COLUMBIA, S.C. — Students at the University Of South Carolina (USC) and eight k-12 teachers are sifting through the dirt at Sesquicentennial State Park to uncover the stories of those who used to call the area home, while also working on a new way to educate students in the state.
“Based on kinda a series of previous work, there was a grad school class a few years back who investigated the history of the park, and as part of the materials, they turned up some of those were some historic maps that showed there were properties or structures here," said USC Anthropology Professor Kelly Goldberg.
Goldberg says as they enter their 6th week of shoveling and excavation, they are finding various artifacts, uncovering the past.
"Most common artifacts we're finding are things associated with either buildings or people who lived here so, nails, brick fragments, pieces of mortar," Goldberg said. "We also have ceramics, glass bottle pieces. So, again, we’re finding objects that give us information about the lives people lived.”
Based on the work done and information they have, they know there used to be a plantation on the grounds of the state park, and then after emancipation, a lot of people either stuck around or came back and became farmers, growing various crops like corn and grains.
"This was the home of farmers, agriculturalists, of people who lived and worked hard," Goldberg said. "Then there are also descendent community members that have ties to these people."
Not only are they working to tell the stories of those that haven't been told yet, but having these educators sift through the dirt will allow them to create new lesson plans focused on African American history in South Carolina.
“We're doing a program where we're training educators in archeology methods that they can then use in developing new instructional materials to bring into the classrooms,” Goldberg said.
On Wednesday, June 14, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., anyone from the public is allowed to come to see how this project works. It's free to the public, but admission to the park is required.
