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DIG from page 38A settlement occupied for two years, making no more than a few dozen houses. Again, we might have done better if we had been able to search [more in the center of the city], because if people are arriving, they might have selected the high ground on the bluff first, rather than the low-lying ground on the point.”

Team members spread out around the city, digging on approved public grounds and private lawns. They dug 118 “shovel test” holes, some as deep as 3 feet, in search of proof, particularly charcoal.

Artifacts were slow to surface throughout the five-day dig, but on the first day Cobb found two small pieces of Staffordshire ware, lead-glazed pottery made in England beginning in the 17th century.

“That indicates that this at least brackets the time period,” Cobb said. “We’re interested in late 1600s. We know that this is at least potentially associated with that.”

As the dig continued, many more pottery pieces and other artifacts, such as small bits of charcoal and glass were found.

“I think what we’re hoping to find as well as pottery like this is charcoal from when the Spanish burned the town,” said Cobb. “Those two together don’t guarantee anything, but they’re even more indicative that maybe this is the right area.”

The final results were somewhat encouraging, but not 100% conclusive, as DePratter and Cobb both said at the follow-up symposium Feb. 4.

“I think we can conclusively say now that Stuarts Town is under Beaufort,” said DePratter at the symposium. “That is based on the accumulation of information from documents on the archaeology. And with the shovel tests, we found material old enough to be from Stuarts Town. We didn’t find a concentration. We’d hoped we would find a burned house, but we don’t know how many houses there were.”

Shards of Native American ceramics as old as 4,000 years were found in six locations. Spanish ceramics were potentially dated to the 17th century, as well as Chinese porcelain and Delft.

“These all were potentially 17th centu- ry – some of them go into the early 18th,” DePratter said, “but the fact that we found a fairly good assemblage means we’re likely in the area where there was 17th century occupation.”

All of the artifacts were logged, cleaned, catalogued and are now stored in the curation facility at the University of South Carolina. As part of preserving the story as well as the artifacts, the team were interviewed for a film that will document the entire project. There are also plans for putting together an exhibit for the Beaufort History Museum.

While it is unlikely that the next team will show up with a jackhammer and backhoe prepared to dig through asphalt in a downtown parking lot, there will be more requests to homeowners and more digs in the future.

For more information, visit stuartstown. com. The symposium was filmed and is expected to be available on the website.