Elliot Sugar Plantation Ruins

Archeological ruins of Elliot Plantation are revealed through the oak hammock on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2008. Pictured is a structure composed of coquina blocks from a hearth of a large dwelling, determined to be that of the plantation overseer. The use of coquina is consistent with high-status building materials of the period. The ruins of Elliot Plantation date from the 1760s and represent the largest, earliest, and southernmost British period sugar plantation in the U.S., as well as one of the most intact and best examples of a completely preserved enslaved landscape. In interagency cooperation between the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and NASA, and with the assistance of volunteers from the Indian River Anthropological Society, and historic preservation offices of Brevard and Volusia counties, approximately 200 shovel tests and 20 excavation units were completed in three areas of the plantation complex from 2008 to 2009.