Dr. Randolph Daniel, professor and chair of anthropology at East Carolina University will make a presentation, “Hardaway Archaeological Site, Ancient North Carolinians,” at 2 p.m. May 14 in the Badin Elementary School auditorium.

He will address the historical and archaeological importance of the Hardaway Site.

Daniel

“Perhaps no one has more carefully and fully studied the many, many thousands of stone points found at the Hardaway Site and better understands late Paleo-Indian/Early Archaic archeological sites in the Southeastern US,” said John Young, a member of the Hardaway American Indian Working Group, which organized the presentation.

The presentation is planned to inform and encourage support for the development of The Hardaway Native American Museum in Badin. The public is invited to Daniel’s presentation and to view a collection of points and projectiles from the Hardaway site that will be on display.

In his book, “Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology: Formative Cultures Reconsidered,” Daniel proposes that prior to previous theories, it was not the available food resources that drew the fist Carolinians to the Hardaway site, but instead the availability of knappable stone, rhyolite, widely available in the Uwharries.

In his latest book, Daniel refers to the stone as meta-rhyolite.

According to R.P. Stephen Davis Jr., co-author of “Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina, “…Daniel addresses the gaps and other weaknesses in the sequence that have become apparent since it was first introduced and proposes a revised framework that incorporates more recent data as well as new theoretical perspectives. Daniel also addressed the relationship between professional and avocational archaeologists that has long been a contested subject.”

The Hardaway American Indian Museum Working Group was formed to explore ways and means to develop the project.

“This has been a pipe dream of mine for many years, and nothing happens without a dream,” said Vanessa Mullinix, who organized the group.

Members of the working group organized presentations to Badin Town Council, Convention and Visitors Board, Economic Development Commission, Stanly County Board of Commissioners and the Commission of Indian Affairs in Raleigh.

“I’m sure the museum will be interesting to people statewide, and will even draw visitors from out of state,” said Carol Tingley, a member of the Working Group from Apex.

Retired from the state parks system, she was excited when Alcoa offered to donate the Hardaway Site to Morrow Mountain State Park.

The Hardaway Native American Museum will house artifacts, research opportunities, educational experiences and more as the planning is still in its early stages.

“This project should bring many to Stanly County as it makes North Carolina more fully aware of the First Carolinians, at perhaps the most significant archeological site in the Southeastern U.S. and at perhaps the only site to have continuous human occupation from 12,500 years ago to 500 years ago,” Young said.