TOMORROW: "Exploring the Archaeology of Lake Marion" at Elloree Museum

From the Times and Democrat

Busy fall on tap at Elloree museum

ELLOREE - Three special events are scheduled at the Elloree Heritage Museum and Cultural Center in September and October.

On Friday, Sept. 17, Dr. Robert C. Costello of the University of South Carolina-Sumter will conduct a lecture on "Exploring the Archaeology of Lake Marion."

The presentation, set for 7 p.m., will highlight photographs and discuss archaeological artifacts of Lake Marion as well as its flora, fauna and shoreline landscape.

Illustrations will include projectile points - from 13,000-year-old Clovis to more recent lithic tools, pot shreds from ancient fiber-tempered to colonial-era North Devon gravel-tempered ware, cypresses in barrier beach ponds, birds and alligators.

It is hoped those who attend will leave with an enhanced appreciation both for the beauty and the historic significance of Lake Marion, and with the conviction that Hickory Top Wildlife Management Area, the principal location of these studies, is a priceless resource that should remain forever immune from commercial development.

Those in attendance are welcome to bring their own archaeological finds to show the speaker and his research collaborator, Kenn Steffy, following the formal presentation.

There is no charge for the lecture, but seating is limited. Call 803-897-2225 or e-mail elloreemuseum.ntinet.com to make reservations.

You can read the rest of this Times and Democrat article here.

TOMORROW! Beaufort County Historical Society-Meeting Sept. 16th

Beaufort County Historical Society-Meeting Sept. 16th

The Beaufort County Historical Society will present Parris Island Museum’s Dave Smoot Sept. 16th at noon at the Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club 30 Yacht Club Drive. Smoot will discuss military medical practices during the Civil War.

An optional light lunch catered by Debi Covington will be served at 11:30 for $10. RSVP, please to Nancy Gilley 843·524·7969

Directions: The Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club is across the Swing Bridge from Carteret onto Lady’s Island, turn right on Meridian Road ,second right after the bridge. In less than 2 miles, turn right onto Yacht Club Drive.

Upcoming Events:

Nov. 11th --Speaker Kristina Dunn Johnson to discuss the history of the Beaufort US National Cemetery

Dec. 3th – Night on the Town-Downtown Beaufort http://www.downtownbeaufort.com/night-on-the-town

Dec. 4th --The 2nd Annual Beaufort County Historical Society Tour of Historic Churches, this year to include holiday entertainment and optional lunch.

The Beaufort County Historical Society is the oldest association in Beaufort County dedicated to the study and preservation of history. A member based organization, the society was established in 1939.

For further information contact: Pamela Ovens-President
sail@singlestar.us or call 843-785-2767

ASSC/Hilton Head Chapter Fall Speakers Series kicks off Tuesday

Archaeology Society of SC/Hilton Head Chapter Fall Speakers Series Kicks Off Tuesday, September 21

The Archaeology Society of SC/Hilton Head Chapter is pleased to announce that Carl Steen will kick off the Fall speaker series this Tuesday, Sept. 21st, at Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Hilton Head, SC at 7 pm. The public is always invited and welcome to attend our Chapter meetings.

Steen's talk will highlight his archaeological exploration at Penn Center, including both American Indian and historic African American (Gullah) recoveries. A native of Charleston, SC, Steen attended College of Charleston, received his BA from USC, and his MA from William and Mary. he began workng as an archaeologist in 1981, and founded Diachronic Research Foundation, a non-profit corporation, in 1991.

Some of Steen’s major projects have included excavations at the John de la Howe site in McCormick County; a survey of pottery kiln sites in the old Edgefield District (modern Aiken, Edgefield and Greenwood counties); excavations at Fort Bragg, concentrating on sites occupied by descendants of the early Scot settlers there; and excavations at Fort Johnson, on James Island, where he examined a variety of occupations including a freedmen's settlement and several military-related occupations.

