Golden Isles Initiative
LAMAR Institute Publication Series,
Report Number 118
The Cane Patch.
(Original painting by Philip Juras, 2005, Courtesy of Philip Juras)
By Daniel T. Elliot
2006, The LAMAR Institute, Inc., Savannah, Georgia.
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PURPOSE
To research, clarify and promote archaeology of the barrier islands of the South Atlantic coast.
The Barrier Islands
One of the most distinctive features of the South Atlantic coast are the barrier islands that fringe the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
South Carolina
Fig Island
The Fig Island Shell Ring in located in Charleston County. For a summary report, click here.
Coosaw Island
Recent investigations at the Coosaw Island Shell Ring were conducted by National Park Service archaeologists Michael Russo and Greg Heide. A summary report of these investigations is available online here.
The LAMAR Institute, Cypress Cultural Consultants, Inc., and Mala GeoScience USA combined forces to conduct a GPR survey at the Coosaw Island Community Center in Beaufort County, South Carolina. This study area once was part of the Bull plantation. For a newspaper account of this GPR study, read the Beaufort Gazette. Other information about Coosaw Island's archaeological resources is presented by Cypress Cultural Consultants, Inc., which is online here.
GPR Survey Underway at the Coosaw Island Community Center, Coosaw Island
(Photo courtesy of Bob Sofaly, The Beaufort Gazette.)
Daufuskie Island
Archaeological work on Daufuskie Island has been conducted by researchers with SCIAA and the Chicora Foundation.
Callawassie Island
Clarence B. Moore and his crew of the steamboat Gopher excavated at numerous aboriginal mound sites on South Carolina's barrier islands. Moore's exploits along the Georgia and South Carolina coast from 1896 to 1898 are documented in a recently reprinted monograph. Click here for purchasing information. The unpublished papers of Clarence B. Moore are housed at Cornell University. Click here for a finding aid for the collection, which is available on microfilm.
More recent research on Callawassie Island has been conducted by James Michie and the Chicora Foundation. Most recently, Stanley South briefly summarized a SCIAA survey at a tabby ruin on Callawassie Island (South 2006).
Spring Island
Recent archaeological research at Spring Island is reported by the Chicora Foundation.
Little Island
C.B. Moore*
St. Helena Island
C.B. Moore and his crew of the steamboat Gopher excavated archaeological sites on St. Helena Island.
Little Island
C.B. Moore and his crew of the steamboat Gopher excavated archaeological sites on Little Island.
Parris Island
Archaeologists with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, led by Stanley South, discovered the Spanish fortified settlement of Santa Elena on Parris Island. Stanley South was joined in the search for Charlesfort by archaeologist Chester B. DePratter. For more information on what was discovered on Parris Island by South, DePratter and their assistants, click here.
Hilton Head Island
Chicora Foundation excavations*
Port Royal Island
Port Royal Island?*
Georgia
Tybee Island
Archaeological study by the NPS at a U.S. Army Civil War-era fortification, known as Battery Halleck.
Skidaway Island
Archaeological study of Skidaway Island has been conducted by the University of Georgia, Garrow & Associates, and the LAMAR Institute.
Wassaw Island
Archaeological survey of Wassaw Island was conducted by the University of Georgia.
Green Island
Morgan R. Crook, Jr. and archaeologists from West Georgia College made the first archaeological survey of Green Island.
Ossabaw Island
Clarence B. Moore and his crew of the steamboat Gopher excavated at numerous aboriginal mound sites on Georgia's barrier islands. Moore's exploits along the Georgia and South Carolina coast from 1896 to 1898 are documented in a recently reprinted monograph. Click here for purchasing information. The unpublished papers of Clarence B. Moore are housed at Cornell University. Click here for a finding aid for the collection, which is available on microfilm.
Another of the archaeological sites explored by C.B. Moore was the Canepatch Shell Ring, which is located on the northwest tip of Ossabaw Island.
The Cane Patch.
(Original painting by Philip Juras, 2005, Courtesy of Philip Juras)
Moore also excavated in a burial mound at Middle Place plantation.
Archaeologist Patrick H. Garrow led students from Shorter College in an archaeological survey of Ossabaw Island. Garrow's pioneering efforts to systematically identified archaeological sites on the island was instrumental in directing future anthropological resource on Ossabaw and other Georgia barrier islands. Archaeologist Chester DePratter directed additional archaeological surveys on Ossabaw Island in the 1970s. DePratter summarized part of his research in a 1974 manuscript. Later survey work, conducted in the late 1970s, remains to be described.
