A field crew from Commonwealth Heritage Group, now part of Chronicle Heritage, carries out excavation within the project site in Wake County, North Carolina.

New Expressway in North Carolina Opens, the Finale to an NCDOT Project Yielding Significant Archaeological Results with Assistance from Chronicle Heritage

Oct 23, 2024

Above: A field crew from Commonwealth Heritage Group, now part of Chronicle Heritage, carries out excavation within the project site in Wake County, North Carolina.

In North Carolina’s Wake County, an 18-mile extension of the Triangle Expressway, also known as the Toll N.C. 540, is now complete and open to traffic, capping off a multiyear North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) project, with assistance from Chronicle Heritage staff, that yielded important information on precontact Native American lifeways in the area.

The site was on a small terrace above a creek on the outskirts of Raleigh, and due to its varied artifact assemblage and undisturbed nature, was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). However, because the site was squarely within the path of the proposed construction, excavation was necessary to recover important information prior to construction activities.

Overview of the project area in Wake County, North Carolina.
Overview of the project area in Wake County, North Carolina.

Commonwealth Heritage Group, now part of Chronicle Heritage, was contracted by NCDOT to complete the excavation, which took place in late 2020. Thirteen cultural features and more than 24,000 artifacts including chipped-stone tools, lithic debitage, ceramic vessel fragments, and carbonized plant remains were documented during the process.

The most noteworthy findings include a possible hearth, clusters of sherds reflecting a small number of earthenware cooking or storage vessels with cord-marked or fabric-impressed designs, and concentrations of larger lithic items reflecting former activity areas. According to results from radiocarbon dating and other technologies, most of these artifacts date from the Early Archaic Period (8,000–6,000 B.C.) through the Middle Woodland era (300 B.C.–A.D. 800). The overarching information from the site suggests multiple components related to short-term recurrent occupation by Native American communities.

Field crew members on site, with recovered artifacts visible in the foreground.
Field crew members on site, with recovered artifacts visible in the foreground.

Some of the items uncovered during excavation were displayed at 540 Fest in June, an event where people ran and cycled along the nearly completed highway. The full collection is now slated to be housed at the Office of State Archaeology’s Research Center in Raleigh, where it will be available for future study.

We are always privileged to be awarded projects that directly benefit the public. This new leg of the Triangle Expressway allows citizens in North Carolina’s Triangle region to have better highway access, reducing travel time and congestion. We are grateful to NCDOT and other project stakeholders for this critical opportunity to help preserve information on the inhabitants of North Carolina thousands of years ago.