Beaufort County dig finds 300-year-old Yamasee artifacts

Archeologists digging through Beaufort County soil where million-dollar homes will soon be built have discovered what one scientists calls the most significant finds in South Carolina in at least two decades.

The land, currently in dense forest near the confluence of the Okatie and Colleton rivers, was home to an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 Yamasee Indians between 1700 and 1715.

For six years, a group of archaeologists has worked to uncover clues on how the tribe lived, how they built their homes, what they ate, how they hunted and how much they traded with early European settlers.