The Charleston Museum, America’s First Museum, will host an archaeological excavation at the historic Heyward-Washington House this spring as part of a field school in partnership with the College of Charleston. In 2023, the Museum excavated part of the cellar of the house; this year’s program will focus on the garden area in the rear of the house.
Guests to the house will experience an archaeological dig firsthand and see excavations of one of the earliest documented parts of colonial Charleston. Charleston Museum Curator of Archaeology John Fisher, College of Charleston Assistant Professor of Anthropology Dr. Sarah Platt, and archaeology students will be on-site to answer questions and provide insights into artifacts and history from some of the first recorded areas of the city. The field school offers a hands-on opportunity for archaeology students to get real-world experience with a public excavation.
“We are excited to offer a unique opportunity for both students and visitors to engage directly with Charleston’s history, especially as we approach the country’s 250th anniversary,” said Charleston Museum Director Carl Borick. “This excavation is not only a chance to uncover valuable artifacts from the 18th century, but to also connect with the city’s colonial past in a tangible way and inspire the next generation of historians.”
The first excavations at the Heyward-Washington House began in the late 1970s, and have since provided a wealth of material and information that, to this day, continue to be topics of dissertations and research. Ground-penetrating radar has helped determine the best location on the property for this year’s dig. During this year’s excavation, the team hopes to uncover information about the property between the 1680s and 1730s, part of the period when it was owned by John Milner Sr., a gunsmith and armourer for South Carolina’s colonial government.
Milner serviced guns for the colony, but also for Native Americans who came from as far as Mississippi and Alabama before the fire of 1740. Without an official armory in the city of Charleston, Milner stored the public arms on his own property, which included hundreds of muskets, pistols, cutlasses, bayonets, and cartridge boxes. Researchers hope they may discover remains from Milner’s work buildings, and even traces of some of the weapons he worked on. The current structure and house museum was the town home of Thomas Heyward Jr., one of four South Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence. The current house and its outbuildings were constructed in 1772 on the site of Milner’s house, but remnants of other Milner buildings related to his gunsmithing business, if they still exist, will be the focus of the archaeology work.
Visitors are invited to observe the dig site Fridays from 2-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., beginning Friday, March 14 and running through Saturday, April 19 (with the exception of Saturday, April 5). Visits are free for Charleston Museum members or with admission to the house for non-members. Reservations are not required, but the excavation is weather dependent. Media are invited on April 11. For more information about the Charleston Museum and its historic houses, please visit www.charlestonmuseum.org.
