Two Shell Mounds at the Mouth of the Savannah River: Archaeological Field School Investigations at the Bilbo Site (Chatham County, Georgia) and the Delta Site (Jasper County, South Carolina)

This report summarizes the results of archaeological investigations, conducted as archaeological field schools through the University of West Georgia, at two prehistoric Native American sites located near the mouth of the Savannah River. These projects were undertaken with two interconnected goals. As part of the undergraduate curriculum for anthropology majors, student training in basic archaeological field methods was an important component. Only through directed fieldwork can students achieve an understanding of the processes involved in discovery, recovery, and interpretation of new information. The archaeological sites investigated, however, were paramount in importance and the field research was designed to address basic questions about the archaeological record represented at each site. The training of students was a happy consequence of the research design, but not at the expense of the archaeological record itself.