| Tourism was very important
to the Irene Mound excavation project. |
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| School
children were the most frequent visitors to the site. |
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| The
site was open daily, but most visitors came on the weekend. |
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| This makeshift laboratory
was built at the site with materials donated by industries in Chatham County. |
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| Lunch time at the
Irene Mound. |
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| There
was no commissary on site, so the man carrying a tin of food in the foreground
brought it from home. |
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| In the background
of this photo, behind the two women working on a slump, is the wooden outhouse. |
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| Here, two women take
the opportunity to rest while leaning on their shovels. |
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| Irene Mound was a
major funerary and ceremonial mound for Native Americans. |
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| As the skeleton was
excavated, any jewelry or pottery found with it was placed in a shoebox. |
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| Crates were constructed
in sections on site and fitted very precisely over the burial. |
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| As
each section was placed over the burial, it was shimmied down and leveled. |
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| Each
side was labeled with a compass heading indicating north, south, east,
or west. |
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| Line levels, seen
as strings stretching across the front of the frame, were used to help
"square up" the crate. |
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| In this photo, a
worker (lower right) uses a shovel to shave away enough soil so that the
frame will slide easily to the bottom. |
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| Each burial was labeled
and photographed before it was hoisted out of the unit. |
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| In contrast to the
starkness of an exposed skeleton, this profile wall is almost as busy as
a modern abstract painting. |
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| This panoramic view
shows a portion of the site at the end of the day. |
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| In the late Fall
of 1938, graduate students employed as archaeological assistants record
elevations across the field. |
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| Ingenuity at its
most practical and picturesque as women use umbrellas to shield themselves
from the hot Summer sun in 1938. |
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| The
archaeologist is taking an elevation reading with a surveyor's transit,
and all the workers are frozen in place. |
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| These women were
captured on film two days after Christmas, 1937. |
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| A final view of some
of the excavation team at Irene Mound, with their work in the background. |
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