While visiting the Hagwood Mill, we were pleasantly surprised to find that there is also an exhition of prehistoric petroglyphs on the site. There are thirty-two distinct petroglyphs at this site, eighteen represent people, and several are abstracts, but they all have one thing in common – THEY ARE AWESOME. Since rocks cannot be carbon dated we may never know the real age of the carvings, but archeologists believe them to be prehistoric.
The carvings were found in the rock bed of the stream that flows through the property. Time and weather has eroded the carvings making them hard to see, but Pickens County has done a fantastic job in preserving the carvings while making them accessable to the public.
The entire rock was covered with a large amphitheater which was built directly over the rock, and walkways built, and special lights installed to allow the public to view the carvings from different angles.
Even with all the special lighting, the details can be hard to decern, so molded impressions were made of the carvings.
The impressions are displayed next to photograghs of the rock carvings
next to photograghs of the rock carvings
in a interpretive center attached to the actual amphitheater. Also in the interpretation center are artifacts,
photographic images, and
displays from the 10-year
South Carolina Rock Art
Survey with descriptive texts all designed to expand the visitors knowledge of Rock Art in the Carolinas.
Outside the building is another ancient artifact—a soapstone boulder with two partially carved bowls made by Native Americans 5,000 years ago. The bowls were rough shaped on the rock using flint chisels and then broken off for the final shaping.
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