Dr Meg Gaillard, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Since 2017, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Archaeology team has been assisted by hundreds of volunteers, students and professional archaeologists in a rescue excavation of the Pockoy Island Shell Ring Complex located on Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve, Charleston County, South Carolina, USA. The excavation of this 4,300-year-old site is necessary because Pockoy Island is eroding at a rate of 15m/year. Heritage at risk sites like the Pockoy Island Shell Ring Complex give archaeologists a chance to combine rapid excavation with community archaeology to recover knowledge before the opportunity is lost forever.