The museum has 15 C14 dates from the features and is currently analyzing the artifacts found within them. Numerous flotation samples were gathered from each feature and they will also be analyzed as soon as possible.

The Museum looks forward to returning to the island this fall and continuing our work on the Late Archaic Period. This much-studied, but poorly understood time period holds the answers about why the Native Americans of the southeast decided to construct a series of monumental shell rings throughout the coastal regions and what those rings mean to larger questions of complexity, power, and sedentism in the region. The museum is grateful for the continued patronage of the St. Catherines Island and Edward John Noble Foundations as well as the support from the staff on the island, especially Royce Hayes. None of this work would be possible without their backing.

Much of the routine archaeological activity at Fernbank concerns management of the St. Catherines Island archaeological collection. Great strides have been made to bring housing of the collection up to contemporary standards, and planning is underway for a new exhibit that will feature the many stories represented by this remarkable set of artifacts. Information about the collection is available on-line here.

Since June considerable activity has also surrounded Fernbank’s new research project and educational program aimed at discovering evidence of the seventeenth-century Spanish mission known as Santa Isabel de Utinahica. The projected mission site is in the area of “The Forks,” the territory near the junction of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers, and in June—with support from the Department of Natural Resources—two candidate sites were tested. Both have produced small quantities of Spanish colonial artifacts along with significant amounts of contact-era Lamar ceramics. A promising artifact concentration will undergo further exploration in November. Fernbank invites registration for the June 2007 public archaeology program in this area.

Also on the subject of archaeology, Fernbank is featuring an exhibit about Imperial Rome through January 3, 2007. Over 400 artifacts from across the Roman Empire are on display and special activities are available for children in the exhibit area.

Transfer of the St. Catherines Island Foundation and Edward John Noble Foundation Collection of archaeological material to Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta was begun early in 2004. This very large, high quality archaeological collection was amassed during 30 years of island investigation led by Dr. David Hurst Thomas of the American Museum of Natural History. Dennis Blanton joined Fernbank in July 2005 as Curator of Native American Archaeology to manage the collection and develop new programs.

At Fernbank, the St. Catherines collection will anchor a regional archaeology program, serve as the basis for ambitious new exhibits, and provide content for new educational programming. In addition, it will ultimately be managed as a working collection that will support the research of visiting scholars.

Present work with the collection focuses on organizing and housing the massive quantity of material according to curatorial standards. An overview of the island research and recent progress with the collection is presented on a new Fernbank web page.

Also, a fabulous team of volunteers, including many from the Greater Atlanta Archaeological Society membership, have been helping inventory several other large artifact collections that have been donated to Fernbank over the years. The results have been rewarding already as a surprising number of Paleoindian tools from around the state have been identified.

For information about the collection and archaeology at Fernbank please contact Dennis B. Blanton, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, 767 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30307, 404-929-6304.