Dig it! Volunteers can sign up to excavate at Topper site in May

The University of South Carolina is accepting registrations from volunteers to help excavate archaeological sites along the Savannah River May 5 - June 7.

The expedition will be led by archaeologist Dr. Albert Goodyear, whose discoveries at the Topper site in Allendale County have captured international media attention.

Volunteers will learn excavation techniques and how to identify Clovis and pre-Clovis artifacts in several prehistoric chert quarries. This year, some volunteers may also be involved in the recovery of Clovis and later artifacts from a nearby site called Big Pine Tree, which has partly collapsed into a creek.

The cost is $416 per week ($350 is tax deductible) and includes evening lectures and programs, lunch and evening meals, a work book and a T-shirt. Lodging, which is not included in the fee, is available at a nearby camp site or in motels 30 minutes from the dig sites.

A $60 deposit is required, payable to the USC Educational Foundation and mailed to Dr. Albert Goodyear, S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA), 1321 Pendleton St., Columbia, SC 29208. Volunteers can register online at www.allendale-expedition.net or by calling 803-777-8170.

Goodyear’s search for a pre-Clovis culture – Ice Age man in South Carolina – began in Allendale County in 1998 when he found artifacts that dated back 16,000 years. In May 2004, volunteers who excavated the site were part of a monumental discovery. Pre-Clovis artifacts excavated from the Pleistocene terrace soil, some four meters below the ground surface, were radiocarbon-dated to be at least 50,000 years old, which placed humans in North America long before the last ice age, an explosive revelation in American archaeology.

Topper is currently in the international news for its connection with a major scientific discovery that suggests a massive comet exploded over Canada that may have killed both beast and man around 12,900 years ago and pushed the Earth into another ice age. Topper was among excavation sites to have sizable concentrations of iridium, an extra-terrestrial element found in comets, in the layer of its Clovis-era sediment. The comet has been the topic of television specials on National Geographic and a forthcoming one on the History Channel.

Questions should be directed to the e-mail address: sepaleo@sc.edu.