USE OF GROUND-PENETRATING RADAR FOR GEO-ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY: FORT SUMTER AND FORT MOULTRIE NATIONAL MONUMENT, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Situated within a few feet of sea-level, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie have played pivotal roles throughout the history of Charleston Harbor and the nation. Over the coming century, these sites will be increasingly threatened by storms and rising sea-level, and valuable historical structures and artifacts are at risk of being lost. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) offers a reliable, non-invasive tool to guide the National Park Service in the permitting of archaeological and geophysical studies, as well as the future development and preservation of these important historic sites.

Since the beginning of the American Revolution, three separate structures named Fort Moultrie have existed at the National Monument site on Sullivan’s Island. Aided by maps and documents from the Park Service archives, our GPR survey of the site identified numerous subsurface targets that correspond with the locations of former walls and parapets of earlier fort phases.

In the years following the 1861 battle that initiated the American Civil War, Fort Sumter was repeatedly battered by Union attempts to retake the fort, so that by 1865 the structure had been reduced from three stories to one. Much of the original structure remains buried beneath rubble and later fortifications. Our GPR survey of Fort Sumter revealed isolated small-scale targets that might be associated with buried artifacts and cannonry. In addition, large-scale structures and laterally continuous surfaces were mapped that suggest the presence of buried walls beneath multiple stages of rubble and fill.

With continued access to the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Monument, GPR can help to map and identify subsurface targets and structures without excavating and potentially harming such critical sites, and can ultimately serve to reveal and preserve a long-buried history.