The College of Charleston is expected this week to release a report with certain conditions that shows ground-penetrating radar (GPR) scans conducted seven months ago at 106 Coming St., the site of the college’s proposed dormitory, a college spokesperson said.
When the report is available, however, members of the Community Engagement Council (CEC) can only view it in the office of the college’s president, Andrew T. Hsu, after they sign a nondisclosure agreement, said a CEC member who asked to remain anonymous. “We can review it, but we can’t take any pictures, and we can’t take any notes” from the report, the CEC member said.
A redacted copy of the report will be released to the public and the media, a college spokesman said.
“A redacted GPR report at this time is part of the permit conditions issued by the S.C. Bureau of Coastal Management (BCM),” the spokesperson said.
“Locational data of human remains will be redacted from all reports until the completion of the project and sensitive information (including photographs of skeletal remains) will not be made publicly available through reports, technical memorandums, or excavation updates,” the spokesman said, quoting the state requirement.
In February, Scott Harris, the college’s associate professor of geology and environmental geo-sciences, towed a low-power GPR scanner behind a pickup truck over the asphalt and graveled parking lots that surround a building on the site that was once the headquarters of YWCA of Greater Charleston.
The college has since demolished the building, and it plans to remove asphalt sometime after Oct. 25, the college spokesperson said.
The college’s plans to construct a dorm on the site to house 1,000 students has raised concerns across Charleston because the site is a former 18th-century burial ground where thousands of poor Whites, orphaned children and enslaved people are believed to be buried.
On Oct. 24, the college and a Burial Ground Commemoration and Memorialization Task Force are scheduled to hold at “A Celebration of Ancestors Unknown but Not Forgotten.” The 11 a.m. libation ceremony will include pouring of a liquid offering, drumming, singing, dancing, reflections, prayers and a repast with selected cuisines of the ancestors,” according to the college’s website.
The CES member said the group wants to see an unredacted report and an unaltered copy of the GPR scans. The member also said the group was told recently the restrictions are required to protect the site from being pilfered by treasure hunters.
The college formed the CEC in response to the concern about the proposed dormitory. The CEC meets regularly with college officials. Some of them have become critical of the process, and one has resigned.
Previous GPR testing done before the college purchased the property was inconclusive on whether human remains are in the ground, the college has said.
Harris has said the three-dimensional scans may reveal objects in the soil at a depth of about 7 feet, but it will not show human remains. The scans could detect grave shafts, if the soil conditions are good, he added. A grave shaft is the hole that is dug for a burial.
The results of the scans can guide archaeologists during future examinations of the site, Harris has said.
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