Conserving Context and Community: Reconnecting an Illegally Excavated, Precolonial Dugout Canoe to its Community

Abstract

The oldest canoe discovered in South Carolina was illegally recovered from the Cooper River near Charleston in 1997 and spent 23 years in state custody awaiting funding for conservation treatment. In 2020, it was transferred into the temporary custody of Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center. Where once the conservation methodology would have begun and ended with an impregnation treatment and vacuum freeze-drying, the Cooper River Canoe Project instead began by consultation with the Native American communities of South Carolina. Through collaboration with Native American leaders, archaeologists, and conservators, the conservation of a 4000-year-old, waterlogged, fragmentary dugout canoe will be undertaken. Unprecedented in South Carolina, the Cooper River Canoe Project challenges established colonial practices in archaeology and conservation, and designs a new approach to the conservation of Native American cultural heritage. By recognizing Native American communities’ rights to the management and determination of their cultural heritage, project partners are creating a new model for the conservation of cultural heritage in South Carolina.