{"id":10806,"date":"2015-06-24T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T14:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10806"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:49","slug":"wallsitedig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10806","title":{"rendered":"75 years of unearthing N.C.\u2019s past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A classroom with shovels\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rtDjZHfj0Og?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>If your idea of an archaeological dig features a bullwhip-toting, fedora-wearing Indiana Jones rescuing precious artifacts from greedy thieves, you might want to go easy on the movie popcorn.<\/p>\n<p>Just ask Isaac Warshauer, who was working at the Wall Site dig in Hillsborough as part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/rla.unc.edu\/Teaching\/Fieldschool2015\/index.html\">2015 UNC Archaeological Field School<\/a> on a recent muggy morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not swashbuckling, and it takes some effort to see the glamour in it,\u201d said Warshauer, a 2015 archaeology graduate from <a href=\"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/\">UNC\u2019s College of Arts and Sciences<\/a> who plans to pursue a career in architecture. \u201cWe don\u2019t go through booby traps to uncover things, but people had been plowing these fields for many years before anyone realized that Native Americans occupied this place. In a different way, there\u2019s something glamorous about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10809\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/06\/Wall-Site-June-2015-8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10809\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/06\/Wall-Site-June-2015-8-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"This year marks the 75th anniversary of UNC\u2019s Research Laboratories of Archaeology, and the RLA\u2019s founding director held the first extensive excavation at the Wall Site in 1940.  (photo by Kristen Chavez)\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This year marks the 75th anniversary of UNC\u2019s Research Laboratories of Archaeology, and the RLA\u2019s founding director held the first extensive excavation at the Wall Site in 1940. (photo by Kristen Chavez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Wall Site is a Native American fortified town that was occupied from the mid-15<sup>th<\/sup> through the 16<sup>th<\/sup> centuries by ancestors of the Shakori and Eno tribes on the eve of the European colonization of North America. This year marks the 75th anniversary of UNC\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/rla.unc.edu\/\">Research Laboratories of Archaeology<\/a>, and the RLA\u2019s founding director held the first extensive excavation at the Wall Site in 1940. Excavations continued in 1983-84 and again in 2001-02.<\/p>\n<p>UNC archaeologist Brett Riggs said the return to the Wall Site 75 years after the first major excavation is not just for commemorative purposes. The RLA has a sustained, ongoing commitment to illuminating the history of Native American communities in the Carolina Piedmont.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s their trajectory? What\u2019s their evolution over time?\u201d Riggs said. \u201cNative communities abandoned this region in the early 18<sup>th<\/sup> century, and a lot of the people moved south to take refuge with the Catawba Nation. So to trace these communities farther ahead in time, we have to look at other places. We have very real, ongoing questions here. The archaeology is the document we use to flesh out that story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the latest dig, about 15 undergraduate students, two graduate teaching assistants and a handful of volunteers uncovered artifacts such as discarded animal bones, plant foods charred in cooking fires, broken pottery fragments and stones used to make tools. The site is in an overgrown field on the banks of the Eno River not far from the Hillsborough courthouse. The field school is an experiential, six-credit-hour course. Students learned the basic techniques of excavation, mapping, surveying, photography and artifact identification. The course was taught by Riggs and his colleague Stephen Davis.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10807\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10807\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/06\/Wall-Site-June-2015-34.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10807\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/06\/Wall-Site-June-2015-34-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"Second-year graduate student Rosie Blewitt said artifacts found in trash pits can tell archaeologists all kinds of valuable information. (photo by Kristen Chavez)\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10807\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Second-year graduate student Rosie Blewitt said artifacts found in trash pits can tell archaeologists all kinds of valuable information. (photo by Kristen Chavez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>UNC senior Teresa Kane said the course has given her a greater appreciation for the history and archaeology of North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs an English major, I\u2019m particularly interested in writings of the South,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the history of the South right here in our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you\u2019ve heard the saying that one person\u2019s trash is another person\u2019s treasure? That couldn\u2019t be more true for archaeologists, explained second-year graduate student Rosie Blewitt. Artifacts found in trash pits can tell archaeologists all kinds of information \u2014 they are a window into daily life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese storage pits tell us what people were eating through plant and animal bone remains,\u201d Blewitt said. \u201cWe can use the pottery to set a chronology in time. It can also tell us about group affiliation, how people were related to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, students\u2019 contributions have gone far beyond any one field school, Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProbably 300 students have been involved over the years, and the research wouldn\u2019t have been possible without their individual efforts,\u201d he said. \u201cI ran into an alumnus who\u2019s an attorney in Hillsborough, and he said it was the best course he took as an undergraduate.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10808\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10808\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/06\/Wall-Site-June-2015-13.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10808\" src=\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/06\/Wall-Site-June-2015-13-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"2015 archaeology graduate Isaac Warshauser volunteered at the Wall site dig and plans to pursue a career in architecture. (photo by Kristen Chavez)\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10808\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 archaeology graduate Isaac Warshauser volunteered at the Wall site dig and plans to pursue a career in architecture. (photo by Kristen Chavez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even a junior scientist or two could be found at the site. Thirteen-year-old Connor Ramaswamy, a Boy Scout from Alamance County, was working on earning his archaeology merit badge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI needed to get in a total of eight hours, and I didn\u2019t want to do a fake dig,\u201d he said. \u201cI had my doubts at first, but then I started seeing pottery [fragments] and large animal bones.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very fun to dig things up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>View a <\/em><a href=\"\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.10153463588219515.1073741841.115462064514&amp;type=3\"><em>College Facebook album<\/em><\/a><em> of Wall Site dig photos.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Video by Rob Holliday, story by Kim Spurr, photos by Kristen Chavez<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your idea of an archaeological dig features a bullwhip-toting, fedora-wearing Indiana Jones rescuing precious artifacts from greedy thieves, you might want to go easy on the movie popcorn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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