Is there an out-of-print University of Georgia Press history book that you’re interested in reading?

You can do it now! The University of Georgia Press has partnered with the Digital Library of Georgia project to supply free online versions of many interesting and important works.

Consider James C. Bonner’s 1964 History of Georgia Agriculture, 1732-1860. Bonner describes the early land and labor systems of the state. This may sound pretty dry. But Bonner includes some interesting observations, like this regarding Colonial horticultural experimentation on page 13:

It was believed that the Georgia climate would produce exotic plants not grown elsewhere in the British possessions. To test this theory a “Trustee’s Garden” was laid out at Savannah, comprising a ten-acre experimental plat having a wide variety of soils. In this garden were grown oranges, olives, apples, pears, figs, vines, pomegranates, cotton, coffee, tea, bamboo, and also palma christi and other medicinal plants. After eight years of growth, the olive trees bore fruit which failed to mature, and cultivation of these trees was abandoned. Orange trees were more successful, and in 1770 more than 3,000 gallons of the juice alone were exported from the colony. This fruit was grown on the Georgia coast for more than a century afterwards, although subject to the hazards of winter freezes. The crop finally succumbed to the low winter temperature.

And it gets more interesting! The Trustees’ Garden still exists! The remaining parcel is in Savannah’s historic district, and includes the Charles H. Morris Center, shown in the photo below from the Garden website.

The agricultural experiments Bonner describes, however, were very important to the economic development of this poorly understood continent.

So, here’s a question. Did you notice that one of the medicinal plants Bonner mentions is “palma christi”? Do you know what that is?

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.

The 2010 SEAC Public Outreach Grant has been awarded to Fort Frederica National Monument, St. Simons Island, Georgia, for their project “Digging History” at Fort Frederica: Community Archaeology Festival. The festival features SGA’s ArchaeoBus.

SEAC is the Southeastern Archaeological Conference. It was founded in the 1930s to create a forum for archaeologists working across the Southeast to get together and discuss what they were finding during federally-funded projects.

SEAC has recently announced:

The 2010 SEAC Public Outreach Grant was awarded to Fort Frederica National Monument, St. Simons Island, Georgia, for their project “Digging History” at Fort Frederica: Community Archaeology Festival.

Fort Frederica National Monument has already been serving over 1,000 4th-grade students in an award-winning archeology education program in partnership with the Glynn County School System and Board of Education. The SEAC Public Outreach Grant will help fund an expansion of this program into a community archaeology festival to be held in May to coincide with Georgia Archaeology Awareness Month. In addition to the one-day festival, the Fort will reach out to under-served audiences by welcoming local after-school programs on the afternoon preceding the festival. The Fort hopes to make this pilot project into an annual event.

The festival will enable park visitors to interact with the past by engaging in hands-on archaeology discovery stations to learn about colonial life. The festival will feature interactive archaeology games and activities, displays, an artifact identification booth, and presentations. The festival will also feature the Society for Georgia Archaeology’s new ArchaeoBus. The ArchaeoBus is a restored bookmobile that travels around the state of Georgia to educate students and community groups about the science of archaeology.

The SEAC grant will help pay for supplies and materials to construct the interactive archaeology games and activities, as well as to provide stipends for archaeologists and educators assisting with the event. After the event, the games and activities will be further used for other park programs and outreach projects.

What great news!

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!

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.

Georgia’s official copy of the Declaration of Independence was made with iron gall ink on parchment. It was made in response to a Congressional order made on January 18th, 1777.

So what does this mean: “iron gall ink on parchment?”

Parchment is a pretty common term. Of course, there is parchment paper, which you may have seen and used, but real parchment is made from animal skin (hide). Unlike leather, the skin is not tanned, but instead is treated with lime. Fine quality parchment is called vellum. The Wikipedia has a detailed entry on parchment.

How about iron gall ink? It’s not common these days! Of course, ink is becoming less common the more we use keyboards and make PDFs that remain forever digital!

Iron gall ink is also called iron gall nut ink or oak gall ink. The name for this ink comes from the two main components, iron and galls.

Inks, of course, are fluids containing pigments and/or dyes.

Iron is easy—it’s a metal, common to nails and other everyday items.

