South Carolina excavation

For three months, Knight and dozens of other local volunteers have visited the site, which was unveiled publicly for the first time Wednesday. It is located just inside the county line, midway between Pickens County's Pumpkintown community and Marietta.

During that time, researchers have uncovered thousands of artifacts, unearthing a prehistoric Indian settlement believed by archaelogists to be between 500 to 1,500 years old. . .

Huge pieces of Stallings Island pottery — the earliest Native American pottery in the United States — have been discovered on the site, dating back as much as 4,000 years. The pottery, which is made of a paste formed by mixing Spanish moss with clay, predates farming, and varies in design from the plain to the very ornate.

"It just keeps turning up," said landowner Jesse Robertson, who has shared his farm with archaeologists during the dormant winter months. . .

Since he bought his farm 30 years ago, Robertson has collected hundreds of artifacts, including several perfectly formed bowls, fist-sized stones as smooth as pieces of paper and arrowheads. . .

Even before Robertson moved to the property, residents of Pickens, Greenville and Oconee counties had visited the fields — just off State 288 — in search of Indian artifacts.

Posted by David on March 21, 2005 4:05 PM