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Local angles: Cherokee, Montgomery, Pembroke, Robeson and Stanly Counties

Grant secures new UNC home for North Carolina's largest archaeology collection

By DEE REID
College of Arts and Science

CHAPEL HILL -- The largest and most comprehensive archaeological archive in North Carolina -- including one of the most important collection of Cherokee and Catawba Indian artifacts anywhere -- is one step closer to moving into a secure, state-of-the-art facility at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The university's Research Laboratories of Archaeology has received a $450,000 federal grant to help renovate 3,200 square feet of space in Hamilton Hall for the long-term preservation of the North Carolina Archaeological Collection.

The grant to UNC is the third largest of 63 “Save America's Treasures” grants recently awarded nationwide by the U.S. Department of Interior's National Park Service. Only historical collections of national significance are eligible for these awards. UNC's College of Arts and Sciences will provide matching funds for the project from overhead receipts generated by research.

The North Carolina Archaeological Collection contains more than 5 million catalogued artifacts and records documenting the history of Indian cultures in the state and surrounding regions over 12,000 years. The collection includes artifacts made of pottery, stone, bone, shell, charcoal, metal and glass.

“As a source of archaeological information on the Cherokee and Catawba nations and their predecessors, this collection is unsurpassed,” said Dr. Vincas P. Steponaitis, professor of anthropology and director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology. “It also includes the excavated materials from some of the most important archaeological sites in the eastern United States.”

The collection has resided at UNC for more than 60 years. When Steponaitis arrived in 1988, the artifacts were stored in an old warehouse without adequate ventilation, climate-control or shelving. In 1992, the archive moved to a more accessible and suitable location in Wilson Library, where it remains today. The library needs that space for its growing collection of books, so the university has designated 3,200 square feet in the basement of Hamilton Hall as a new home for the artifacts.

The Hamilton Hall space will require extensive renovations to ensure that the collection is safely preserved, Steponaitis said. Plans call for a climate-controlled air distribution system, compact shelving to accommodate the growing collection, waterproof exterior walls and flooring, new plumbing and lighting, an upgraded fire protection and alarm system, and a redesigned ramp to provide access for persons with disabilities. The renovations are expected to be completed in 2006. In addition, all of the artifacts will be repackaged in archivally sound containers to ensure long-term preservation.

Because the collection is mostly pre-Columbian, it has special significance for American Indians, Steponaitis said. It contains artifacts from hundreds of archaeological sites, with a major portion from two National Historic Landmarks: the Town Creek Indian Mound in Montgomery County, including a reconstructed Indian village and museum that are visited by thousands of school children every year; and Hardaway, the oldest excavated archaeological site in North Carolina, located in Stanly County.

Steponaitis and colleagues have worked closely with tribal communities throughout the state and region to make the collection accessible to scholars and the general public.

Cherokee potters have used some of the ceramic artifacts in a series of workshops designed to revive a traditional pottery style that died out in the late 19th century. UNC research archaeologists have brought the artifacts to public school classrooms and designed online resources for teachers to use in lessons about Native American history and culture.

"This has been an extraordinary resource for research, teaching, exhibits and other public programs," said Steponaitis. "Much of our current knowledge of the state's prehistory is based on this archive, and much more remains to be learned from it."

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Note: Steponaitis can be reached at (919) 962-3846, email: vin@unc.edu

Contact: Dee Reid of the College of Arts and Sciences, (919) 843-6339, email deereid@unc.edu