The majority of archaeological survey and excavation projects conducted in
South Carolina are a result of state and federal laws requiring archaeological
sites to be identified and considered during the environmental review process.
Excavation and survey results are written up and described in technical archaeological
reports that are submitted to regulatory agencies and the
State Historic Preservation
Office for review.
This section of the website has been developed to publicize some of the more
interesting archaeological projects performed in compliance with state and
federal laws. Full technical reports and report abstracts from archaeological
test excavation and data recovery projects will be posted as available. They are all in Adobe Acrobat PDF Format.
“Let Me Tell You About the Very Rich”
Archaeological Data Recovery at 38BU1788 and 38BU1804,
Palmetto Bluff, Beaufort County, South Carolina. (14 MB)
Investigations at the ruins of
the spectacular Wilson Mansion, a 40-room Neo-Classical Gilded Age
mansion built circa 1915 near Bluffton and burned in 1926.
"Of Sterling Worth and Good Qualities":
Status and Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century Middle Class Charleston.
Archaeological Investigations at Site 38CH1871 Marlene and Nathan Addleston
Library. College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina. (6 MB)
Late Archaic Settlement on the May River:
Data Recovery at the Tree Runner Site (38BU1800), Beaufort
County, South Carolina. (6 MB)
Data recovery project in Beaufort County that focuses on the
Ceramic Late Archaic.
Archaeological Investigations at the Yourhaney
Plantation (38GE18), Yauhannah Bluff,
Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, Georgetown, South Carolina. (21 MB)
Data recovery in a portion of this site that contained the
remains of a main house complex dating from the 18th century to the early 19th
century. The house appears to have been earthfast wood framed with a lath
and plaster chimney. Investigations also uncovered an earthfast slave
dwelling with an interior and exterior hearth and several outbuildings. Visit http://www.fws.gov/historicPreservation/
for more information about cultural resources managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Willtown: An Archaeological and Historical Perspective, Charleston County,
South Carolina.
(6.2 MB)
Investigations at Willtown, one of south Carolina's earliest
planned towns, and the surrounding plantation community provide insight from an
archaeological perspective about this early colonial community and why it failed.
Occupation
of Socastee Bluff: Data Recovery at the Singleton Sawmill Site (38HR490),
Horry County.
(17.3 MB)
Investigations include contextual research into the sawmill
and lumber industry of coastal South Carolina.
Phase III Archaeological
Investigations at 38FL2, The Florence Stockade, Florence, South Carolina. (9 MB)
Data recovery at the Florence Stockade, an infamous Confederate prisoner of war
camp now part of the Florence National Cemetery, represented a rare opportunity
to examine a relatively undisturbed Confederate camp inhabited for a short
period of time by rear-echelon personnel.
Phase II Archaeological Testing and Evaluations
of Nine Prehistoric Sites, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (6 MB)
The importance of this report lies in the explicit methodological and
theoretical approach used for addressing research topics on prehistoric
hunter-gatherer sites in the Sandhill and Coastal Plain regions. For the
sake of brevity, portions of the report have been extracted to summarize what is
known about hunter-gatherer adaptations through both ethnography and
archaeological investigations, the types of sites known to exist and that can be
expected to exist, and proposes evaluation criteria for what appears to be the
ubiquitous "upland lithic scatter."
The Fig
Island Ring Complex (38CH42): Coastal Adaptation and the Question of Ring
Function in the Late Archaic, Charleston County, South Carolina.
Metal Detector Survey
and Battlefield Delineation of the Buford's Massacre (Waxhaws) Revolutionary War
Battlefield, Lancaster County, South Carolina.
