Archaeologists dig up story of 18th-century intrigues

Archaeologists usually date their digs to general time frames, such as "1,500 to 2,500 years ago." But the excavation of a Native American village by the Catawba River just south of Charlotte is specific to 1755-59.

Stephen Davis and Brett Riggs, archaeologists from UNC-Chapel Hill, know from historic records that several groups of Native Americans of about 200 to 300 people, including 50 warriors, lived in Nassaw Town, in York County, S.C.

They stayed in vertical log structures near what is now the intersection of Interstate 77 and the Catawba River, just southwest of Fort Mill, S.C.

The story of how these people came to live on this red clay outcropping more than 250 years ago involves 18th-century New World politics, muskets and some nasty Old World germs.

"This village was the Metrolina of the mid-18th century, before there really even was a Charlotte," said Davis, a Charlotte native and associate director of UNC's Research Laboratories of Archaeology. "There were people living on this spot who represented more than 20 distinct languages."

Development planned

The archaeologists and several teams of researchers recently finished excavating sections of a 400-acre tract slated for a residential and commercial development called Kanawha.

The property is being developed jointly by Cherokee Investment Partners and the Sustainable Development Group, a subsidiary of the York County Culture and Heritage Foundation. The tract also includes 60 acres, which will be home to the new Museum of Life and Environment.

Before any construction began, the developers invited the UNC-CH group to conduct an extensive archaeological survey to locate grave sites and other significant historical sites. Because of the discovery of Nassaw Town, site plans are being altered to leave the site undisturbed as a green area or park.

Fatal relationship

In the early 1700s, as Scots-Irish settlers began to arrive in the Carolina back country, separate bands of Indians began to merge and relocate in the southern Piedmont.

Nassaw Town was the political center for the Catawba Nation during the first half of the 18th century; the village moved several times but stayed on the east bank of the Catawba River and in the vicinity of Nation Ford, a low-water crossing of the river.

"The Catawbas were adept at dealing with the settlers and, at first, even the British," Riggs said. "But it was that relationship with the British that almost led to the tribe's undoing."

Catawba warriors traded their bows and arrows for muskets and joined the British to fight in the French and Indian Wars. When they returned to the Carolinas from Quebec in 1759, the tribe brought along a virulent form of smallpox. The resulting epidemic killed more than half of the residents of Nassaw Town.

The tribe's only defense was to separate, and in 1759 the survivors abandoned the Nation Ford area and relocated near Camden. Several years later, they moved to their present-day reservation east of Rock Hill.

The archaeological excavations, which began in 2001, have produced a rich array of artifacts, including several hundred sherds of Catawba pottery and English ceramic plates and cups, as well as musket caps and pistol barrels.

Among other findings are European glass beads, brass kettle pieces and white kaolin pipe fragments. One of the more unusual finds was an 18-inch Scottish dirk, or short sword, that was intact except for a broken handle.

"We certainly don't know how it got here, but this was probably forged in a small Scottish foundry," Riggs said.

"After the handle was broken, the edge was dulled, and they continued to use it."

Just beneath the topsoil, the researchers found evidence of post holes laid out in a rectangle of about 20 by 35 feet. The long houses had packed dirt floors in which pits were dug out for storage of food and other supplies. Many of the artifacts are being found in the pits.

The post holes are the first evidence of the Catawbas' long houses, which were somewhat similar to European style homes with gabled roofs.

However, the Catawbas used poplar tree bark for shingles and wove saplings in between the vertical logs for the walls.

Loyal young digger

One of the most loyal diggers at the site has been Lillian Ondus, a seventh grader at Dutchman Creek Middle School in Rock Hill. She has volunteered for the past two years, and her goal is to go to UNC-Chapel Hill to become an archaeologist.

She has found tiny multicolored beads that were made in Europe and brought to America to barter with Native Americans, who used beads in necklaces and sewed them onto their clothes. Lillian also found a piece of an arrowhead.

"I can't wait to get out here each day; it's fun," she said with a smile.

"And you never know what you are going to find just beneath the surface."