Archaeological Data Recovery Investigations at 9CB567: An Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centruy Plantation Site in the Riverwood Plantation Development Tract

Site 9CB567, the Germany House Plantation, is a late eighteenth to early twentieth-century occupation site with a small prehistoric component. Site 9CB567 is located roughly 0.7 miles southwest of the Savannah River, in the uplands west of Germain Island in Columbia County, Georgia. This site is located on the property of the Riverwood Plantation/Big Three Golf Club (Pollard Land Company) in Evans, Georgia; the operation of Riverwood's maintenance facility will adversely affect this site 9CB567. Site 9CB567 was recommended eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places following the Phase I documentation of the site (Price and Elliot 1999) and this decision was concurred by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District (USACE) in a Determination of Effect statement in November2000. In 2001, a Programmatic Agreement (PA)between SHPO (signed September 18, 2001), Savannah District DE (signed July 25, 2001) and the Pollard Land Company (signed November 11, 2001) was agreed upon, calling for data recovery at all NRHP-eligible sites within the development tract prior to development. As part of the PA, mitigation of adverse effects was to be carried out at the site. In accordance, Brockington and Associates (Norcross, GA) submitted a Data Recovery Plan proposing a two percent mitigation of Site 9CB567to the USACE; this proposal was approved in April2008. The treatment plan was executed by Brockington between March 9 and April3, 2009. The site was initially recorded by Southern Research in 1999 (Price and Elliot 1999) as part of a Phase I survey of the development tract. Evidence of an early nineteenth documentation and the archaeological assemblages of this site. As such, it was deemed potentially eligible under Criterion B (associated with the lives of persons significant in our [America's] past) and Criterion D (has yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history) as the site's eighteenth/early nineteenth century component was possibly associated with the Germany family, for whom nearby Germain Island is named. The Germany family was among the first settlers to the area and received the land grant containing 9CB567 in 1761. Phase II investigations conducted by Brockington in 2001 (Charles 2002), identified the presence of intact cultural features (Features 60 1 and602) and expanded the site to approximately 18,000 square meters. Prior to the proposed construction of an access road, Brockington conducted initial Phase II Investigations in 2003 within the northeastern portion of the site (Charles et al. 2006). This investigation focused on mitigating effects to the portion of the site that was to be affected by this undertaking. A double post mold was identified along the access road (Feature 603). The current Phase III investigations were conducted over the remainder of the site. The center of Site 9CB567is currently used as storage for construction equipment, such as concrete and plastic piping. This material is lying on the surface and had not affected site deposits. This mitigation included a shovel testing survey at10-m intervals; as only limited rap and GIS data on the former investigations was available, the additional testing was believed necessary to reestablish the current site boundary after the recent construction, and to filling areas (particularly the southeastern corner of the site) that were not tested at 30 b intervals during the previous investigations. As a result of the close interval testing, the site was found to have been severely reduced in size (approximately 5000 square meters), limited largely to the area south of the new access road. This was followed by the excavation f 26 excavation units, mostly two-by-two-m in size or 92 square meters, approximately 2% of the site) a d then by mechanical scraping of approximately 460 sq are meters in the areas most likely to produce additional cultural materials or features. The area excavated incl des approximately 552square meters. Although this represents only about 11%of the site area, it was keyed to the top of the landform, the heaviest concentrations of artifacts, and the intact portions of the site, and includes all of the observed surface features. During the Phase III Data Recovery, 24 soil anomalies were encountered an numbered, in addition to three identified in earlier ph as s of work. Of these, 18 are considered to be cultural features, including seven post molds, seven pit features (two fire pits, three trash filled pits, and two pits of unknown function), one brick feature, one chimney firebox, and two wells. In total, 10,896 artifacts were recovered during the Data Recovery excavations. As with previous investigations, a small percentage of this material stems from an earlier prehistoric component to the site (0.2%;n=23). Only 634 artifacts (6.4%) were collected from the features, with the greatest percentage stemming from the surface, and the topsoil layers within the excavation blocks. These span the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Disturbances and lack of stratification of the topsoil into older and newer cultural components, coupled with the small, friable condition of the artifact assemblage indicates substantially more mixing and truncation of the natural soil column has occurred than expected. This likely occurred primarily during the demolition of the house structure and timbering activities during the twentieth century. The small cluster of structure features and artifacts (largely kitchen or architectural materials)suggests this area was the location of the main house, razed in place, and scattered a little over the landform, rather than a larger sheet midden of refuse material from a longer part of the site occupation. The remaining structural features and large volume of bricks and nails (as well as the historic background)suggest a long-term occupation from the late eighteenth through early twentieth century. There is very little architectural evidence to provide information about the structure itself. Most of the ridge top appears to have since been disturbed and graded leaving only truncated features extending into the subsoil surface. In all, results of the Phase III Data Recovery suggest a pattern of typical antebellum absentee plantation operation, absorbed into larger tenant farmer systems and eventual sale as timberland. The Germany family maintained their ties to the land for almost 150 years, selling and reacquiring it as necessary from the original land grant in 1761, to its bequest to the heirs of Augustus Germany in the early twentieth century. In any case, the completion and documentation of these investigations is adequate for meeting the required mitigation of adverse affects of land-disturbing activities to the remamaing portions of this NRHP eligible site. As per the PA submitted to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Brockington recommends that land-disturbance activities at 9CB567should be approved to proceed as planned, following the acceptance of this draft report by USACE, Savannah District, and GASHPO.