Wharves : The Keystone of Plantation Wealth? Case Studies

Abstract

The Bowling Farm Site (001CSR), a multi-component site comprising Native American and European artifact assemblages, a wharf structure, and a shipwreck, represents a unique clue to early North Carolina history. Located on the Cashie River in Bertie County, this site may be seminal to the history of colonial North Carolina settlement and economy, since little is known about colonial settlement in this area. The primary focus of this thesis is to explore the possibility of a potential correlation between the site's economic history, wharf construction, and the artifact assemblage by comparing Bowling Farm Site to five other plantation wharf sites located in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This thesis also aims to promote the importance of archaeology in understanding site history and formation processes on wharf sites while exploring the most appropriate archaeological methodologies to achieve this objective.