Upcoming events:

Oct. 20th- Charlie Cobb discussing the campaigns at Palachacolas Town on the Savannah River near Garnett, SC. This will be Wednesday, Oct 20 at 1:00 PM

Nov 16th-- Dan Elliott discussing the Yuchis of Mt Pleasant, SC

For further information: George Stubbs- 843-363-5058 www.assc.net

Legendary guitarist and passionate historian passes

Michael C. Taylor

Legendary guitarist and passionate historian, archaeologist and preservationist, Michael Curtis Taylor, 62, of Hilton Head passed away on Sunday, September 5 at Hilton Head Regional Medical Center.

Taylor was born on July 21, 1948, to Katie Steed and George F. Taylor in Fayetteville, N.C. While a teenager, he taught himself to play the acoustic guitar. His mastery of the instrument put him in demand in the 1960s as a lead guitarist for a variety of folk singers in both Fayetteville and New York City, playing for such legends as Joni Mitchell.

In 1969, he joined an up-and-coming singer named John Denver and with Denver wrote such hits as Sunshine on My Shoulders and Rocky Mountain High. His guitar technique in songs such as The Season Suite and The Eagle and The Hawk often led to his being considered the best guitarist in the country. While playing with Denver, he married Mary Kay Kolacz of Washington, N.C., on July 25, 1970.

Taylor, seeking to escape winter in Aspen, Colorado, came to Hilton Head in January of 1973 at the suggestion of a friend to spend the season. As a boy he had always loved collecting arrowheads and other artifacts with his father, and found the relatively undeveloped Hilton Head and Daufuskie Islands fertile fields for exploring and piecing together the history of the islands. His passion for educating others about the complex relationship between man and his environment, and assuring that historical sites were secured soon surpassed his love of the stage, and Taylor put down roots on Hilton Head and began studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia in archaeology and anthropology. As with the guitar, Taylor completely immersed himself in the subjects and became a Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at USC.

In 1985, Taylor and a group of islanders began an effort to create The Museum of Hilton Head Island (now Coastal Discovery) and Taylor became the first director in 1988. Under his leadership, beach, nature and history walks and lectures began, archaeological projects were undertaken at Fish Haul Creek & Mitchelville (site of the first freedman's village), the museum took over management of the pre-historic Green's Shell enclosure, and a bird hospital and Project Turtle Watch operated under the museum's umbrella.

Taylor later was the co-founder of the Southeastern Ecological Institute and was that organization's Executive Director. He wrote and narrated "Mike Taylor's History of Hilton Head Island," an audio-cassette feature in Southern Living Magazine as well as a video series Hilton Head Island - A Television History which aired on the History Channel. In addition, he collaborated and contributed in 1993 on a limited edition book The Forgotten History: A Photographic Essay on Civil War Hilton Head Island.

In 2002, Taylor was named Executive Director of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. Among the many accomplishments during his tenure was the preservation of Battery White, a Civil War Confederate fortification near Georgetown; the confirmation and preservation of Fort Pemberton, a Confederate site on James Island; and he was currently involved in preservation and interpretive signs at Battery Brayton, a Union Fort near Beaufort. Over the past several years, Taylor consulted with filmmaker Mike Kirk on several documentaries including The Trumpet at the Walls of Jericho about a slave who obtained freedom and became the chaplain of the African-American 54th regiment during the Civil War. He just completed work as co-writer and associate producer for America's "Iliad: The Siege of Charleston," a 2-hour film about Charleston during the Civil War which is set to air nationally on PBS stations in April of 2011.

In addition to his wife, Mary Kay, Taylor is survived by his sister Janet Taylor Knight (David), of Washington, N.C., and a brother, George Taylor, of Chapel Hill, N.C. A Celebration of Life will be held at the The Island Funeral Home and Crematory, 4 Cardinal Road, on Friday, September 10 at 6:00 p.m. In honor of the many ways Mike sought to help others, memorial contributions may be made to The Deep Well Project, P.O. Box 5543, Hilton Head, SC 29938 or to the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, P.O. Box 21781, Hilton Head, SC 29925 The Island Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of arrangements.

Coastal Carolina University Dig Unearths Shipbuilding History

Coastal Carolina University Dig Unearths Shipbuilding History
Boat fire marked end of an era
By Steve Jones - sjones@thesunnews.com

CONWAY -- Work at Government Shipyard of Conwayborough stopped when the steam-driven vessel Maggie burned up at a dock on the Waccamaw River during an early May night in 1897.

