A Coastal Carolina University archaeologist, anthropologist and seven students will hold an open house on Tuesday, June 22 from noon to 4 p.m., where the group will share their findings from an excavation site at the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. The presentation will be held at the Visitor’s Center on U.S. 701, and the public is invited.

Cheryl Ward, Ph.D., director for CCU's Center for Archaeology and Anthropology, is heading the excavation field school. The school is a hands-on archaeological dig experience that introduces students to the practice of archaeology from designing field surveys to digging test pits, undertaking modest excavation, and composing scholarly reports.

The field school began with a dig on the Conway Riverwalk at the Kingston Presbyterian Church parking lot. The team uncovered artifacts from a 19th-century government shipyard. The team has since moved to the Refuge where they discovered the remains of a cabin of undetermined period that may have been an old trading post. Students have found pieces of old glass, a piece of what seems to be a lamp, a glass panel bottle, a tin bowl and a number of bricks, which the team believes to be the foundation and chimney.

The property being excavated is referred to as Yauhannah Bluff, used by Native Americans until the mid 1600s. In the early 1700s it was the site of a ferry crossing and the Yourhaney Plantation.

Carolyn Dillian, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology in CCU's Department of History, is serving as crew chief and co-director.

For more information, visit Coastal’s Field School Blog, updated by students daily, at http://archaeologyatcoastalcarolina.wordpress.com.