LEXINGTON'S NEWLY REDISCOVERED ANCIENT CULTURES EMERGE

In recent decades, South Carolina has become the home of several important archaeological sites that continue to attract professionals and enthusiasts from across the United States and from other places on the planet.

The Kolb site in the Great Pee Dee Heritage Preserve in Darlington County and the Topper site along the Savannah River plain near Allendale are among two of the most important sites currently being excavated.  There are many additional sites closer to Lexington near Columbia and along the Congaree River.

There have been recent developments within Lexington County along the north fork of the Edisto River at sites that potentially date to at least the Paleoindian period. These sites are emerging on the heels of other discoveries within the Historic and Mississippian periods.  Many of these discoveries are found at or near the same site and exist in ground layers or strata, one on top of another.

The recent discovery of the Big Pond Branch colonial settlement which is part of the Historic period is an overlay to an older Mississippian period evidenced by the discovery of The Indian Head, an ancient Native American meeting place. The research to bring this information forward follows centuries of oral history and documented land records about the immediate area and also a century or more of finding important artifacts at and near specific sites.

It is more than coincidence that these sites are located almost exactly between the Kolb and Topper sites, near and along ancient paths that connected these locations for early travelers on foot.  These crossroads have been noted as early as the 1540s in journals that describe de Soto’s travels in South Carolina. This journal describes a point on the main path where numerous smaller paths started to intersect with the main path. This location is in the general area of The Indian Head and was a targeted destination of the guides hired by the de Soto expedition. The area of The Indian Head was a “center point” for many tribes that were independent of each other yet met on matters of greater and common interests.