Middleton Place plantation was in existence prior to 1741 and was destroyed in 1865. It was occupied again as a residence from 1871 to 1880 and then abandoned until the second decade of the 20th century when it again became a family residence. Although the site of Middleton Place has remained in family hands since the close of the Civil War, it never again functioned as a working plantation. For this reason it is likely that the intensity of its occupation in this later period was much less than before the war and that the archeological record generated then was also a great deal smaller. This situation has undoubtedly been accentuated during recent times when modern methods of refuse disposal would have
drastically reduced the amount of discard at the site. It seems likely, then, that the site basically will reflect its colonial and antebellum occupations. The archeological record should indicate this as well as provide evidence for its later residential occupations.
-32-Several classes of artifacts are extremely useful in establishing occupation spans of historic sites. Ceramics, because of their peculiar qualities of variation, are particularly well suited to reflecting
temporal change. This is especially true regarding eighteenth century British ceramics for not only did the industrialization of ceramic
manufacture result in the production of numerous morphologically distinct types but the rapid innovation that accompanied industrialization generated types with relatively limited and well documented temporal ranges. The presence>of a class of artifact possessing these characteristics permits the calculation of a reasonably accurate chronological range as well as a mean date for an archeological occupation (South 1972: 72). Other types of artifacts with more general chronological ranges may also be employed to establish the time of a site's occupation. While these will yield less precise dates than those based on ceramics, the period of occupation indicated should encompass the ceramic dates.
An estimate of the minimum range of occupation for the settlement may be ascertained by comparing the ranges of the Eur(\jpean ceramic types recovered in the archeological investigations. The !£rminus post quem, or date after which the earliest objects found their way into the ground, and the terminus ante quem or the date before the archeological materials were deposited, must be determined on the basis of a mixed deposit
containing material deposited from the beginning to the end of the occupation. In order to establish a minimum chronological range for a mixed occupation the terminus post quem may be estimated by the closing date of the use range of the earliest ceramic type and the terminus ante quem by the beginning date of the use range of the type introduced latest. A comparison of the date ranges of the ceramic types at Middleton Place (Fig. 10) reveals that the site was occupied at least as early as 1750 and its termination date was no earlier than 1820.
A more accurate time span may be ascertained using the South (1972) formula to calculate a mean ceramic date which should approximate the median historic date for the site. Using 1865 as the terminus ante quem, half of the range of the site's occupation can be obtained by subtracting the mean date from it. The terminus post quem may then be estimated by subtracting an equal number of years from the mean date.
Based on a total of 2092 datable typed sherds, the mean ceramic date for the Middleton Place site is calculated to be 1796 (Appendix B). If this date may be assumed to represent the median historic date for a period ending in 1865, then the beginning date of the occupation would be 1727. This date corresponds to the period during which John Williams was acquiring his vast landholdings on the west bank of the Ashley and the earliest occupation could easily date from this time.
A number of other artifacts whose date ranges are known were also recovered. They are listed in Table 1. The presence of these artifacts reveals that deposition took place from the eighteenth century until the present. Most of the artifacts, however, are items used during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and seem to reflect the more intensive plantation occupation of this period.
-33-British Grol'Jn
FIGURE 10: Comparison of temporal ranges of ceramic types recovered at Middleton Place.
In summary, the archeological data indicate that the site investigated was occupied most intensively during the time Middleton Place served as a plantation. They also reveal that a settlement existed there prior to the time the property passed into the hands of the Middleton family. The post-Civil War occupation of the site is reflected by the presence of lesser amounts of later artifacts at the site.
'fABLE 1
TEMPORAL RANGES OF NDN-CERAMIC ARTIFACTS FROM MIDDLETON PLACE
Artifact*
Wrought nails Cut nails Wire nails
Wrought iron hinges Cast iron butt hinges Horseshoe
Pointless screws
Pewter spoon handle with rounded terminal
Bottle glass with raised letters embossed in panels Bottle glass with pontil marks Machine-made bottle glass
Fontana and Greenleaf (1962: 54) Fontana and Greenleaf (1962: 54) Mercer (1923: 10)
Mercer (1923: 13) Noel Hume (1970: 239) Mercer (1923: 24) Noel Hume (1970: 183) Jones (1971: 10) Lorrain (1968: 40) Lorrain (1968: 43) Noel Hume (1970: 302) Noel Hume (1970: 228) Hamilton (1964: 53-54) Logan (1959: 5)
Hamilton (1964: 53-54) Logan (1959: 5)
Logan (1959: 9)
*For totals of each artifact see Appendix