Phase III Data Recovery Excavations at Pikes Bluff (9GN199) St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia

From January to April 2004, Brockington and Associates, Inc. conducted Phase III archaeological data recovery excavations at the 9GN199 Pikes Bluff site (Butler 2006 [uncompleted draft report]). Moore (1981) first identified the Pikes Bluff shell midden and antebellum structure remains and recommended it eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Brockington and Associates, Inc. subsequently resurveyed 9GN199 and other sites. The archaeologists determined 9GN199 and 9GN200 substantially overlapped and the sites were redefined, with historic components assigned to 9GN199 and the prehistoric components to 9GN200.

Site 9GN199 represents three separate historic occupations, from 1740 to 1865. Phase III archaeological data recovery investigations were also completed at 9GN200 (Mozingo 2006 [uncompleted draft report]). Both Phase III data recovery field investigations were undertaken for the Sea Island Company, in anticipation of federal agency environmental permit requirements for a planned real estate development project. However, the Sea Island Company subsequently went into receivership, the property was sold, and individual parcels developed without necessary permits. The draft data recovery reports were never completed. In 2013, Brockington returned all archaeological artifacts to Mr. Bill Jones, former CEO of the Sea Island Company.

The archaeological investigation began with excavation of 1,014 50 by 50 cm units. Site 9GN199 consists of three separate loci, comprising individual historic occupations. There is also a cannon emplacement earthwork- believed to have been first constructed during the War of 1812 and reportedly reoccupied in 1861 by Confederate forces. Locus 1 represents a brick chimney base and well- first identified by Sue Moore (1981). This locus was a plantation house first constructed by Reverend Mathews around 1812 and later purchased by Dr. Thomas F. Hazzard family around 1838. Brockington began the excavation with excavation of the well since wells were often later used by site occupants to dump trash. Artifacts from the well fill date to the post 1800 period, though the feature extended only about six feet in depth and never reached below the water table. It was filled with oyster shell, broken bottles, ceramics, and personal objects; a single kaolin pipe bowl was at the very bottom. We determined it was probably a dry well filled in as a trash pit relatively quickly after it was excavated. When our investigation began, we expected Locus 1 to be the most significant component at Site 9GN199.

Locus 2 initially appeared to represent the remains of the circa 1820 tabby “privy” as first described by Moore (1981). Initial excavation units in Locus 2 immediately recovered something unexpected; mid-eighteenth-century ceramics and other artifacts. Additional units revealed the undisturbed foundation features of a mid-eighteenth-century house. The “tabby privy” was in fact a large tabby chimney base. Many of the recovered artifacts are contemporary with nearby Fort Frederica (1738-1748). We accordingly focused our main efforts at 9GN199 to expose the foundations of this early house. In doing so, we recovered dense quantities of artifacts dating from 1740-1820. Archival research indicates this building was probably the “Lookout” or “Watch House” ordered established by General James Oglethorpe and garrisoned under the command of Richard Pike. A “Corporals Guard” of probably four to six men was maintained there to watch the Frederica River for any approaching Spanish hostile threat. The house likely became a private residence in the post-Colonial era.