For his University of Georgia doctoral research archaeologist Charles Pearson examined Mississippian period settlement on Ossabaw Island. Pearson's research was published in the University of Georgia, Laboratory of Archaeology, Report Series, Number 12. Recently, Pearson returned to one of the sites that he discovered in the 1970s to explore it in greater detail. That site, which was suspected to be the residence of a shell bead maker from the Mississippian period, proved to yield exciting details about Mississippian trade and craft specialization.
The first extensive historical archaeology was undertaken at the North End Plantation by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Ossabaw Island Foundation, and the LAMAR Institute. These studies, which are ongoing, are detailed in two archaeological reports. David Crass and Ronnie Rogers conducted the first work at the site, which is summarized here. Subsequent work by the LAMAR Institute is reported here. Additional information on this project is provided here.
Recent discovery of two shipwrecks on Ossabaw Island attest to the potential for maritime archaeological research on the island and areas immediately off-shore. One such discovery is documented in the Wreck of the Tracy D by the LAMAR Institute.
Butler's Island
Theresa Singleton dissertation research on the enslaved settlements of Butler's Island, which was later published as, The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life, was a seminal study in African-American archaeology.
Gary McKee presents an interesting remote sensing study of Butler's Island and Champney's Island, which is summarized here.
Butler's Island and its African-American former residents were featured in a recent PBS documentary entitled, Africans in America. Highlights from this series are presented here.
Creighton Island
Creighton Island was visited by C.B. Moore and the crew of the Gopher in 1896 or 1897.
Gary McKay presents an interesting remote sensing study of Creighton Island. He speculates as to the possible location of Allyon's settlement in this vicinity. A summary is presented online here.
St. Catherines IslandCharles C. Jones, Jr.
Clarence B. Moore
Archaeologist David Hurst Thomas and archaeologists with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) have spent about 20 years studying the archaeological resources on St. Catherines Island. Their research is documented in a series of reports and the final report is currently in publication. The Fernbank Museum hosts a permanent collection from the AMNH excavations by Thomas on St. Catherines Island.
Little Sapelo Island
Nicholas Honerkamp
Sapelo Island
Sapelo Shell Rings
William McKinley*
Lewis Larson and Antonio Waring
Ray Crook?
Archaeological excavations by archaeologists from the University of Kentucky Richard Jefferies and Victor Thompson* Click here for a brief summary of the 2003 excavation effort. And for several innovative visual interpretations of the Sapelo Island shell rings at Lost Worlds.
Most recently, University of Kentucky archaeologists, led by Richard Jefferies, made important discoveries at a protohistoric site on Sapelo Island.
Chocolate plantation
Aerial View of Chocolate Plantation, Taken in 1915
(Courtesy, Vanishing Georgia Collection, Georgia Department of Archives and History).
View of Tabby Ruins, Chocolate Plantation, Taken in 1915
(Courtesy, Vanishing Georgia Collection, Georgia Department of Archives and History).
Archaeologists with the University of Mississippi conducted a remote sensing study at Chocolate Plantation. Chris Simmons thesis research presented the results of a battery of remote sensing techniques that were applied to the site.
Aerial image of GPR Survey at Chocolate Plantation.
Nicholas Honerkamp led University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students in an archaeological field school in 2006 at Chocolate Plantation. The analysis of their findings are currently in preparation. Click here for a brief summary.
Blackbeard Island
Little St. Simons Island
The earliest archaeological research on LSSI dates to 1973 when archaeologist Chester B. DePratter and Charlie Pearson, then with the University of Georgia, Department of Anthropology, conducted a survey of the barrier islands, which included reconnaissance survey of LSSI. Their survey sites were not officially recorded in the Georgia State Site File in Athens until 1980 and no formal report was produced on their investigation. DePratter's study produced a significant body of data on archaeological sites along the coast. His findings should not be interpreted as a full inventory of cultural resources, however, as his survey strategy did not include any shovel testing. Consequently, his coastal survey failed to locate many archaeological sites without prominent surface evidence. One example on Skidaway Island shows how reconnaissance survey is a preliminary measure and cannot substitute for more intensive shovel test survey. A subsequent intensive shovel test survey of a 100 acre tract on Skidaway Island that was previously examined by DePratter and in which one site was located, resulted in the location of four sites on this tract. Several of these sites were then examined in more detail. One yielded evidence of an aboriginal village with human burials. Another produced evidence of an 18th century settlement that was previously unknown.
