Using side-scan sonar and positioning systems, researchers search for archaeological evidence of the rice fields once situated along the banks of the lower Cape Fear and Brunswick rivers in North Carolina. The far right of the image is a sonar overlay of the riverbed.
UNC Wilmington environmental sciences assistant professor Joni “Osku“ Backstrom and Mark Wilde-Ramsing, underwater archaeologist and former director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology, have traversed the lower Cape Fear and Brunswick rivers searching for archaeological evidence of the rice fields once situated along the rivers’ banks. Their goal is to inventory extant rice cultivation remains on the northern end of Eagles Island using a side-scan sonar and positioning systems. They also hope to highlight and preserve the history of enslaved West Africans and their descendants, the Gullah Geechee.
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