Historical and archaeological study of the Allen Plantation home site (38AB102) and the Thomas B. Clinkscales Farm site (38AB221) in Abbeville County, South Carolina was undertaken in conjunction with a broad range of cultural and environmental investigations associated with construction of the Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake on the upper Savannah River. Oral and written documentation indicate that the Allen Plantation was one of the more prosperous cotton plantations within the county both before and after the Civil War. The Clinkscales Farm site, although very poorly documented in written records, can be associated through local informants, architectural details, and artifact patterns with lower socioeconomic status occupations from ca.1865 - 1929. Comparison of the two household complexes revealed patterns in the internal arrangements of activity areas within each site. These patterns are believed to reflect the larger changes in settlement, agriculture and access to regional markets, which were associated with the fragmentation of the plantation system after the Civil War. A model for a Piedmont Refuse Disposal Pattern is proposed as applicable to antebellum and postbellum residential sites located in the Piedmont and foothills of the Carolinas -- areas which are characterized by pronounced local topography.
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