Research at Behavior Cemetery, Sapelo Island, Georgia

In May of 2010 the University ofTennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) carried out archaeological research at Behavior Cemetery on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Under the direction of Dr. Nicholas Honerkamp and assisted by Dr. Ray Crook (Professor Emeritus, University of West Georgia), students enrolled in the UTC Archaeological Field Methods course participated in a program of archaeological survey and reconnaissance at the c. five-acre Cemetery. Based on a request from Gullah-Geechee residents of the Hog Hammock community on Sapelo, the goals of this effort were three-fold: (1) to determine the structure and content of suspected slave cabin remains, as evidenced by a small buried deposit oftabby plaster and oyster shell located on the northern end of the Cemetery; (2) to record the locations and information on all extant headstones and other Cemetery features to produce a GIS database; and (3) to detect the presence of unmarked graves through the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) and shallow backhoe trenching. This latter goal was occasioned by the increasingly common (and disturbing) presence of unmarked burials encountered during recent funeral ceremonies for Gullah-Geechee residents and their family members. An observation by a resident speaks directly to this concern: "We can't swing a shovel without waking someone up." It is a disquiet shared by many Hog Hammock residents.