| View of South Carolina
from the Irene Mound. |
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| The only access to the Irene
Mound. |
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| Hand lettered sign painted by
Marmaduke Floyd. |
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| One of the first trenches dug.
It ran east-west through the site. |
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| View of the proximity of the
Irene Mound to the Savannah River. |
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| Behind this man and woman, a
large pile of brush and debris sits at the edge of the woods.
All the area was cleared by hand. |
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| As soon as artifacts or features
in the soil began to appear, excavators stopped using shovels and began
to carefully, painstakingly remove the soil using a mason's trowel. |
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| This photo illustrates how narrow
the trenches were in the first stages of excavation. |
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| Piles of sand in the upper right
of the photo were called "slumps." This was debris dirt from
the trench. |
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| This is the same view of the
Savannah River from the Irene Mound as seen in photo 1, taken in early
September 1937. |
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| In this photo, taken in November
1937, some of the women are pausing to fill their tobacco pipes. |
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| Approximately 15 men were hired
at the Irene Mound project, but not as excavators. They were employed
as carpenters and laborers. |
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| Bundled up against the cold weather,
this woman wears an overcoat, scarves, and a knit cap as she carefully
sifts through the soil in her shovel. |
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| This excavator examines the shovel
for potsherds. |
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| Women selected for this Works
Project Administration excavation were the head of their households, were
widows, or single mothers. |
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| The women excavators
were classified as unskilled laborers, and by some accounts, were paid
less than $18 a month. |
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| Ditch running westward. |
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| This shows the intersection of
two trenches late in December 1937. |
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| December 20, 1937: Women
working in the main trench. |
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| Joseph Caldwell, one of five
different archaeologists on the Irene Mound project, instructs an excavation
team. |
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| This woman is using a trowel
to smooth the sides of a wall unit in an effort to make a profile of the
stratigraphic features. |
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| Another excavator preparing the
profile surface of a trench wall. |
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| Notice how none of the women
wore slacks while working. According to interviewers,
it was very unusual for women to wear pants to work, even in conditions
such as this. |
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