Community-Based Mortuary Archaeology On Sapelo Island, Georgia

“We can’t swing a shovel without waking someone up.” This quote from a Geechee resident of Sapelo
Island, Georgia expresses her distress about an ongoing problem at Sapelo’s Behavior Cemetery: the presence of unmarked graves and disturbances to them from recently dug graves. It also provided the impetus for a community driven program of mortuary archaeological research focusing on (1) discovering the spatial and temporal parameters of a 19th century slave site within the Cemetery parcel; (2) recording all extant grave markers in the cemetery and making this information accessible; and (3) identifying the presence of unmarked graves through the application of GPR in order to clear areas for future burials. This paper highlights the mutually beneficial nature of a public partnership with archaeologists that directly addresses social and religious priorities of contemporary Gullah-Geechee peoples while simultaneously answering basic questions concerning antebellum Gullah-Geechee life.