Early North Carolina Colonial and Native American GPR Site Surveyal
Mentor: Dr. Malcolm LeCompte
ECSU Research Experience for Undergraduates in Ocean, Marine and Polar Sciences
Archaeology Team: Kelechi Onyiriuka (ECSU), Michael Cobb (ECSU), Rashad Williamson (MVSU)
http://nia.ecsu.edu/reuomps2013/teams/archeology/index.html

Abstract
The earliest English colonial populations in the new world spread rapidly through southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. These peoples had to overcome insufficient food sources, threat of attack by hostile indigenous peoples, and even hostile European powers. Early, mutually beneficial, contact and relations with non-hostile Native Americans were often sought by European colonists as a survival strategy. Sites characterized by close proximity between colonists and natives are well known in northeast North Carolina. Opportunities for participating in the archaeological investigations of early historic colonial sites became possible with a collaborative research effort undertaken with the Museum of the Albemarle (MOA) and the Elizabeth City State University's Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) in June 2012. Students in a summer research program for undergraduates have engaged in a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of a site related to the Culpeper rebellion of 1677. This summer, in collaboration with MOA, a high-resolution GPR survey was performed of a known Native American settlement site that existed in close proximity to early colonial habitations near Edenton, NC, on the Chowan River. The survey was designed to reveal the presence of any buried remnant structures that might indicate adoption by Native Americans of cultural features of colonial life such as defensive fortifications, or structures that may have served either religious or commercial purposes such as a church or trading post. Alternatively, evidence for the presence of dwellings might indicate a closer affiliation between struggling colonists and the indigenous population. The early colonial and Native American contact site survey team learned to use the Geophysical Survey Systems SIR-3000 Utility Scan Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and the associated RADAN 6.6 data processing software. It performed a Ground Penetrating Radar survey at 0.5-meter spatial resolution of the most promising areas for colonist and Native American interaction as defined by prior MOA archaeological studies in collaboration with the museum's archaeologist. Data collected was processed and examined for any evidence of buried structural features. Surveying such sites with GPR is important due to modern threats to the maintenance of their pristine state. Threats to such sites include residential development, forestry operations, agricultural, and increasing shoreline erosion.

Research Experience for Undergraduates at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets in Ocean, Marine, and Polar Science
2013

The Watermark Project: Human Actions Impacting the Quality of Water
http://nia.ecsu.edu/ww/summer13/wwposters-2013/watermark.jpg

Abstract

We investigated local stream water quality to determine the impacts of agriculture and development. We selected four sites two controlled sites, one agricultural site, and one developmental site. We tested the water's temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, pH, and specific conductivity with a multi-parameter meter. We also collected water samples to analyze the ammonia, nitrite, and the turbidity. Macro invertebrates were also sampled in vegetative and muddy areas at each sample site.

As we expected the control sites had lowest turbidity levels. Ammonia levels were highest in the developed and agricultural areas but we were surprised that the highest levels occurred in the developed area. Dissolved oxygen was moderate in most sites with the control 1 area at the swamp having lower values than other sites. Specific conductivity was high in the developed area and low in the second control site (river tributary) but there was little difference between control 1 and agriculture. Surprisingly pH was the highest in the developed site. This is most likely due to the headwater source for the developed site being ground water.

There were no macro invertebrates at the agricultural site. The second control site had more tolerant macro-invertebrates than other sites. We calculated Water Quality Index (WQI) scores and Macro-invertebrate Index (MI) scores. Our initial results for WQI had the developed site obtaining the highest score (better quality) but removing pH from the index resulted in a more accurate result with controls having the better water quality. This was consistent with the MI results. Reasons for removing pH from WQI are due to the expectation that even pure swamp water would have low pH naturally.