Particpants and Presence: Examining Late 17th and Early 18th Century Indigenous and European Trade Along Charleston's Frontier

Jeff Sherard; Dave Baluha

Particpants and Presence: Examining Late 17th and Early 18th Century Indigenous and European Trade Along Charleston's Frontier

Author(s): Jeff Sherard; Dave Baluha

Year: 2022

Summary

In 2018, Brockington and Associates archaeologists conducted data recovery excavations focusing on site

38DR87, representing Andrew Percival’s late 17th -century Weston Hall, located in southern Dorchester

County, South Carolina. In 1674, Lord Ashley Cooper appointed Percival to oversee trade with Indigenous

groups and construct Ashley’s plantation, St. Giles Kussoe. By 1691, after a falling-out with Lord Ashley,

Percival began living at Weston Hall. The former home is positioned on a high bluff along the upper Ashley

River, marked by an extensive concentration of Pre-Contact and Contact period artifacts. Located northeast of

the Weston Hall settlement is a discreet area uncovered by hand and mechanical excavations containing

several Contact Era pit features. The pits’ soils and artifact classes present in each are consistent and

interpreted as temporary Indigenous encampments utilized during periodic native trading expeditions to

Weston Hall. Using historical research and comparative analysis to interpret artifacts from these unique

features, the authors present new observations on early trade in the Lowcountry.

Cite this Record

Particpants and Presence: Examining Late 17th and Early 18th Century Indigenous and European Trade Along Charleston's Frontier. Jeff Sherard, Dave Baluha. Presented at Southeastern Conference on Historic Sites Archaeology, Columiba, SC. 2022 ( tDAR id: 475226) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8475226