The ship fire, which started around midnight, spread to some of the nearby warehouses as well as the shipyard. Reports from the time record the end of the Maggie, a Waccamaw Line ship that hauled cargo and passengers. Archaeologists at Coastal Carolina University can tell it was the end of the shipyard because the layering of the soil at a site near Kingston Presbyterian Church showed only fill material and then parking lot material above the layer of charred soil.

"We see this all over the world," said Cheryl Ward, director of the Center for Archaeology and Anthropology at CCU.

After evidence of a fire is found at an archaeological site anywhere on the globe, there typically is evidence in the soil layer above the charred layer that the destruction has been cleaned up and those using it have converted its use to something different.

Ward's hiring by the university last year and the subsequent hiring of two more archaeologists will open up a field of study for students and give the area a new resource for readily and literally digging into its past.

Ward, for instance, said she has been asked to join the board of the Horry County Museum and is planning a dig on the grounds of the Burroughs School, where the museum is relocating.

Ben Burroughs, president of the Horry County Historical Society, said the things Ward and the other archaeologists uncover could alter historical misimpressions and give more detail to the county's history.

"Horry County history has not been thoroughly researched, in my opinion," said Burroughs.

He said CCU hired an earlier archaeologist around 1990 who uncovered the site of Richmond Hill Plantation in the Wachesaw area of Horry County. Historical evidence of the plantation existed, but the archaeological dig gave proof of the size of the plantation house and the life its owners lived.

Ward also does maritime archaeology and speaks with pride of the reconstruction of an Egyptian vessel discovered at a site she has worked in Egypt for decades. The Waccamaw, she said, contains what's left of any number of vessels that sank in the county's early English history.

She and the other archaeologists at CCU were lured there from other universities by the opportunity to create an archaeology program from the ground up. They are writing the documents that will allow archaeology to be a program minor at the school. Eventually, it will evolve into a major study program of its own and then undertake a graduate program.

One of the things that excites Ward about starting the CCU program is that she will be able to involve undergraduates in the investigation that is archaeology.

The hole that opened up near the Conway waterfront in June was dug by crews who were burying utility lines, Ward said.

"We realized it was a phenomenal opportunity," Ward said.

Not only was it a small trench into the city's past, but it came at a time that it could be incorporated into her program's archaeological field school. Students at the time participated in the recovery of artifacts and will help in their specific identification as part of this year's classwork.

The hoped-for dig at Burroughs School will show students and others that the artifacts found underground are often a piece of a puzzle, the full picture of which doesn't come without researching historical records and the memories of those with direct experience of things found underground.

In the pit near Kingston Presbyterian, which measured between 12 feet and 20 feet wide by about 12 feet deep, there was enough resin to immediately determine that the site was likely used for shipbuilding. The resin came from the sap of pine trees, which yielded materials such as tar, pitch and turpentine, essential to keep commercial, wooden ships afloat.

The site also yielded things such as metal hoops used on wooden barrels, factory and handmade nails and other items that would further substantiate the industrial use of the area.

Additionally, two dime-size pieces of pottery were found. The patterns on them will lead to dating when and where they were made as well as how they might have been used.

The artifacts from that dig were already above ground when CCU's archaeologists and students got to the site. The crews who dug them up recognized there could be historical value in them and called the school.

"All over the surface were huge lumps of things from naval stores and bits of pottery from the 18th century. The deepest level of the hole was dated to about 1820.

It wasn't the ideal situation for an archaeologist, who wants to be the first one to disturb a site for study. But it helped to reinforce Ward's conviction that she made the right decision to relocate to Conway.

It showed her that people there are tuned into history as something important and are willing to act on it, she said.

"I've never been in a place," Ward said, "where you can call up on Wednesday and, by Friday, everybody says 'yes.'"

Contact STEVE JONES at 444-1765.

Experts call discovery a 'most unusual find'

David Bertrand of Georgetown didn’t know what he had found when he discovered a rock-like object in the dirt near his home. Archaeologists are puzzled over the object, but say it could have been used by early Native Americans.

Experts call discovery a 'most unusual find'

Georgetown, S.C. — David Bertrand, a volunteer at the Georgetown County Museum, was planting jasmine in his garden when his shovel hit what he thought was a rock.

