Submitted by Kevin Kiernan (kevin.kiernan@gmail.com)

SGA Board Member Kevin Kiernan is a member of the SGA’s Golden Isles Chapter, based on St. Simons. He writes about the Chapter members’ latest activities.

Nick Honercamp and Norma Harris led shovel testing at Cannon’s Point on the northern tip of the island. This is the site of a major prehistoric Indian occupation, first excavated in the 1930s as part of a WPA project supervised by Preston Holder. As a major plantation site, Cannon’s Point is also an important area of research on African American history. There is a short account of the most recent work published by the St. Simons Land Trust here.

At the same time, Keith Ashley and Fred Cook led shovel testing of Neptune Park at the southern tip of the island, in search of evidence of the Mocama Spanish mission of Santa Cruz y San Buenaventura de Guadalquini Mission, which flourished 1606–1684. There are two articles from the Jacksonville Times-Union describing this project online here and here.

Last week Fred Cook led shovel testing at the Harrington Graded School, the last surviving segregated school on St. Simons Island. The testing sought to locate any archaeological evidence that might survive from the schoolyard. The Jacksonville Times-Union also wrote a story on this project, which appears here.

This week Fred Cook is supervising an excavation at Kelvin Grove, the site where he first discovered clearly defined house structures and artifacts in the 1970s, which he described as Kelvin culture in two articles for Early Georgia. See Cook, F.C. 1979. “Kelvin: A late Woodland phase on the southern Georgia coast.” Early Georgia 5 (2). 65-86; and “The Kelvin Phase house: Aboriginal domestic structure design on the southern Georgia coast during the late Woodland Period.” Early Georgia 9 (1-2): 76-87.

Finally, Georgia Sound: The Journal of the Georgia DNR Coastal Division 17:3 (Fall 2011), p 8, solicited a short article on the SGA’s presence at CoastFest 2011, which includes a description and ordering information for Frontiers in the Soil. There is an online PDF of this issue here (see page 8).

Members of the Golden Isles Chapter of SGA have contributed to all of these initiatives.

Read more about Frontiers in the Soil here, including ordering information. Read all about the activities of the Golden Isles Chapter here. Read more about the SGA at Coastfest 2011 on this website here. Browse the contents of back issues of Early Georgia here.

Posted online on Friday, March 30th, 2012