Tides of Time: Student archaeologists unearth new clues to North Carolina’s colonial past at Brunswick Town

WINNABOW, NC (WWAY) — Beneath the soil at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site, pieces of North Carolina’s colonial past are waiting to be uncovered.

Dozens of university students are spending part of their summer excavating the historic site, searching for clues about the people who lived and worked in one of the region’s most important colonial communities.

Working alongside archaeologists and University of North Carolina Wilmington faculty, students are exploring an area believed to be connected to Brunswick Town’s historic public house. The careful process involves removing soil in four-inch layers from five-foot-by-five-foot excavation units and screening each shovel full for artifacts.

“It’s crazy digging up stuff, realizing someone hasn’t touched it in 300 years and you’re the first person to see it,” said Luke Huffman, an anthropology student at the University of Connecticut. “It’s also interesting because you can gather so much from the small bits and pieces we find.”

The excavation requires patience, precision and detailed recordkeeping. UNCW archaeology professor Dr. Nora Reber says documenting where each artifact is found is just as important as the discovery itself.

This summer’s excavation produced pottery fragments, tobacco pipe stems, bird shot, animal bones, a marked brick and a set of engraved cuff links with the letters ‘GW’ or ‘CW.’

Students also uncovered Native American pottery, offering a connection to people who lived in the area long before European settlement.

“The Native American pottery was the coolest,” said Owen Appleton-Sackett, an anthropology student at UNCW. “I found a piece not too much bigger than a half dollar, but it was so cool to hold something that might have been buried for several thousand years.”

Established in 1726 — three years before Wilmington — Brunswick Town became one of colonial North Carolina’s most important commercial ports.

“This is going to be the major port, this will be the international port, deep draft vessels could not make it to Wilmington,” said Jim McKee, site manager for Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site. “What made this such a busy, bustling place was what was coming out of here — naval stores. There was more pine tar shipped out of Brunswick than anywhere else in the world in the 18th century.”

The export of naval stores, including pine tar and pitch, helped supply British naval and merchant fleets and contributed to North Carolina’s nickname as the “Tar Heel State.”

After the Revolutionary War began in 1776, Brunswick Town was abandoned and never regained its former prominence.

Today, archaeologists are combining excavation, historical records and a town survey to rebuild the story of the lost community.

“We’re lucky in that we’ve got one map of the town that was done in 1769, and that survey is usually not more than a few inches off,” McKee said.

For students taking part in the dig, the experience is about more than finding artifacts. They say each discovery creates a personal connection to the people who lived there centuries ago.

Sara Penner, an anthropology minor at UNCW, says those objects help bring history to life.

“Sometimes, I stand and survey the site and think about the hundreds of people that probably walked around here and lived here hundreds of years ago,” she said.

Even the smallest artifact can reveal a larger story.

“It’s really cool to imagine that piece being made, the journey it went on across the Atlantic, and when it arrived here, who interacted with that piece of porcelain — say, that teacup,” Penner said. “I feel like I’m part of a 300-year-old story that started way before I was born.”

For Appalachian State University anthropology student Brody Bell, every artifact has the potential to change how historians understand the past.

“It’s kind of mind-blowing to think you’re part of history in the making and how we understand and interpret history,” Bell said. “What we find here could change how we see history going forward.”

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, researchers say excavations at Brunswick Town continue to uncover the stories of a community that existed decades before the nation was founded.

“It’s very cool to witness something that’s part of America’s history that was before the creation of the actual country,” Appleton-Sackett said.

Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site welcomes more than 50,000 visitors each year. Archaeologists estimate a typical excavation can produce roughly 10,000 artifacts, all of which are cataloged and preserved to help tell the story of the Lower Cape Fear region.

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