Riverfront Village

Riverfront Village. A Mississippi Native American Settlement. , About 1,000 years ago Native Americans settled at this location. We know these people as the Mississippians, and they lived throughout the Southeast and the Mississippi Valley. They built large villages and ceremonial earthworks along major rivers. Mississippian settlements are identified by their distinctive pottery types. The Mississippian people had a very complex political organization. Larger villages dominated entire river valleys and strongly influenced neighboring villages. , In 2004 the City of North Augusta started a project to revitalize this portion of the riverfront. As part of this project, they conducted an archaeological survey to see if any significant archaeological or historical sites would be affected. The survey revealed the presence of a significant village site located on the terrace above the Greeneway. This site was called Riverfront Village after the development. In 2005 and 2006, full-scale archaeological excavations began. , During excavation, more than 100,000 artifacts were recovered from nearly 5,000 features. These features are the remains from approximately 80 houses and surrounding activity areas. Six palisade walls were identified. These walls indicate that the village went through several stages of expansion. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the village was probably occupied from about 1,000 to 600 years ago, and then briefly again in the late 1600s. The artifacts were mostly fragments of broken pottery, stone tools, food remains, and European trade items such as glass beads and brass bells or "tinkler cones." , [other photo caption] , . Archaeologists working at the Riverfront Village site work on a feature to uncover North Augusta’s past.