IUP Students on Pockoy Island

Over spring break, a group of IUP students traveled to South Carolina with Dr. Andrea Palmiotto to assist the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) with an excavation. The Pockoy Island Shell Ring Complex is a Late Archaic (5000-3000 B.P) archaeological complex in Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve on Edisto Island.  The complex consists of at least two rings.  With sea levels rising, thousands of coastal sites in the Southeast face destruction. Archaeologists have been working to protect these sites, but in some cases, the best option is to excavate and collect as much data as possible before the site is destroyed. On Pockoy Island, one shell ring was previously excavated, and it has since been destroyed with the eroding shoreline. Now, SCDNR is working to excavate the second ring before it meets the same fate.

Fig Island 1 structure rising above the marsh

Shell rings are a unique feature of Southeastern coastal archaeology. They consist of mounds of shells, usually oyster or clam shells, arranged in a circle around a central open area, referred to as a plaza. These sites contain some of the earliest known pottery in North America. While they are mostly constructed from domestic refuse and have therefore been associated with residential villages, their scale and design have led archaeologists to question what other uses these works represent, such as ceremonial purposes.

An exposed feature in an excavation block

IUP professor Dr. Palmiotto frequently works with SCDNR, and multiple IUP graduate students are currently working on collections from coastal sites in South Carolina. Before joining SCDNR archaeologists at Pockoy Island, Students traveled to the renowned Fig Island Shell Ring Complex to observe site conditions at one of the most well-preserved and unique shell ring complexes in South Carolina, and they also had the opportunity to conduct shovel tests at the Indian Point site within the Heritage Preserve. At the Pockoy site, students worked on screening soil from test units to find artifacts, such as pottery fragments. They also assisted with photogrammetry on a large, excavated block that exhibited numerous subsurface features.

The excavations on Pockoy Island are a good example of the work archaeologists are engaged in to mitigate the effects of climate change on archaeological sites. Not only was the excavation experience good for the students, but they also had the opportunity to learn how land management agencies like SCDNR operate generally, as well as how they are responding to a rapidly changing environment.