Wading with Weirs: An Archaeo-Historical Investigation of Stone Fish Weirs in North Carolina’s Great Pee Dee River

Abstract

This thesis is an archaeological survey and analysis of forty stone fish weirs along a fifteen-mile segment of the Great Pee Dee River, extending from the North Carolina-South Carolina border ending to the north at Blewett Falls Hydroelectric Dam. The research methodology of this thesis systematically documents the targeted stone fish weirs using archaeological and historical archival research, photo-archaeological analysis of historical aerial imagery available on Google Earth, amphibious reconnaissance of sites, and detailed weir survey. This approach establishes the importance of stone fish weirs as archaeological features that indicate continuous riverine resource exploitation over a millennia within the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin. This thesis also contributes to the growing recognition of fish weirs, particularly stone fish weirs, as culturally significant yet vulnerable archaeological resources. Stone fish weirs require focused documentation and preservation efforts to prevent further losses due to natural erosion or human alteration. Discussion of the survey results also acknowledges challenges in comprehensively recording fish weirs, including the absence of directly datable materials, which complicates their temporal placement and cultural attribution. Stone fish weirs represent understudied features of North Carolina's collective submerged cultural heritage, offering unique insights into long-term human-environmental interactions, Indigenous riverine archaeological features, and the hidden cross-cultural knowledge transfer processes that have occurred in the riverine cultural landscape over thousands of years.