So, what are galls? Galls are round swellings on plants that are abnormal growths that the plant makes in response to damage, often made by insects. Oak marble galls are caused by gall wasps, which in this case lay their eggs in tender buds of particular species of oaks. The oak reacts by growing a lot of tissue to encapsulate this invasion. These galls are usually very round, hence the term “marble.”

Iron gall ink was the standard writing and drawing liquid used for hundreds of years across Europe, and beyond. Iron gall ink was used by Leonardo Da Vinci, and for the Dead Sea Scrolls; Van Gogh used it, and so did Bach. Indeed, it was the standard for public documents in the Colonies at the time of the Revolution.

Iron gall ink was preferred because of its longevity. The ink would bond with the parchment, rather than merely sit on the surface, like some other pigmented liquids. Also, the ink reacts to oxygen and becomes darker over the next few days after it is used.

To make iron gall ink, you start with two different liquids. The chemistry of iron gall ink is rather complicated, and best left to experts (for example, here). Briefly, one liquid is an iron solution, which can even be made by putting carpentry nails in vinegar. The other is an oak extraction, commonly made from oak marble galls, which have the high levels of tannin that are critical to the chemistry of the ink. When mixed, iron ions reacted with the tannic acid to make the ink (mostly). Other chemicals are added to make the liquid less acidic and more stable. Gum arabic has been commonly added to iron gall ink preparations to make the pigments stay in solution. It comes from the sap of acacia trees, native to northern Africa.

Are you surprised that it took two different trees to make the ink used for the documents of Colonial America? What else do you find interesting about “iron gall ink on parchment?”

Online materials

Downloadable PDF of the Federal archives copy of the Declaration of Independence….

Information on the Georgia copy of the Declaration of Independence in the State Archives….

To make iron gall ink….

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.

Image of Springfield Baptist Church, the heart of Springfield community, in downtown Augusta. Image from Google Maps streetview (which is why there’s a funny partly opaque parallelogram on the right half of the image).

Next time you’re in Augusta, take the time to go downtown and visit the Springfield community. Springfield community is just west of the original downtown Augusta.

According to the fine website dedicated to the history of this community, Springfield was

a free African American community established around the time of the Revolutionary War. The Springfield Community was not an officially recognized subdivision of Augusta, Georgia. Despite this, the neighborhood, roughly bounded by the Savannah River and Jones Street on the north and south and Ninth and Fifteenth streets to the east and west, became one of the few homes to free African Americans who escaped the bonds of slavery prior to the Civil War. Springfield began to evolve after the American Revolution when many escaped slaves sought refuge, eventually growing into a thriving neighborhood in northeastern Augusta. In the South, free African Americans congregated in urban communities because they offered the best opportunities for employment. Although it is difficult to draw a boundary around this community, especially for its early years, Springfield came to represent a center of African American life in Augusta, especially in the late nineteenth century as official attitudes and policies became more segregationist. Over time, the symbol of this community, and its anchor, was the Springfield Baptist Church, still located at Twelfth and Reynolds Streets in Augusta.

Also,

The

Springfield Baptist is the nation’s oldest continually operating African American church. The congregation was established shortly after the American Revolution, probably between 1787 and 1793….

Springfield Baptist Church’s own website notes that:

Springfield Baptist Church is of national significance because it is the oldest African-American church in the United States; because it is an example of the determination of African-Americans to be independent during the slavery era; because the Georgia Republican Party originated there; because Morehouse College, which has produced so many nationally prominent black leaders, was founded there; and finally because the Springfield Church stands today as proof that African-American’s too can look to history with pride in their achievements.

For more information on the web:

Springfield community website, developed by New South Associates of Stone Mountain and funded by by the City of Augusta and the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration.

New Georgia Encyclopedia on Augusta

Wikipedia entry on Augusta

Website of the Springfield Baptist Church

New Georgia Encyclopedia on Springfield Baptist Church

For a lesson plan on Springfield community, click here.

Thanks to Jim Pomfret, Archaeologist with the Georgia Department of Transportation, for suggesting that this topic might be of interest to readers of the SGA’s website.

In Fall 2007, SGA met at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center, 2020 Clean Water Drive (near The Mall of Georgia), Buford.

