Seeing History Come Alive #4:
“The Topper Site”
By James
Banfield, staff writer
The Light
of the Low Country Magazine
James Banfield
visiting the Allendale, SC "Topper Site" Archaeology
Dig
As far back as I can remember I
have always had an interest
in archaeology. The history of the old,
prehistoric day/years/ions. Just a few short
weeks ago, I finally got to see a little dream
of mine come to pass, of visiting a
real archaeological
“dig”.
The Topper Site gets its name from
the gentleman who actually discovered the site,
one Mr. Topper. It is an important site for
archaeology and Dr. Albert Goodyear is in charge
of the “dig”. There are several dig pits on the
hillside where they are digging in the 12-16,000
year strata and to their amazement just the day
before they had discovered an important find in
one of the 16,000 year old digs. I questioned
the gentlemen who found it the day before, and
he replied that he knew he had found something
important and got Dr. Goodyear and the other Dr
on site to investigate his find. When the two
Dr.'s had seen what was brought up they were
estatic to say the least. They have found
verifiable documentation that man had been here
in this region since at least 16,000 years ago.
That is at least 3,000 years older than
previously agreed to by scientists and
archaeologists alike! That is an amazing
discovery.
Dr. Goodyear, a tall, very
educated man, conducted the tour at
the dig site, and answered everyone's questions.
Even mine! There were several people working on
the hillside digs which were concentrating on
the Clovis and Pre-Clovis Occupation, while down
below the hillside digs was the major dig that
is sheltered and is now about 20-30 feet deep.
Its not just a hole in the ground but a hole
with different stages or levels that are marked
off with dates. Down at the lowest level it
reads 50,000 years ago, and there is a small
boulder that is there, which include chips of
rock struck from off of it from various angles~
proven to be struck by man some 50,000 years
ago. Amazing!
You cannot help but wonder at it
all, seeing things that were handled by our
prehistoric ancestors some 16,000 – 50,000 years
ago and now you, with your own eyes are seeing
that very same artifact that some other human
being saw some umpteen thousand years ago.
My son-in-Law is an avid amatuer
archaeologist himself and found some arrow heads
that are 7-9000 years old and I got to handle
those artifacts myself. Wow. It is mindblowing
& awe inspiring to feel and touch an
artifact that is thousands of years old, knowing
that some man made that arrowhead with his own
hands thousands of years before.
Some 70,000 years ago Toba, a
super volcano in Sumatra exploded and was one of
the most horrendous volcanic eruptions in this
world's history. It came very close to bringing
extinction to the race of man. The Topper site
is at the 50,000 year level. I wonder if they
will find artifacts from the 70-73,000 year old
level or find some remnant of the residue from
the Toba Explosion? That would be a fancinating
subject to debate should the Topper Site get to
that level and discover artifacts in amongest
the volcanic ash layer that should be definitely
be there.
If at all possible, you should
really take the half day of time on a Saturday
and take the Topper Site Tour. You will be
thrilled that you did. There is no cost for
the tour, although they do encourage you to
help with funding the digsite by purchasing
t-shirts, hats, stickers, etc. This is to
help support the project. The best way to
contact the Topper Site for a Tour is to email:
|
Registration
questions should be directed to Becky Barrera at
803-629-8929
Email: sepaleo@sc.edu |
|
You can also visit their website
at http://www.allendale-expedition.net/
Our Magazine, The Light of the Low
Country Magazine has a page on the Topper Site
as well at:
http://thelightofthelowcountry.com
http://www.thelightofthelowcountry.com/toppertour.htm
What a great day we had with
Dr. Goodyear and his staff, but something else
was in operation too ...
Was I able to “See History Come
Alive?” You betcha.
Don't forget to take your bug
spray to keep the mosquitos at bay....
James Banfield
The Light of the Low Country
Magazine
http://www.thelightinthelowcountry.com
