Mapping the Old City; Searching for the 17th Century in Downtown Charleston, South Carolina

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Cities on the Move: Reflecting on Urban Archaeology in the 21st Century", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The city of Charleston, South Carolina retains a remarkably well-preserved archaeological landscape spanning the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The peninsular city became the administrative center of the colony of Carolina in 1680, and emerged as one of the most critical urban centers in early America. Archaeologists and historians have meticulously traced the location of the original fortifications surrounding the oldest component of the city. However, coupled with the long experience of invested researchers in the region, recent re-analysis of legacy collections has suggested early deposits reflecting daily life during the first forty years of the settlement survive in key locations. Intending to build on the extensive work by colleagues on the Walled City Task Force and at Charles Towne Landing, this paper outlines a mapping project to identify and target significant urban sites at the turn of the eighteenth century in downtown Charleston for future ground truthing and excavation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cities on the Move: Reflecting on Urban Archaeology in the 21st Century   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow