EXCAVATORS NEEDED, NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

Join an archaeological excavation

Survey and test sites

 University of South Carolina
Wateree Archaeological
Research Project (W.A.R.P)
along the Wateree River in
central South Carolina
near Camden

Students and volunteers participate fully in the project, including excavating, mapping, note-taking, and artifact processing.  Join our scientific team and archaeological field school!

INDEX
(double-click)

About WARP

The original scope for the Wateree Archaeological Research Project (WARP) was described by Ferguson and Green (1984b:1) as follows: "The project is designed to investigate human-land relationships in the Wateree River Valley utilizing a wide range of approaches including anthropology, archaeology, geography, history, folklore as well as the natural sciences." As originally envisioned, the project would focus on the entire Wateree Valley, from initial occupation through the present time.  However, it was not until 1998 that concerted survey and testing took place at Wateree Valley sites other than Mulberry.

In 1998, Gail Wagner (Department of Anthropology) and Chris Judge (Department of Natural Resources Heritage Trust) as co-principal investigators used matching grants to survey, map, and test the Mulberry site and two other nearby mound/town sites along the Wateree River, the Adamson site and the Belmont Neck site.  The fieldwork in 1998 directed by John Cable resulted in clarification of the ceramic chronology for the Wateree Valley, a fresh assessment of site sizes and integrity, topographic maps of each site, and a summary of plant use through time in central South Carolina.

Their plans are to continue to elucidate the history and lifeways of the Mississippian period of people who occupied the Wateree Valley, through the framework of human-landscape interactions.

The Mulberry Site (38KE12)

The large mound/town site known as Mulberry was once a capital city of Cofitachequi, a chiefdom on the Wateree River central South Carolina from A.D. 1100 - 1700.  Occupation spans the Belmont Neck, Savannah II, Adamson, Town Creek, McDowell, Mulberry, and Daniels ceramic phases, as well as an as-yet unnamed late protohistoric ceramic phase.

Mulberry was visited by Hernando de Soto in 1540 and by other Spanish and English explorers through 1670.  In 1806 as many as ten mounds were observed, but now only two are visible.  Some of the mounds would have been flat-topped with a temple or public (rather than private) structure on top.

The Mulberry site is located on the present-day historic Mulberry Plantation.  Excavations at this and other sites on the property have been initiated and supported by the owners of the property.

The first archaeological excavations were undertaken by the mound division of the Bureau of American Ethnology in the spring of 1891.  Only sketchy notes remain of this early exploration, since the field director died before finishing his excavation!  Two of the mounds were trenched.  No further work was done at the site until 1952, when A.R. Kelly at the University of Georgia along with support from the Charleston Museum undertook to profile Mound A, which had long been eroding into the river, and to uncover a portion of the village to the south of the mounds.  No further archaeological explorations occurred for 21 years, although in 1970 a portion of the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It was not until archaeologists were established at the University of South Carolina that a concerted effort was directed toward exploration of this site.  Limited testing in 1973 by Leland G. Ferguson led to the initiation of the Wateree Archaeological Research Project (WARP) in 1979.  From 1979 through 1982, and again in 1985, the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina ran archaeological field schools at the Mulberry site.  During this period, fieldwork was directed by a number of researchers and , until 1985, all work was focused on the area in and adjacent to the mounds.  These early field schools explored site stratigraphy, examined mound construction, looked for paleosurfaces, searched for evidence of historic slave occupation, and established a ceramic chronology.  And, they resulted in six Masters theses on the Mulberry site.

The 1985 field season, directed by Chester DePratter and Joan Gero, was significant in that it initiated the first excavations in a portion of the village distant from the mounds.  It was this area of the village that was the focus of Gail E. Wagner's field research in alternate years from 1990 through 1998.  During this period, the first prehistoric structure (House 1) was uncovered and excavated.  This is not only the first prehistoric structure excavated at this site, it is the first entire structure from any time period in the state of South Carolina!

House 1 is a square structure, 6.6 m on a side, built with single wall post construction except for a narrow, short trench door in the southwest corner.  Like other late prehistoric houses found in surrounding states, the center of the house was an open square delimited by four central support posts.  There appear to be inner partitions as well as benches along the walls, an entry vestibule, and a central puddled clay hearth.  One radiocarbon date places occupation of this structure at about A.D. 1680.  The fact that over 2#kg of mica were recovered from this structure, coupled with its location near the edge of town, indicates it was a workshop where mica was fashioned into finished products (Wagner 1998b).  Finished mica products such as oval to round disks with central cut-out crosses were sewn onto the clothing of only certain elites.

During the 2000 and 2002field season, a portion of a stockade around the mound precinct was located.  The inhabitants dug a flat-bottomed wall trench into midden.  Later midden accumulated only on the mound side of the wooden wall erected in the wall trench.  We believe we located the remnants of Mound C (bulldozed into the creek in the 1950s).  Finally, another structure was found within the mound precinct.

Above, the crew for the 2000 Field season, 

with Mounds A and B in the background.

 An oblique profile view of the

 stockade wall trench

   A plan view of the abrupt 

edge to the upper midden

at the stockade line.

Belmont Neck Site (38KE6)

Who May Participate

We're looking for excavators who are in good physical shape, able to walk over rough terrain, and will to work long, hot days in the South Carolina sun.  Sound tempting??  No prior excavation or field experience is required, and although it is useful to have taken Principles of Archaeology or any other introductory course that introduces you to the basic methods and vocabulary or archaeology, no prior coursework is required.  You'll just have a bigger vocabulary to learn than someone who has taken such a course.  Volunteers under the age of 16 may be accepted if they are accompanied by an adult or otherwise demonstrate the level of maturity necessary for sustained work in the sun.  New volunteers must commit to working at least one five-day work week.

What do students and volunteers do?  Excavate units, keep field notes, 

describe dirt, take cores, screen dirt, set up units, wash artifacts, make maps, and so on.  Generally you and a partner are assigned a unit for which you are responsible.

Current Field Season

Our primary objective during the 2008 field season is to recover material from the village at the Belmont Neck site (38KE6), which was occupied between about A.D. 950-1300. If we are lucky, we may locate and begin excavation of a house. The materials we recover will be compared to those found associated with the mound during the 2004 excavation field season, and they will serve to help us understand day-to-day life, diet, and how the inhabitants of this mound town affected the vegetation around them.

We have several secondary objectives we may pursue (or students may adopt as their 6-credit course projects) as time allows. We’d like to examine the “neck” of Belmont Neck to look for evidence of fortification. We’d like to trench an edge of the mound to record the slope angle in order to help us confirm the original height of the mound. We’d like to continue shovel testing on a grid to refine the boundaries of the site. We’d like to locate the “old field” marked on the earliest plat maps, with the objective of locating an isolated Mississippian farmstead. We’d like to explore historic Long Pond for historic/prehistoric trash deposits. Finally, we’d like to map in detail the possible 1700s indigo vat area.

Students and volunteers participate fully in all aspects of excavation, from mapping and note-taking to screening and excavation. All participants will practice describing dirt, an integral skill needed by all archaeologists. We end each day with a tour of each unit, during which excavators present a summary of what they accomplished that day.

Our work day begins at 7:15 am in Camden, SC, and ends at 3:30 pm. Our work week runs from Tuesdays through Saturdays, with Sunday and Monday off. On Saturdays we hold a pot-luck “Pig Out” lunch. Our field season begins May 13 and ends June 28.

Excavations take place in a remote area on private property and unannounced visitors are not welcome. All participants and visitors must fill out a legal release waiver before they are allowed on the property. If you would like to volunteer to help on a regular basis (for example, every Saturday, or for one entire week), please compete and return a volunteer application form.

Here are some faces from previous years

Students who wish to take the course for credit should refer to the fee schedules posted by the University of South Carolina. ANTH 322 may be taken by undergraduates for either 3 credits (basic digging) or 6 credits (digging plus an additional research project/paper). ANTH 722 is a 6-credit course. Although both courses begin at the start of Maymester, they are classified as Summer Session I courses because that is when they end. Students pay an additional $30 fee for course materials, including a Field Manual and a Laboratory Manual. An optional textbook is available at the local bookstores.

Volunteers pay a $30 fee for course materials, including a Field Manual and a Laboratory Manual. This fee may be waived for local volunteers with limited budgets.

Contact information: Dr. Gail Wagner, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC  29208; office (803) 777-6548; department office (803) 777-6500; fax (803) 777-0259; gail.wagner@sc.edu 

Camden

Camden, founded in 1733 and incorporated in 1791, is located on the Wateree River in Kershaw County, central South Carolina, in an area known as the Olde English District.  It is home of the famous steeplechase races, the Carolina Cup and the Colonial Cup.  It has many fine horses and historic homes.  Camden was originally settled by Quaker colonists, and the old Quaker Cemetery is an interesting place to visit.  It contains a memorial to Dr. William Blanding, the physician who first described the Mulberry site in 1806.  In 1780, General Cornwallis of the British army established his headquarters in Camden, and for nearly a year Camden was the main supply post for southern British operations.  The two battles fought here were both British victories.

Historic Camden Revolutionary War Park, the original site of old Camden, showcases historic structures and serves as a source of information on the history of the area.  It is an excellent place to begin a tour of Camden.  Further information and brochures may be obtained at the Chamber of Commerce.

Camden is located 32 miles east of Columbia off 1-20 and 124 miles northwest of Charleston.  It is serviced by Amtrak and bus.  Take the Rt. 521 exit north off I-20 to reach Historic Camden Revolutionary War Park and the present town of Camden, or enter town via Rt.1 from the north.  Lugoff is a nearby town at Rt. 601 and I-20, convenient to reaching the excavation site and near the Amtrak station.

Click here for information on South Carolina

Meet the Principal Investigator

Dr. Gail E. Wagner (back left of picture, wearing the red shirt) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina.  She is a paleoethnobotanist, an archaeologist who studies the relationships between peoples and plants.  In addition to her research on the Mississippian period in the Wateree Valley, she works with organizations to re-create Indian gardens, researches maize, tobacco, and late prehistoric human-plant relationships; and directs the South Carolina Homegarden Project (a look at present use of yards and gardens in South Carolina).  To view basic information on plants and peoples in ancient North American, see http://www.cas.sc.edu/ANTH/AncientGardening.html

To Sign Up

Download or print a volunteer application form, undergraduate application form, or graduate application form. 

Email: gail.wagner@sc.edu .  Email is the best way to reach Dr. Wagner!

Undergraduate                                  Graduate                                             Volunteer

Bibliography

Baker, Stephen G.

1974    Cofitachique: Fair Province of Carolina. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of

History, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Cabak, Melanie

1991    Historic Artifacts from the Mulberry Site (38KE12). Ms. on File, Department of

Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Cable, John S.

     2000    Demographic Succession as a Factor in Explaining Offsetting Occupation Spans

                 at Mississippian Mound Centers. Paper at 57^th Southeastern Archaeological

                 Conference, Macon, GA.

Cable, John S., Gail E. Wagner, and Christopher Judge

     1999    (Draft) Wateree Archaeological Research Project, 1998 Survey and Testing of the

                 Belmont Neck (38KE06), Adamson (38KE11), and Mulberry (38KE12) Sites:

                 Mississippian Occupation in the Wateree River Valley. Report sponsored by

                 South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the National Geographic

                 Society.

Claassen, Cheryl and Samuella Sigmann

1993    Sourcing Busycon Artifacts of the Eastern United States. American Antiquity

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Daniels, Christopher W.

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DePratter, Chester

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Archaeological Field School Mulberry Site (38KE12). South Carolina Institute of

Archaeology and Anthroplogy Notebook 17(3&4):31-36.

1985b  W.A.R.P. V Mulberry Site Field School, Summer 1985. Field Notes on File, South

Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina,

Columbia.

1994  The Chiefdom of Cofitachequi. In The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and

Europeans in the American South, 1521-1704. ed. by C. Hudson and C. C.

Tesser, pp. 197-226. The University of Georgia Press, Athens.

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1986    A Provisional Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Ceramic Sequence for the Wateree

River Valley, South Carolina. Ms. on File, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology

and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

1990    Wateree River. In Lamar Archaeology: Mississippian Chiefdoms in the Deep South,

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Carolina. Paper written for Anth 722. Ms. on File, Department of Anthropology,

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Ferguson, Leland G.

1973    Mulberry Plantation Exploratory Archeology. Research Manuscript Series, No. 54.

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(1979). On File, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology,

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1984a  South Appalachian Mississippian: Politics and Environment in the Old, Old South.

Southeastern Archaeology 3(2):139-143.

