Modeling Variability in Pre-Columbian Woodland Habitation and Social Organization: The Brickhill Bluff Site, Cumberland Island, Georgia.

This thesis examines Woodland settlement patterns at the Brickhill Bluff site on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Aspects of Woodland habitation and social organization are not well understood along the Georgia coast. Using shell and artifact distribution data from excavations at Brickhill Bluff, this thesis attempts to discern how Woodland populations, specifically Deptford and St. Johns cultures, utilized the site between 1000 B.C. and A.D. 1000.
This study also examines the efficacy of the midden typology already established for the South Atlantic Coastal Plain by statistically comparing the artifact assemblage from Brickhill Bluff to samples from sites used to develop this midden typology. The aims of this research are to identify past cultural activities at Brickhill Bluff - specifically seasonal oyster collecting, general hunting and gathering strategies, and residential density. These criteria are compared with an established matrix designed to discern how past groups utilized southeastern coastal shell midden sites.