Symbiosis of Fast and Slow Archaeology: A Retrospective Analysis of Historical Archaeology on the Georgia Coast

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Plantation Archaeology as Slow Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Antebellum Georgia was the epicenter of an intertwined multiplicity of international and oftentimes antithetical narratives. On the Sea Islands, we see materialized shadows of the colonial Chesapeake, Igboland in West Africa, and British colonial sugar plantations. We see the effects of mature plantation systems that reciprocally combine dehumanizing plantation management practices with increasingly overt enslaved rival landscapes. Antebellum Georgia was a metaphorical machine built with infinite historical cogs—all differently sized with different purposes and speeds developing at odds and yet simultaneously, making the coast one of the most profitable plantation systems of the 19th century. Because the academic archaeological study of the islands has undergone peaks and valleys of research interest the archaeological workflow must adapt to variable research techniques and theoretical orientations. I discuss synthesizing processualist interpretations of large-scale excavations with today’s postmodern views of tech-heavy small-scale excavations to create a symbiotic and comprehensive analysis of the Sea Islands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Plantation Archaeology as Slow Archaeology

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 993