rchaeological Society of SC, Hilton Head Chapter: April 21st 7 pm

The Hilton Head Chapter of the Archaeological Society of South Carolina, Inc. is continuing the 2009 speaker series with John P. McCarthy’s talk Class Struggle in the Dining Room: The Archaeology of a Planter Household at the Margins of Elite Respectability. This presentation will be at the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Tuesday, April 21st at 7:00pm. The meetings are free and open to the public.

McCarthy will discuss the analysis of the ceramic assemblage recovered at a ca. 1760- 90 planter house site in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The site is believed to be associated with a minor branch of an elite planter family. The consumption and investment choices of this household are considered in the contexts of their apparent social and economic status at the margins of their social class, where social status would have been most keenly felt as the family struggled to maintain their respectability and membership in the colonial elite.

John P. McCarthy, RPA, is Principle Archaeologist/ Historian with S&ME, Inc. in Mt. Pleasant SC. During his over 30 years of professional experience he has held management and senior technical positions at a number of consulting firms and also served on the staff of the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation before joining S&ME where he manages the
firm`s Charleston Cultural Resources Department.

He is a widely known expert on many aspects of archaeology, architectural history and cultural resource management policy. He has evaluated and/or excavated dozens of plantations and farmsteads in the Upper Midwest, Four – Corners area, and throughout the eastern U.S., from Rhode Island to South Carolina. His research focuses on the use of the material world to express behaviors and values and to manipulate identity. He has presented over 100 papers at professional conferences and he is the author or co-author of over 25 journal articles or book chapters and 35 shorter essays and reviews.

Upcoming events:

May 19th—Speaker- Ramona M. Grunden- Pre-historic Indians of James Island, SC.

All lectures are free and the public is invited to attend.