Pockoy Island Dig

Archaeologists from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources are in a race to salvage evidence of late archaic shell-ring people who lived on Pockoy Island, located in the Botany Bay Heritage Preserve on the coast of South Carolina, as long as 4300 years ago, after a recent discovery in 2016. Some artifacts found include, shell tools and jewelry, Thom’s Creek pottery, and intricately decorated bone pins.

“Typical shell deposits, or middens, tend to be horizontal or mounded, but during the late archaic period, for some puzzling reason, there are these donut-shaped rings,” explains SCDNR Archaeologist, Karen Y. Smith, PhD, “but, due to sea level change, the site may be under water by 2024 along with its secrets.”

For more information, visit http://heritagetrust.dnr.sc.gov