Archaeological Testing of the Exchange Tract Parcel, Skidaway Island, Chatham County, Georgia

The following report presents the findings of a recently completed Phase II level intensive testing program of portions of a one hectare (2.5 acre) tract of land located on Skidaway Island, Chatham County, Georgia. This parcel, known as the Exchange Tract, was recently acquired by the Branigar Organization, the developer of the Landings, from Skidaway Island State Park and the State of Georgia. The purpose of this investigation was to examine portions of the Exchange Tract designated as a proposed roadway corridor and a fence/buffer zone for the presence of significant archeological deposits. Previous work conducted on this parcel, and portions of Skidaway Island State Park, had demonstrated that a portion of Springfield Plantation (Site # WGC1657) and a series of linear earthworks identified as a road/earthwork (Site # WGC1659) were located on the project area. As a condition of acquisition, Branigar had agreed to conduct additional testing and data recovery, if warranted, on the archeological component of Springfield Plantation and other features which lie on the Exchange Tract prior to construction activities. Archeological field methods employed during field operations included intensive surface reconnaissance and mapping procedures, survey level shovel testing, and test excavations designed to identify and assess the archeological components of the parcel. Field procedures resulted in a reexamination of the Springfield component as well as the identification of a multicomponent prehistoric site occupied primarily during Woodland times. The latter site was undetected, or under-detected, prior to the current investigation. Archeological indicators demonstrate that a mixed context, plowzone covers most of the project area. The excavation of some 62 square meters of the parcel revealed the presence of one subsurface cultural feature, a Deptford period refuse pit. In addition to these components, an assessment was made of the tract's two linear earthwork features. One, Site # WGC1659, is interpreted to have served as a plantation period flood control barrier while the other appears to be the remains of an earthen dam which probably functioned as a portion of an agricultural embankment system related to rice cultivation during colonial or antebellum times. Although each of these earthwork features, if correctly interpreted, is considered eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as outlined in 36CFR60.6, the current level of information recorded during this study, when viewed against the preservation of some 90% of these features, is considered to serve as adequate mitigation for these earthen structures. Relative to the archeological components of Springfield Plantation (Site # WGC1657) and the tract's aboriginal component, neither of these components of the Exchange Tract is considered Register eligible. In this view, no archeological mitigation (i.e. data recovery) is recommended for the Exchange Tract parcel.