Little Barnwell Island, near Port Royal, South Carolina, is an important archaeological site with two shell-and-earth mounds on its eastern side overlooking Whale Branch. The larger, elliptical mound is thought to have supported a temple or another ceremonial structure, indicating the island’s ceremonial significance. The mounds and that building were probably constructed during the late Savannah II Period, around A.D. 1500. The site’s preserved earthworks make it a valuable surviving record of the region’s precolonial past, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.