The site is the real deal.
I would like to keep the field school going as a yearly spring offering through the University of South Carolina. To do that, two main things need to happen:
(1) student enrollment needs to be sufficient;
(2) I need to have funds to support the work.
After two seasons of work at the site, I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to be successful out there in terms of supplies, equipment, time, energy, and strategy. An important component of what I've been doing is hiring some experienced help to manage working in the two areas of the site (the block and the wall) at the same time. This year I hired one of the students from the 2017 season to act as a kind of "field sergeant," helping with direction, basic instruction, and quality control in one of the excavation areas. It helps with continuity, and also helps that student get some supervisory experience. I plan to continue that in the future (with different students).
I set up the GoFundMe with a goal of $4000. That money will be used to :
(1) pay a student field assistant ($1190);
(2) pay student lab workers ($1280);
(3) purchase expendable equipment and supplies to continue stabilizing the site ($557); and
(4) rent a vehicle to transport students to/from the site ($973).
Specific research goals for the 2019 season will be developed as materials and information from the 2018 season are processed, analyzed, and integrated with those from the 2017 season. My suspicion that there is a Late Archaic (ca. 2000 BC) house at the site grows stronger as the 2018 work continues (more on that later).
Sustained, publicly-accessible research on sites like 38FA608 has the potential to address numerous interesting questions as well as engage the community and help educate the next generation of southeastern archaeologists. Please consider contributing to these goals if you value our work and would like to see it continue.
Thank you!