Archaeologists with Georgia State University began a study of LSSI under the direction of Morgan R. [Ray] Crook, Jr., in 1990 or 1991. A report of the survey was completed by Norma Harris (1991). Her study included revisits to all but four of the sites previously recorded by DePratter. Harris also identified three sites that were not identified by DePratter. Her survey included some shovel tests, although her sampling methods and shovel test locations are not explicitly stated in her survey report.
Norma Harris also reported on excavations under Crook's direction that were conducted in 1991 and 1994 at the Old House site on the Island's north end (Harris 1994a). She compiled numerous archival documents related to the historic period occupations of LSSI (Harris 1994b).
Ray Crook (2003) submitted a brief summary on limited test investigations at one site (9GN118) at the Duck House locale that were done in July 2002. This work resulted in the definition of the site's boundaries, apparently based on the presence of surface shell, which was found to cover about 8 acres. Two small test pits were excavated, which indicated occupation in the Savannah and Irene phases of the Mississippian period (LSSI Newsletter 2002:3,7).
Crook's investigation of the North End Site, which took place in 1990 and 1991, remain to be fully reported. A symposium presentation and one journal article have described some of the findings at this important archaeological site (Crook 2000; Weinand et al. 2000). Apparently, Crook's testing of the 3-Midden Site in 1992 and 1993, and his 1995 study of the Old House Creek Site remain to be reported. At present, 54 archaeological sites on LSSI are recorded in the official Georgia Archaeological Site File in Athens, Georgia.
In early September 2003, Daniel Elliott and Rita Elliott, of the LAMAR Institute visited LSSI and were escorted by Duane Harris to various points of archeological interest on the island. This exposure provided them with a better understanding of the environment and situation involving the archaeological resource base at LSSI.
Tabby Chimney Ruin, Site 9GN106, Little St. Simons Island, Georgia.
(Photo by LAMAR Institute)
St. Simons Island
WPA-era excavations were conducted by Preston Holder at the St. Simons airport, where a large Late Archaic settlement was discovered. No report of this excavation was ever generated, although brief mention of it was described by Antonio Waring and is contained in The Waring Papers. A preliminary examination by Daniel Elliott of the collections from this site, which are curated at the Smithsonian Institution, revealed a large assemblage of decorated and undecorated fiber tempered pottery sherds.
Construction of the St. Simons Island Airport.
(Photo, Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
The Fort Frederica National Monument was created by an Act of Congress in 1936. Archaeologist Charles Fairbanks was dispatched by the NPS to conduct archaeological excavations at the Fort Frederica National Monument. Since Fairbanks did this work, numerous archaeological projects were conducted at Fort Frederica, by NPS archaeologists Joel Shiner and * Jackson, although most of these studies remain undocumented or poorly documented. Kathleen Deagan compiled a summary report on these excavations, which remains unpublished. Nicholas Honerkamp's dissertation research was a well documented excavation effort at two town lots in Frederica.
Elliott (198*) and Garrow & Associates archaeologists conducted intensive surveys for the Sea Palms Development on a large tract immediately south of Frederica. An underwater reconnaissance of the Frederica River was also completed by Gordon Watts, as part of this research effort.
Smith and Chance (19*) conducted survey and test excavations on a colonial farmstead southwest of Frederica.
Test excavations at a tabby ruin, possibly the dwelling of James Edward Oglethorpe, was documented by Nicholas Honerkamp.
Survey for the proposed land exchange *
Most recently [2006], the NPS conducted a remote sensing workshop at Fort Frederica.*
Fairbanks and students from the University of Florida completed several seminal archaeological studies on St. Simons Island. One of the more frequently cited studies was done by John Otto.
Sue M. Moore conducted a reconnaissance survey of sites on St. Simons Island.
Jekyll Island
Archaeologist Ray Crook and students from West Georgia College conducted several important studies on Jekyll Island.
Southern Research completed a study of Captain William Horton's plantation on Jekyll Island. GPR survey were included as part of this study.
Little Cumberland Island
Cumberland Island
Florida
Amelia Island
YOUR SUPPORT IS WELCOMED!
As you can see, the LAMAR Institute has been quite active in historical and archaeological research on the Barrier Islands. We wish to continue this important work. Your tax-deductible contributions to this research effort are greatly appreciated. Donations can be made online by clicking on the icon below and then type in "lamar institute". THANKS!
