50 Years of Archaeology at the University of South Alabama

Between 1970 and 2020, University of South Alabama archaeologists—faculty, staff, students, and volunteers—carried out more than 1,250 research projects. Some of these projects contributed profoundly to our understanding of life in this region from ancient times to the present. To celebrate 50 years of archaeology at the University of South Alabama, the Center for Archaeological Studies and the University’s Archaeology Museum present this preview of a few of our most informative projects, a sample of our Greatest Hits.

The extraordinary results of 50 years of archaeological research in southwest Alabama and adjacent areas have transformed our knowledge of human history on the Gulf coast. Hundreds of sites have been found and investigated, with some of the most significant now preserved for the future. Over the last five decades, archaeologists at the University of South Alabama have worked hard to raise the public’s awareness and appreciation of this region’s rich archaeological heritage and the information it provides about how humans have lived in this landscape for thousands of years. The future promises even greater discoveries.

We invite you to explore and engage with some of these sites in this virtual exhibit preview, released in anticipation of an in-person exhibit at the Archaeology Museum in the Fall of 2021. 

Exhibit Coverage: South Alabama from 11,000 BC to the present 1715-1725

Timeframe: Opened in 2012 

The Archaeology Museum at the University of South Alabama encourages visitors to explore the region’s archaeological past and learn how archaeological methods can inform us about the lives and cultures of the past. The Museum (Dr. Philip Carr, director, and Candice Cravins, assistant director) currently hosts 6,000 to 7,000 visitors per year, along with several lecture series, online and family-day programs, and other special events. 

Site Description: Colonial Plantation in Spanish Fort, Alabama 

Occupation Period: circa 1763 to 1780 

Sites and Dates Investigated: 1996 to 1998 (1BA337) 

Excavations uncovered the buildings remnants and artifacts of Augustin Rochon’s ethnic French family and their workforce of enslaved Africans who lived on a bluff overlooking the head of Mobile Bay during the British colonial period, until the plantation was burned by Choctaw warriors, a minor event in the American Revolution. 

Description: Bayou La Batre Fishing Culture

Occupation Period: Modern day 

Dates of Interviews: 2007 to 2008 

Oral history interviews conducted in Bayou La Batre in 2007-2008 documented that community’s struggle to maintain commercial fisheries threatened by natural and cultural challenges.

Site Description: Late Woodland Site in Orange Beach, Alabama 

Occupation Period: Primarily AD 650 to 1050 

Sites and Dates Investigated: 2004 to 2007 (1BA21) 

Large-scale excavations of an extensive Tates Hammock phase (Weeden Island culture) village site with excellent animal bone preservation in shell middens, yielding detailed information on ancient fishing and shellfish collecting methods and dietary contributions. 

Description: Montault de Monberaut’s Lisloy Plantation, Theodore, Alabama 

Occupation Period: circa 1759 to 1765 

Site and Dates Investigated: 2000 to 2001 (1MB313) 

Henri Montault de Monberault, a retired French military officer, established his home and plantation on Fowl River for a brief time during the transition from French to British colonial administration of this region. 

Site Description: French colonial tabby house in Bon Secour, Alabama 

Occupation Period: 1740s to 1790s, and late Mississippi period (AD 1300–1700) 

Sites and Dates Investigated: 1964–1965 and 1998 (1BA53), 2006 (1BA55) 

The stout tabby walls of an old building have puzzled many an observer and long been identified as a fort of unknown origin; modern interpretations indicate the structure was, instead, a French colonist’s residence built in the 1740s. 

Site Description: Bottle Creek Site on Mound Island, Baldwin County, Alabama 

Occupation Period: Mississippi Period to Colonial (AD 1250 to circa 1750) 

Site and Dates Investigated: 1853, 1932, 1990 to 1994, 1997 (1BA2) This large, multi-mound Mississippian town site was the center of the Pensacola culture, a chiefly society that controlled most of the north-central Gulf coast between AD 1250 and 1550. 

Description: Confederate Cavalry Camp, Gulf Shores, Alabama 

Occupation Period: 1863 to 1864 

Sites and Dates Investigated: 1995 (1BA330)

This remnant of a Confederate camp, which served as a base for beach patrols prior to the fall of Fort Morgan, provides a rare glimpse of everyday life experienced by common soldiers during periods of relative inactivity between battles. 

Site Description: D’Olive Plantation and The Village in Daphne, Alabama 

Occupation Period: circa 1760 to 1820s 

Sites and Dates Investigated: 1973 to 2008 (1BA189-190, 1BA538-545, 1BA608-609) 

Archaeological surveys and excavations have revealed details of life in a small community of ethnic French and the people of African descent they held in slavery. This place on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, known simply as The Village during the British colonial period, was the scene of four Revolutionary War battles, including a major one on January 7, 1781. 

Site Description: Shell Mound Park, Dauphin Island, Mobile County, Alabama 

Occupation Period: AD 1100 to 1700, circa 1750s 

Sites and Dates Investigated: 1990 (1MB72) 

The largest extant shell mound on the Alabama coast, preserved at Shell Mound Park on Dauphin Island, dates to the Mississippi period and may have been a monumental chiefly mound for a larger village site that is now largely obscured by surrounding residential, state, and federal development. 

Interested in digging deeper? Visit some of the sites featured in this online exhibit!