Archaeological Survey and Testing on St. Simon's Island, Georgia

Increasing pressure, in the form of development, has been placed on the barrier islands situated off the coast of the southern United States. There has been an effort on the part of some to mediate the impact this development will have on the natural and cultural resources. Such has been the case with much of the archeological work on St. Simon's Island (Figure 1). Under the auspices of the National Park Service, Sea Island Company and the National Register of Historic Sites, a great deal of archeological information has been gathered on St. Simon's. Beginning in the 1940's, excavations have been conducted at Fort Frederica National Monument which have greatly increased the knowledge of colonial Georgia and life at a military colony (Fairbanks 1956, Honerkamp 1975, Reitz 1979 and Honerkamp 1980). In 1972, the University of Florida began a program of excavations at Cannon's Point on the north end of St. Simon's. Funding for this work was provided by Sea Island Company and the National Science Foundation. This project produced a dissertation on the late Archaic of the coast, one on the protohistoric Guale Indians, and a third on an antebellum plantation (Cannon's Point). It also produced two master's theses. This work ended in 1975. The University was contacted in 1978 to do an archeological survey of Butler Point, again on the northern end of the island. The most signicant outcome of this survey was the location of the ruins of Hampton plantation. Late in 1978, Sea Island Company initiated another project with the University, this time for the complete survey of their entire holdings on St. Simon's. This amounted to roughly 5000 acres or approximately one-half of the high land on the island. Because this survey would include the known ruins of several plantations and some significant prehistoric sites, additional funds were granted by the National Register of Historic Sites. A total of nine months were spent in the field. Twenty sites were involved, including the remains of five different plantations (Figure 2, Table 1). A total of fifteen months were spent in analysis of the survey an excavation data. The results are presented in this report. The plantation excavations are the subject of a dissertation in preparation (Moore n.d.).