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RESEARCH
Current Research
Current
investigations of the USCARG are focusing on the investigation of Woodland and Archaic
period components of two Robertson Farm Sites: Robertson Brothers
Farm Site 1 (38GR1) and Robertson Brothers
Farm Site 2 (38PN35). Another
current undertaking is a compilation
and synthesis of previous research conducted in the Upstate of South
Carolina focusing particularly on unpublished investigations and "gray
literature" reports.
On-Going Research Current Research
Research reports currently being prepared by members of the Upstate
South Carolina Archaeological Research Group include:
·
A multiple-year survey to locate Native Americans rock art in
Upstate South Carolina. A wide range
of petroglyphs and pictographs have been identified in several Upstate
counties
·
Archaeological testing and geoarchaeological investigations at the Patterson
Site (38SP156), an Archaic site near the confluence of Lawson's Fork
Creek and The Pacolet River in Spartanburg County South Carolina.
·
Archaeological testing and geoarchaeological investigations at four
sites within the South Saluda River Drainage in Pickens and Greenville Counties, South Carolina. These investigations have demonstrated
the presence of intact, stratified archaeological deposits dating back at
least 4000 years.
Previous Research
Selected
examples of previous research in the Upstate by members of the Upstate
South Carolina Archaeological Research Group include:
·
Investigations of Archaic Period Soapstone Quarries in Spartanburg and Cherokee
Counties of South Carolina. Eight of the sites
identified by these investigations have been listed on the National
Register of Historic Places. The
National Register includes select archaeological sites that have the
potential to provide important information about history or prehistory and
that maintain their integrity. The
sites and their prehistoric context and significance are presented in the
1980 Masters Thesis entitled, Prehistoric Soapstone Quarries in Northwestern South Carolina. (University of Tennessee
Department of Anthropology)
·
Investigations of, late eighteenth and nineteenth century
iron-manufacturing operations in Spartanburg and Cherokee Counties of South
Carolina, Ten of the sites identified by these investigations have been
listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The sites and their historic context are
presented in the 1997 publication Carolina's Historical Landscapes: Archaeological Perspectives (University of Tennessee
Press, Knoxville).
·
Investigations at the Pumpkin site on the North
Saluda River
in Greenville
County identified
over five hundred undisturbed pit and posthole features. Less than ten percent of these features
were excavated, but they provided valuable evidence for an intensive, local
Middle Woodland occupation spanning circa A.D. 100 - A.D. 600, as well as
evidence for the earliest plant domestication known for the South Atlantic
Slope. The Pumpkin site
investigations are published as SCIAA Research Manuscript Series 228.
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