Slave Trade Expedition to Africa
Part 16: Archaeologist at work

Dr. Ken Kelly is a hard working, adventure-seeking, dirt-digging kind of archaeologist...and we were proud to have him on our Farenya Expedition team. He is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of South Carolina and has excellent credentials - M.A. from William and Mary, Ph.D. from UCLA. Dr. Kelly is an expert on the African Diaspora and the slave cultures of Jamaica and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and Bnin, West Africa.

Besides his academic honors, Ken is a fine gentleman who loves African food and speaks French. His normal attire includes brightly colored African shirts, explorer vests, cargo shorts, low-cut hiking boots, and floppy hats. Whether in the classroom or in the jungle, he looks the part of a real-life Indiana Jones.

As soon as the greeting, eating, dancing were done in the village, Ken began his work like a true scientist using logic and reasoning to make sense of the history of Farenya. Archaeological fieldwork involves three basic techniques: surface survey, sampling, and subsurface testing (the dig). This expedition was concerned with the survey and sampling. The dig would come later and would take much longer, three or more six-month excavations.

Dr. Ken Kelly scours the surface for artifacts left from the past.

Using the village history I had written and information gained from village elders, Ken identified the sites with most potential and began scouring the surface for artifacts. His tools were a trowel, a brush, compass, measuring tape, plastic bags, and magic marker.

Quicker than any of us expected, he began to pick up shards (pieces of pottery, pipes, glass, and metal). He dusted off each one, muttered something like, "This comes from a ceramic plate made in France in 1798," scribbled words and numbers on a plastic bag, and stuffed the new piece of the puzzle in. His survey was producing samples.

I followed along in total amazement. In what appeared to me to be plain dirt, Ken would stop, kick aside a clod, reach down with his trowel, pick at the ground, and come up with a prized jewel.

Each afternoon, Ken washed his samples, examined them with a magnifying glass and identified their original use, place of production, and where he found them, e.g. jar, England 18th century, Queen's Palace.

After picking apart a clod of dirt, Dr. Kelly finds a shard (piece of pottery).

It dawned on me that archaeologists are not just trained to dig up stuff but to recognize what they find. The grain, the color, the etching, the weight are all of great importance. Ken's keen eye saw a rich texture of the past. What I had found in documents and in people's memories, he was verifying and going even further in uncovering how the people of Farenya lived and worked 200 years ago.

(Next week:

Archaeologist at work)

These pieces of glass may have held wine or medicine 200 years ago. Shards found during the day are laid out for inspection. These pieces of pottery and glass were found north of the first church in Farenya. This piece of pottery was found at the Queen's Palace in Farenya. Dr. Kelly carefully washes each artifact found during the surface survey. Dr. Kelly washes, labels, measures, and photographs artifacts found during the survey.