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NPS Form 10.9Ma OMB Approval No.1024-WIS (8-M) United States Department of the Interior 18 t National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 , 9 Page 6 Alexander Hogan Plantation Orange County,NC Statement of Significance(continued) associations should also determine each structures temporal placement. Were all the structures built and used at the same time during the Hogan occupation? Or, given the significant economic changes that occurred during the nineteenth century,were there settlement differences between the antebellum and post-bellum occupations (e.g., Orser and Nekola 1985)? In addition to providing further insights into everyday plantation life in Orange County,the Hogan site offers the potential to address the anthropological issues of slavery and plantation social structure. An important aspect of historic archaeology has been its work on studying "status" in plantation contexts. In these works, the degree of social differentiation has variously been expressed in terms of a racial/economic continuum of planter-overseer-slave (Otto 1977, 1980). In short, it has been argued that the remains left by these three plantation social groups can be differentiated through the types and relative frequencies of certain artifact classes, and in terms of the food remains associated with various plantation buildings.. Such a model was developed for larger lower South plantations and it can be questioned whether it should be uncritically adopted for the Hogan site; however, its basic tenet is central to current plantation studies and the model is worthy of consideration in some form here(see Orser 1984:5-6). Finally, although controversial to excavate,the cemetery should not be overlooked as a potential data source on plantation life. In the absence of any documentary evidence, excavation remains the only method by which to answer the question of who is buried in the cemetery. Of course, certain ethical questions would need to be addressed, but information related to mortuary practices and perhaps osteological analyses could be obtained. (see e.g.,Lange and Handier 1985). In sum, the Hogan site stands as a uniquely preserved and representative example of little studied part of Orange County's historic past. While the site certainly can contribute important cultural historical information concerning nineteenth century plantation life, it also has the potential to address one of the larger "questions that count" in historical archaeology (Deagan 1988) by contributing to the study of slavery. As such, an archaeological study of the Hogan site could provide information about plantation life not duplicable by any other social science. Bibliography Clauser, John W. "The Southern Folk Cemetery in Piedmont North Carolina." North Carolina Historic Preservation Office Newsletter. Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1994. Crow,J.J.,P.D. Escott, and F.J. Hatley.A History ofAfrician Americans in North Carolina. Raleigh: Division of Archives and History,North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1992.