CHAPEL HILL -- Tar Heel archaeologists like Drs. Trawick Ward and Stephen Davis Jr. are proud of the archaeological richness and diversity of North Carolina. That's why the two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have spent the past four years writing the first comprehensive survey of archaeology across the state.
"Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina" (UNC Press, 1999) represents the first attempt to convey in a "readable" book for both academics and lay people the tremendous diversity of the state's archaeology, said Ward, an archaeologist with UNC-CH's Research Laboratories of Archaeology.
"We thought the time was right - that we had enough new information -- to come out with a book," he said. "I've been thinking about such a book since 1983, but I'm glad we waited to do it, because we've learned so much since then."
Much of what they learned emerged through UNC-CH's Siouan Project, a 15-year effort directed by Ward and Davis that included Occaneechi site excavations in Hillsborough.
"That project taught us a lot we didn't know about the early period of contact between Native Americans and the colonists," said Davis, also an archaeologist with the laboratories. "Moreover, we have been able to get a better handle on the basic chronology of the entire state during recent years because of important research conducted by former students and colleagues. Today, we simply have a clearer, and hopefully more accurate understanding of the past than we did 20 years ago."
The authors hope the book will spark reader interest in the deep, unwritten past - more than 10,000 years before North Carolina's recorded history, which began in the 16th century with voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh and the founding of the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. "Time Before History" moves from the Paleo-Indian period, when the first immigrants to North American crossed a land bridge that spanned the Bering Strait, through the arrival of European settlers and traders in the 16th and 17th centuries. During that time, native North Carolinians gradually changed from hunters and gatherers to farmers, and their societies became increasingly complex.
This story has been reconstructed from archaeological sites left behind from the coast to the mountains of North Carolina, Ward said. Most of the early sites are small and deeply buried. Later sites range in variety from small stockaded settlements in the Piedmont to villages near the coast formed by clusters of long houses.
The coast remains the least understood region of the state and will be the hot spot for future archaeologists, he says. Larger, more complex sites are found in the mountains, some of which contain raised earthen platforms where priests' residences or public buildings once stood.
Because most of the things ancient peoples left behind at these sites are broken, much information has come from studying artifact fragments, said Ward, who came to UNC-CH to study archaeology and never left.
Multidisciplinary studies have also created a clearer picture of the relationship between Indian groups and newcomers during the time when they first began interacting, he says. Contrary to what researchers had assumed, Indians living in North Carolina didn't immediately change when colonists arrived.
"Our Siouan Project began with the assumption that when Native Americans and Europeans contacted one another, the Native Americans quickly adopted European ways," Ward said. "We initially thought that once traders came in, the Native Americans broke down and began to live like pioneers.
"That was not the case," he said. "They continued their traditional ways up to the very end when they were forced to vacate certain areas because of depopulation. I admire that. In the face of devastating change, they continued their traditional cultural ways. They might have traded their bow for a gun or a clay pot for a metal kettle, but they didn't adapt to European customs." These projects and research have taught the scientists an important lesson about diversity.
"In the past few years, new federal laws have required archaeologists to return human remains and associated funerary objects to Native American groups," Ward said. "Because both archaeologists and Native Americans have made ongoing efforts to understand each other's viewpoints, there's much more cooperation now than there was 20 years ago. There's a lot more respect for diversity."
Note: Ward and Davis can be reached at 919-962-3843 and 919-962-3845, respectively.
Contact: David Williamson, 919-962-8596.