Pee Dee archaeologists hope to unearth Native American history – Charleston Post Courier

FLORENCE COUNTY On a wooded bluff overlooking the Great Pee Dee River, a team of archaeologists digs into the Pee Dee region's past.

Artifact by artifact, the team assembled with the help of the Archaeological Institute of the Pee Dee hopes it can reassemble the story of an area of South Carolina replete with history but largely neglected, they say.

Weve got an incredible human history in this part of the world, an incredible history of humans and their interaction with the natural environment. Ninety eight percent of that history can only be understood through archaeology, said Ben Zeigler, Archaeological Institute of the Pee Dee chairman.

Zeigler contends local history has been overlooked due to a lack of resources and a lack of development in the region.

Since 2021, the institute has helped organize a number of digs and hosted lectures on area history. Now, its working on a comprehensive plan for archaeology in the Pee Dee, which will determine where the organization focuses its efforts.

In May, a team of archaeologists spent 10 days excavating a spot off of the Pee Dee River in Florence County that they believe hosted a Native American settlement. A shovelful at a time, they sifted through the dirt, searching for evidence that people had once lived on the bluff.

Previous surveys of the area uncovered evidence from the Mississippian period, which runs from about 1100 AD to contact with European settlers, said Chris Judge, secretary of the AIPD and an archaeologist at the University of South Carolina Lancaster.

This is the zenith of Native American cultural complexity prior to Europeans arriving, right here in Florence County, he said.

Among the artifacts archaeologists have found at the Florence County site are fragments of pottery stamped with the Mississippian Complicated Stamp. Archaeological Institute of the Pee Dee/Provided

The Mississippians originated in what is now Oklahoma, slowly expanding and eventually displacing the woodland cultures that existed in South Carolina previously. However, Mississippian activity in the Pee Dee remains an enigma, according to Zeigler. Evidence of Mississippian settlement largely disappears beyond the east bank of the Pee Dee. Historians dont know why.

Judge hopes that the teams work can begin filling in the gaps in understanding of the Mississippian period in the Pee Dee, as well as what interaction Native Americans at the time had with Spanish settlers as they traveled inland.

Already, the archaeologists have uncovered a number of artifacts at the site in Florence County, most notably shards of pottery, some of which are stamped with a pattern unique to the period: the Mississippian Complicated Stamp, a winding crosshatch made with a wooden paddle. The pattern both distinguished the pots and made them easier to hold, according to Zeigler.

Once identified, the artifacts will be stored at the Florence County Museum, which acts as the regional hub for the AIPD.

Stephen Motte, curator of collections and interpretation at the museum, said historians know little about Native Americans in the Pee Dee. Few archaeologists have studied the area, and what is known is based on limited primary source material. The work done by the AIPD provides crucial clues as historians work to put the regions history back together.

Having the institute available to the museum, that gives us the ability to more tightly focus on the Pee Dee so that over time, as they continue to work and make discoveries, we can better tell the story of the people who lived here before us, Motte said.

Many think Native American activity in the Pee Dee was limited to small, roving bands that lived in the woods. Thats a misconception, Motte said.

In fact, Motte and Zeigler said, societies in the region were large and complex. They had a complicated, hierarchical society. They frequently traded with each other. They grew corn and lived a sedentary life.

People think that they dont know much because theres not much to know, Motte said. But thats not true.

The work of telling a more complete story is tricky, though. Much of it is speculation based on incomplete data. Archaeologists must use the artifacts they find and the data they collect to imagine their way into the past, Judge said.

Unearthing pieces of a stamped pots from hundreds of years ago is one thing. Imagining someone sitting in the dirt, holding a wooden paddle etched with the pattern, pressing it into the damp clay of the pot thats something else entirely.

But as technology advances and archaeologists make more discoveries, theyre getting closer.

At the end of May, the archaeologists along the Pee Dee River packed up their tools, filled in the holes and headed back to the lab, where they will spend the next months cataloging their findings and studying what theyve collected.

For now, theyre hopeful they found something. A pattern of small, dark circles in the dirt could be a sign of post holes for a home built hundreds of years ago. But its just as likely that the circles are the remnants of long-dead trees, Judge said.

Only with further research will they know for sure.

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Pee Dee archaeologists hope to unearth Native American history - Charleston Post Courier