1984b  Overview. In Stratigraphic Description and Interpretation of the Mulberry Mound

Site, Kershaw County, South Carolina, by Kenneth E. Sassaman, pp. 1-5. South

Carolina Research in Anthropology Vol. 1(1). Department of Anthropology,

University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Field School

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Carolina Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina,

Columbia.

Gero, Joan

1985    WARP V 1985 Field Notes. On File, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and

Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

Gillam, Christopher J.

1993    Aerial Photographic Interpretation of Site Destruction at Mulberry Mounds. In

Site Destruction in Georgia and the Carolinas, edited by David G. Anderson and

Virginia Horak, pp. 18-25. Readings in Archeological Resource Protection, No. 2.

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Green, Stanton

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at end of book). On File, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology,

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Grimes, Kimberly

1984    An Analysis of the Artifacts from the Northwest Corner of the Mulberry Site.

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Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

1986b  Ethnobotanical Remains from the Mulberry Mound Site. In The Wateree Papers: Recent Prehistoric and Historical Research in the Wateree Valley. Annual Papers of the University of South Carolina Anthropology Students Association, Vol. 1, compiled by Christopher Judge, pp. 1-15. Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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1984    N-S Trench Study. Partial Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, University of

South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

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1985a  Analysis of Prehistoric Ceramic Collections from Big Pine Tree Creek: Underwater

Surface Collection and Dredging at Mulberry (38KE12). Ms. on file, Department of

Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina,

Columbia.

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of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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     1981    An Analysis of the 1981 Ditch Excavations at the Mulberry Site, 38KE12.

 Ms. on File, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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1989    Soil Survey of Kershaw County Area, South Carolina. Soil Conservation Service,

U.S.D.A.

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1981    Analysis of the Slave Structures and Mound Destruction at the Mulberry Site

(38KE12). Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina,

Columbia.

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1981    A Partial Report of Field Investigations at the Mulberry Site (38KE12), Kershaw

County, South Carolina: Summer 1981: Plaza and Slave Cabins Project. Ms. on

File, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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1982    Paleoethnobotany in the Wateree River Valley. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department

of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University.

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at the Mulberry Site, edited by Leland Ferguson, pp. 98-100. The Institute of

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Columbia.

Sutton, Paula

1982a  Contrary to Popular Belief Coring Exploring is not Boring. Wateree Archeological

Research Project 1982 Soil Coring Operation at the Mulberry Site (38KE12).

Ms. on File, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

1982b  Intra-Site Phosphate Analysis at the Mulberry Site 38KE12. Ms. on File,

Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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Structure and Content as a Basis for Cultural Interpretation. Unpublished M.A.

thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

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1990    W.A.R.P. VI B 1990 Daily Log. On File, Department of Anthropology, University

of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

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Nontechnical Report Prepared for Office of Sponsored Programs and Research,

USC. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina,

Columbia.

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of South Carolina, Columbia.

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Carolinas, edited by David G. Anderson and Virginia Horak, pp. 18-25. Readings in

Archeological Resource Protection, No. 2. Interagency Archeological Services

Division, National Park Service, Atlanta.

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South Carolina, Columbia, SC

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South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

1998a  W.A.R.P. X 1998 Field Notes. On File, Department of Anthropology, University of

South Carolina, Columbia.

1998b  A Mica Workshop at the Edge of Town. Paper presented at 55^th Annual

Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Greenville, SC. On File, Department of

Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

     1999    W.A.R.P. XI Field Notes. On File, Department of Anthropology, University of

                 South Carolina, Columbia.

     2000a  W.A.R.P. XII Field Notes. On File, Department of Anthropology, University of

                 South Carolina, Columbia.

     2000b  Mississippian Plant Use in the Middle Wateree Valley. Paper at 57^th Southeastern

                 Archaeological Conference, Macon, GA.

     2001    Landscapes of the Eye. Paper at 24^th Society of Ethnobiology Conference, Durango,

                 CO.

Questions?

Contact Dr. Gail E. Wagner, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC  29208; Phone (803) 777-6548; Fax (803) 777-0259; email gail.wagner@sc.edu

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the author.  The contents of the page have

 not been reviewed or approved by the University of South Carolina.

This page updated March 19, 2008

Send comments to: Gail E. Wagner

Copyright 2006 by Gail E. Wagner.  All Rights reserved.

URL http://www/cas/sc/edu/ANTH/faculty/wagnerg/excavate.htm

© Copyrighted 2006 by the University of South Carolina. All rights reserved.