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Vertebrate Remains from the Grange Plantation (9CH137) Trading Post and Cow Pens, Savannah, Georgia

Report Number
13961
Year of Publication
2008
Abstract

Vertebrate remains from the Grange Plantation, located near present-day Savannah, Georgia, were studied. These materials were deposited in two contemporaneous features dating to the mid-eighteenth century and are associated with a plantation trading post and cow pens operated by Mary Musgrove, one of Georgia’s notable women of history. These data are used to characterize colonial-era European and Native American subsistence and to demonstrate the extent of trade relationships that existed among rural locales and urban economic centers. The faunal collection represents a subsistence pattern dominated by cow and white-tailed deer, supplemented by a rich array of other domestic and wild taxa, suggesting syncretism of Native American and European subsistence patterns in this context. Although the zooarcheological data do not provide clear evidence that the Musgroves supplied urban markets with meats, the Grange Plantation trading post and cow pens represented an important rural hub of commercial activities, including the deerskin trade and the cattle-raising industry.