Data Recovery Excavations at 38BU1419: A Historic Site on Belfair Plantation, Beaufort County, South Carolina

Summary

Site 38BU1419 was identified during the June 1994 survey of the Belfair Plantation Tract, conducted by Brockington and Associates, Inc. Testing to refine the site's NRHP status was conducted in October 1994. Artifacts recovered during testing suggested high status and considerable wealth for the site occupants. The site was recommended as eligible for the NRHP, and a data recovery plan was developed. Data recovery investigations were carried out in 1995.

Archival research revealed the occupants of the plantation, and presumably the site, were Edward and Elizabeth Telfair, members of a wealthy colonial family, who also owned property in Savannah, Georgia.

Extensive sampling was conducted across the site through the excavation of 191 units, measuring 50 cm by 50 cm, a total of 47.75 square meters of the surface of the site. During the first phase of data recovery, an additional 44 square meters of the site surface were excavated in 2 by 2 m units in the eastern portion of the site. A backhoe was used to expose approximately 92 square meters of surface area adjacent to the excavation units. A second phase of data recovery included the excavation of four 1 m by 1 m units in the western part of the site. In addition to those four square meters, four backhoe trenches exposed an additional31 square meters of the surface in that area. A total of 218.75 square meters of the site was investigated.

Three possible structures were identified. Two post holes and a large (approximately 4 m by 4 m) pit filled with plaster were found in the west portion of the site; this appears to have been the earliest occupied part of the site.

Six features, probably representing at least two structures, were exposed in the eastern part of the site. One structure was apparently a small outbuilding which had a poured tabby floor. The second structure is represented by an intact chimney base and two displaced piers and was probably built on top of the earlier tabby-floored structure. The displacement of the brick piers precludes any description of the size and configuration of this second structure.

There is also a small multi-component prehistoric occupation at the site. Artifacts recovered indicate continuous, though intermittent, use of the site from the Early Archaic Period through the Woodland Period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Brockington and Associates, Inc.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contributor(s): Marian D. Roberts; Connie Huddleston; M. Virginia Markham

Principal Investigator(s): Paul E. Brockington, Jr.

Landowner(s): Belfair Plantation, L.L.C.

Submitted To(s): South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)

Record Identifiers

Brockington and Associates, Inc., report number(s): 0541

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