"The Smouldering Ruin and the Ivyed Wall": Archaeology at the Oglethorpe Site, St. Simons Island, Georgia

The location of James Oglethorpe's house near Fort Frederica has been the subject of considerable popular, if not scholarly, speculation. Oral tradition on St. Simons Island has placed the house in various areas; at one time or another, virtually every abandoned brick or tabby foundation within a one-mile radius of Frederica has claimed the honor. As is so often the case, contemporary records give conflicting or confusing accounts and, when coupled with active imaginations and wishful thinking, compound the problem even further. Into these muddied historical waters archaeologists from the Jeffrey L. Brown Institute of Archaeology (University of Tennessee-Chattanooga) were asked to wade. This paper summarizes the results of preliminary research carried out at one of the better "candidate" sites suspected to be Oglethorpe's briefly occupied homestead. 

One of the thorniest problems faced by historical archaeologists is associating the fragments of the archaeological record with known personages or events. Such an approach is fraught with difficulties due to the incompleteness of the documentary and archaeological records and to the complexity of the formation of the archaeological record, which is subject to the ravages of "time's arrow" (Ascher 1961; Binford 1981). Although particularism is well entrenched in popular opinion as a primary goal of archaeology, the trend in the discipline over the last 25 years has been towards a broader anthropological approach that concentrates on the definition of patterns of past behavior as they are expressed in the archaeological record (e.g. ,Deetz 1977; South 1977). The goals of the present project are threefold: 

1) To carry out a particularistic study aimed at determining whether the site in question was ever occupied by the founder of colonial Georgia, James Edward Oglethorpe. This question is of primary interest to the project's sponsor--the Fort Frederica Association--as well as to many local residents with an interest in the history of Georgia and the Golden Isles. 

2) To determine the scientific value of the site. This goal is largely independent of the first; whether or not the site was associated with Oglethorpe is of less concern at this level of research than are the condition and extent of the archaeological record. 

3) To record the extant remains at the site in as much detail as possible. This goal derives from a preservation ethic that considers archaeological sites as unique, nonrenewable resources. Besides the natural forces contributing to the degradation of the archaeological remains at the site, it was obvious that cultural forces, particularly "relic collecting," were responsible for a great deal of disturbance to and disorganization of the archaeological record. As this process is likely to continue in the foreseeable future, it was imperative that the site remains be documented before further adverse effects occurred. 

The Fort Frederica Association generously agreed to fund preliminary research at the site, providing the UTC archaeologists with an opportunity to address all three goals. Fieldwork was carried out over a one-week period (August 19-27, 1983) and involved 220 person-hours of effort. Laboratory analysis was carried out at the Institute on a part-time basis during the following three months. Analysis and report production required 290 person-hours. The author served as principal investigator and supervised both phases of the research. Other than the usual impediments found on the coastal islands during the summer (heat, humidity, sand gnats, and thousands of seed ticks), there were no physical constraints on the fieldwork. However, time constraints did limit the scope of the research program at this site.