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Since 1983, University archaeologists and their students have excavated and
replaced more than 2 million pounds of dirt in Hillsborough. Their purpose has
been to help create a history of the Occaneechi and other Indians who lived
along the Eno River before whites first settled the North Carolina Piedmont.
The archaeological team, which finished its fieldwork this month, did it
mostly with shovels, trowels and dental picks.
The research team was led by anthropology professor Vincas Steponaitis and
research archaeologists Steve Davis and Trawick Ward--all of the University's
Research Laboratories of Archaeology. They say they have unearthed a wealth of
information that contributes to the state's early history.
"Educating more than 200 undergraduates and graduate students in
archaeological techniques has been one of the major benefits of this project,
which is close to Chapel Hill and has served as a summer field school," said
Steponaitis, who directs the laboratories. "Few better examples, if any, exist
of the University meeting its goals of public service, education and research
at the same time."
The Occaneechi lived along the Roanoke River in southern Virginia until 1676
when planter Nathaniel Bacon and his frontier militia attacked first the
Susquehannocks, an Iroquois group that lived nearby, and later the Occaneechi,
who had allied with Bacon temporarily, Davis said.
Following a dispute with the militia over the spoils of victory and many
deaths, the Occaneechi retreated south. By 1701, they had built homes by the
Eno, where English explorer John Lawson visited them. Lawson wrote about their
extensive provisions, which reflected their success in the deerskin trade.
"By 1714, ravaged by European diseases such as smallpox, they moved again to a
settlement known as Fort Christanna on the Meherrin River," Davis said. "That
early reservation was Virginia colonists' attempt to create a buffer of
friendly Indians between themselves and hostile Iroquois raiding parties who
harassed colonists along the western frontier."
Previous University work in the 1930s and 1940s identified a large settlement
that was interpreted at the time as Occaneechi Town, but remains found at that
site eventually indicated it was an earlier village, Davis said.
"In 1983, we explored that village further and were able to radiocarbon date
it to around 1500," he said. "Then we found another nearby site that was
occupied at the right time to be Occaneechi. Excavation of that village was
completed in 1986."
In 1989, the University archaeologists returned to investigate the area
outside the Occaneechi village palisade and discovered a third, much larger
palisaded settlement that covered almost a half acre. They have been excavating
it ever since. That town, which they named the Jenrette site, may have been
Shakor, which German explorer John Lederer visited in 1670.
"We uncovered evidence that this village was standing when the Occaneechi
settled here sometime prior to Lawson's visit in 1701," Davis said. "Using that
data, one of our tasks now will be to establish a tight time line for when the
Shakori Indians and the Occaneechi inhabited the site."
Pieces of the puzzle they have uncovered by careful excavation include traces
of houses, trash-filled storage pits, several small Indian cemeteries, broken
pottery, discarded stone tools, glass beads, animal bones, plant remains and
European artifacts such as rings and bracelets with Jesuit symbols. They also
found ample evidence of early Hillsborough such as a colonial road to New Bern,
pottery fragments, bottles, bricks and nails.
"We even found a spear point going back to the close of the last ice age more
than 10,000 years ago and evidence of other encampments before 1000 A.D.,"
Davis said. "The last villages on the Eno at Hillsborough kept getting smaller,
which probably reflects depopulation brought on by disease and the increased
strife in the Piedmont during the late 1600s."
When they began, they were exploring an archaeological problem, specifically
the impact of European contact on the native population, he said.
They received much help from local people who consider themselves descendants
of the Occaneechi and have in turn helped them in various ways. One result has
been--for educational and cultural purposes--reconstruction of Occaneechi Town
about a half mile upstream from the original site.
"We feel this has been a very successful project," Davis said. "It has been
successful because of what we have learned about that period of our history and
Indian history, that we have trained a lot of students, and that we have had
remarkable support of the community."
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