Pieces of Chocolate: Site Structure and Function at Chocolate Plantation (9MC96), Sapelo Island, Georgia

The origin of Chocolate Plantation (9MC96) as a historic and as an archaeological entity involves a complex narrative. Located on the west side of Sapelo Island, directly adjacent to the Mud River (Figures 1 and 2), Chocolate is situated in an area that proved to be suitable for both prehistoric and historic habitation, a claim that will become abundantly clear in this report. In fact, although this site possesses numerous substantial tabby ruins, it was first defined in the Georgia State Site File on the basis of prehistoric remains, and its very name may be derived from a protohistoric Native American settlement. Several decades of research on Sapelo Island have demonstrated the presence of extensive human habitations spanning millennia; the present study provides an unambiguous sense of both the multicomponent nature and longevity of cultural components at 9MC96. This report presents basic data on the presence (and absence) of archaeological resources generated from excavating and screening a large number of survey units on a systematic grid constructed over the entire c. 3.7 hectare site. Due primarily to the presence of numerous and extensive antebellum tabby structural foundations, previous archaeological approaches have understandably been concentrated on those remains. Complementing earlier work, the present study provides baseline survey data for the entire site, rather than a structure-oriented subset.