Special for The Press and Standard
Dr. Larry Strong, a Professor Emeritus at USC Salkehatchie who is an amateur archaeologist, will present a program titled “Prehistoric Cultures of Allendale County” on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m. in the iCarolina Lab in the Library and Academic Support Building at the Allendale campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The program provides context and understanding of the archeological exhibits housed at USC Salkehatchie. One exhibit features Dr. Strong’s collection of artifacts found in the Salkehatchie region. A display case contains examples from the 17,000 specimens he donated to the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. The Strong Collection is the largest single collection of Paleoindian artifacts in South Carolina, and includes Clovis, Redstone, and Dalton points, as well as hundreds of other stone tools. These artifacts provide information about prehistoric human life in the southern Coastal Plain of South Carolina.
Additional exhibits focus on the Topper Site, an archaeological site near the Savannah River in Allendale County. Prepared by the South Carolina Archaeological Public Outreach Division under the direction of Dr. Al Goodyear, these exhibits contain artifacts crafted by the first human beings to live in the southeastern part of the continent of North America.
Dr. Strong, who taught math at Salkehatchie for nearly 50 years, has been named an Amateur Archaeologist of the Year by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. He has participated in and helped to fund the research at the Topper Site. Additionally, Dr. Strong has provided some of the artifacts in the exhibit “Prehistoric Chert Quarries of Allendale County” in addition to the artifacts in the Strong Collection exhibit. For more information visit @uscsalkehatchie
