Assigning Site Function: An Archaeological Investigation of the Fickling Settlement at Dixie Plantation in Hollywood, SC

Summary

The College of Charleston’s Center for Environmental Research (CER) in Hollywood, SC is located 19 miles west of the College of Charleston’s main campus in downtown Charleston. The CER was formerly an 18th and 19th century rice and cotton plantation known as Dixie Plantation. A 1799 and a ca.1807 plat map of the area indicates the plantation consisted of a main house, an avenue of oaks, and an unidentified settlement simply labeled ‘Fickling’s’ on the ca. 1807 map. This settlement was represented by two structures on the 1799 map and then four structures on the 1807 map. Today, the avenue of oaks and the remnants of rice canals are all that is left of the former plantation. The primary research goals of this project were to relocate the settlement indicated by these maps, establish an occupation period, and determine the function of these four buildings from the collected artifact assemblage. It is hypothesized that the buildings represent the former enslaved worker residences, though it is possible that they could also represent the carriage house, stables, or other outbuildings. This paper will discuss the challenges of assigning site function for the Fickling settlement.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rags to Riches: the Creation and Legacy of the Carolina Colony   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-63,10