The Search For Fort Daniel
Jim D’Angelo, TRC and Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society

The traditional location of one of Georgia’s early frontier forts, Fort Daniel, has been marked with a roadside historical sign for many years, but there has never been any physical evidence to support the supposed location…until now. Archaeological investigations at the Hog Mountain site in Gwinnett County, undertaken by the Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society (GARS) have confirmed the traditional location of the 1813 Fort Daniel and a 1790s fort that preceded it. Hundreds of artifacts, including wrought and early machine nails, musket shot and flint, ceramics, brick, and intact features are consistent with a military installation dating from this period.

Theory and Limitations of Ground Penetrating Radar: Fort Daniel Results
Sheldon Skaggs, University of Georgia

A brief introduction to the theory of GPR and its use in site detection. Results from the Fort Daniel survey will be presented to show how preconceived ideas and soil conditions can limit the usefulness of any remote sensing technique. Emphasis will be placed on comparing two or more techniques in the decision making process along with the use of post excavation knowledge.

Hardin Bridge: A Look at an Early Middle Woodland Settlement
R. Jeannine Windham, New South Associates, Inc

The Hardin Bridge site is a narrow terrace settlement located on the bank of the Etowah River. The early Middle Woodland component at this site shows a dependence on a localized catchment area that was revisited for a restricted amount of time. This paper discusses the Cartersville occupation revealed during recent excavations. Further, the utilization of the immediate catchment area is explored within the concepts of Primary Forest Efficiency and nascent Woodland agricultural practices.

The History of the Dugout Canoe in Georgia
Leslie Perry, Fernbank Museum

From the penned words of Christopher Columbus upon his arrival in the West Indies, the Arawak word ‚“canoa” has evolved to the English word “canoe”. By interpreting the ethno-historical, historical, and archaeological records, and analyzing those records in the context of the known cultural and physiographical environment, the history and evolution of the wooden dugout canoe in Georgia shall come into clearer focus. Selected samples of dugout canoes have surfaced within Georgia boundaries for measurement and study that lend spatial and temporal data which aids in the research. The initial findings suggest a lowdensity recovery rate relative to the size of the state, but the more important story is not mathematical—the critical importance of this cultural resource lies in its ability to relate part of the story of human life gone by.

The Archaeology and Oral History of a Tenant Farming Community in Randolph County, Georgia
Jennifer Azzarello, New South Associates, Inc.

Investigating and managing tenant farming sites in the Southeast can prove challenging as they tend to be underrepresented, poorly preserved, and lacking in artifacts and architectural remains. Recently, the Georgia Department of Transportation initiated a data recovery and oral history survey of Site 9RH41, which has proven to be a well-preserved tenant farming community in Randolph County, Georgia. This paper presents the data that has been collected from the excavations and the oral history survey then poses questions for future research on how to best interpret and manage these resources.

Age-Related Changes in Mortuary Practices at the King Site
David Hally, University of Georgia

Approximately 250 burials were recovered from the 16th century King site in northwestern Georgia during excavations in the early 1970s and early 1990s. Mortuary analysis of the collection, using single-year composite age estimates of burials has allowed a number of age-related status changes to be recognized.

Georgia Trust Places in Peril 2008: SGA Nominates the Sunbury Site (9Li4)
Terry Jackson, SGA Advocacy Subcommittee Chair

The Society for Georgia Archaeology has nominated the colonial town site of Sunbury in Liberty County to be featured on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Places in Peril List for 2008. SGA will also be submitting a National Register nomination for the Sunbury Cemetery and possibly for a larger archaeological district encompassing other parts of the original town site, which is now rapidly being lost to residential development. SGA will offer opportunities to the new community at Sunbury to study and save parts of their historic past.

Ocmulgee River Basin Archaeological Project
Stephen A. Hammack, Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (SGA)

Preliminary information on work already completed and work planned for the future will be presented. There are several different components of the project, including: 1) contacting artifact collectors in an effort to document their collections; 2) visiting archaeological sites with landowners and collectors in order to obtain UTM coordinates, gathering preliminary information on site size, and completing site forms to be submitted to the Georgia Archaeological Site File; 3) mapping underwater and/ or maritime sites such as prehistoric sites that have eroded into the river, steamboat and barge remains, and prehistoric and historic fish weirs; and 4) locating the lost Creek Indian towns that were situated along the banks of the Ocmulgee River and its tributaries between 1685 and 1715, and 5) conducting excavations at the Waterworks Park in Macon this fall and winter on 9Bi155, a potentially eligible site that is expected to yield information and artifacts that may be interpreted in a permanent Macon History exposition.