Archaeological Survey of Three Intertidal Sites on the Savannah River

Two of the three sites involved in the project are located on the east bank of the Savannah River on Onslow Island. The Pin Wreck (********) is situated approximately 1100 feet south of the Houlihan bridge (Figures 1.2). About 3200 feet further south along the bank, the remains of the Onslow Island Vessel (*********) sits. Both sites occur on the marsh/flat interface and are almost completely exposed at a moderately low tide. The vessels sit in a silty grayish silty clay with an underlayment of sand and clay silt a few feet down. Side slopes for the channel bottom begin on the edges of the sites with drop-offs being quite sharp in places.

The Hutchinson Island Flood Gate(**********) is locate at the northern end of the island approximately -- feet from the juncture of the Middle River with the main channel. Soil matrix is identical to the vessel sites and topography is similar with the only difference being a much more gradual dropoff being out of the shipping channel. During much of the Historic Period, the northern part of the island was originally part of Argyle Island to the immediate northeast. By the beginning of the 1800s, the main channel of the Savannah River had begun to slowly shift and threatened to divert through the passage between the two islands thus cutting off the city from shipping. This threat was answered at first with pilings and derelict vessels and finally with heavy cribbing in the late 1800s (**). The channel gradually silted in. New Cut was excavated through Argyle Island in 19 __ just to the northeast of the site in order to assist with lessoning silt deposition of the main channel.