Oil Spill May Benefit Archeological Study

From the News 5 Wind Creek chopper cam we can easily see historic sites like Fort Gaines. As cleanup workers comb the coast archeologists are in charge of protecting these cultural resources. Archeologist Michael Church has been doing a wide survey from the Mississippi state line to the Florida panhandle.

“My role is to insure that cleanup operations do not damage these sites because once they're damaged they can never be replaced,” says Church. I talked with him three weeks ago on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

“The best way to protect these sites is to tell people to stay away from them,” he says. Church says very little oil has made it to fragile sites like shell mounds and the amount that has should biodegrade. The oil spill presents a unique opportunity. It's rare archeologists get to do a study encompassing several miles of coastline.

“I think we've discovered 40 undiscovered sites between Mississippi, Alabama and Florida,” says Church. For now, most of what church has found is raw data and pictures, he hopes it can be used by other researchers to aid in further study of prehistoric life on the Gulf Coast.

“I'm constantly amazed at how long prehistoric people used the coast before European contact in the 1500's,” says Church.