He put the object aside, wondering why a rock would be in the shallow soil near his driveway.

The object, after he washed away the mud, appeared to have a tiny, human face.

There are crosshatch marks on the object, which appear to have been made with a thin, sharp edged object.

“I only went down about six inches, and when I turned the dirt over, I saw this thing that looked like a rock in the dirt,” Bertrand said. “I continued with the rest of the jasmine and went back to it. I wanted to find out what kind of rock it was. It wasn’t a rock.”

On Tuesday, archaeologists speculated that it could be anything from a net weight to a rare “boat stone,” which some say they have never encountered in Georgetown County.

The object could date back to the earliest settlements of Native Americans in Georgetown County.

A boat stone, according to archaeology Web sites, is a weight attached to a throwing stick. The weight improves the distance the stick can be thrown and improves the accuracy.

Rare find

The search for the true nature of the object has taken Bertrand, a history buff, to archaeologists in Charleston and Mount Pleasant.

Many other archaeologists also weighed in Tuesday on the question of what the object could be.

“I've been in archaeology in South Carolina for nearly 30 years and have never seen one before, if that means anything,’’ said researcher Carl Steen.

The object has a hole in the top and bottom and appears to fit on a necklace, stick or a fishing net.

It is about the size of an egg and has a hollowed out back.

It appears to be made of unglazed clay, Bertrand said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,’’ said Ron Anthony, an archaeologist at the Charleston County Museum. “I don’t know what to tell you. Usually when we get something really odd like this, I suspect it’s something genuine. In all the publications, I haven’t seen anything like this.”

He said it closely resembles artifacts that come from the Deptford period, but he isn’t sure.

According to Internet sources, the Deptford culture was from 2500 BCE to 100 BCE.

“It was characterized by the appearance of elaborate ceremonial complexes, increasing social and political complexity, mound burial, permanent settlements, population growth, and an increasing reliance on cultigens.”

Steen said the piece appears to be Native American in origin.

“It’s a pretty curious object,’’ he said. “I would say it’s an important find because of how interesting it is. It will stimulate conversation, if nothing else.”

Bertrand said he has been told by some experts that the object could be about 3,000 years old.

“We didn’t know anything about it and we still don’t,’’ said Martha Zierden, curator of the Charleston County Museum.

“It wasn’t anything we recognized. From time to time, people bring us odd things we don’t have an answer for.”

For now, the piece is housed at the Georgetown County Museum, along with other Native American objects.

Bertrand hopes one day he can find out more about the object and make a display featuring the piece at the museum.

Visitors to the museum are surprised at the appearance of the strange object.

Bertrand said, so far, he hasn’t found any other unusual pieces in his yard.

He doesn’t know if his house rests on other unique historical objects.

“People are astounded that it was found in the area,” he said.

By Kelly Marshall Fuller

Kfuller@gtowntimes.com

Waccamaw Chapter of Archaeological Society of South Carolina: Field Excursion

Waccamaw Chapter of Archaeological Society of South Carolina: Field Excursion


Hot off the planning table—we are having a field excursion on Friday and Saturday August 20 and 21. Chapter members have a special opportunity to participate as full team members in the investigation of a small historic residence at the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center property. The Refuge is located just south of the Georgetown county line on Hwy 701, and we will be opening excavation units at the wooded site and also working in the laboratory during the day.

Chapter members will begin at 8.30 am and we hope you’ll be able to stay until 3 pm. Lunch is on us, and you may also camp with the core crew from Coastal Carolina University’s Center for Archaeology and Anthropology on Friday evening and get an early start at setting things up plus enjoying good camp cooking. For more information on camping, please contact me at cward@coastal.edu.

Everyone is welcome to observe the activities, and the Refuge is planning more fun from kayaking to birdwatching for the day (please see the attached flyer, and share it), but only full chapter members may participate in excavation and recording finds.

If you would like to join us, please send me an email with your contact information, your member status (paid or will pay at the site), and whether you will camp with us. We need to hear from you by Thursday the 19th at noon, please!

Please share this with friends and others who might be interested in visiting the refuge or joining us at the dig.

With best wishes for this first week of school across the state and all levels,