The Carroll County High School Archaeological Project is an ongoing research effort jointly sponsored by the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, Dow Corning and Carroll County High School. The project is in its second year of investigating the Panther Rock site (15Cl58), a significant Middle to Late Archaic (5,000 - 1,000 B.C.) site located on property owned by Dow Corning. During the course of the project, students participate in: 1) pre-excavation classroom instruction in archaeology and Kentucky prehistory; 2) excavation at the Panther Rock site; and 3) post-excavation laboratory processing of materials collected during excavation. Students apply science and research skills in a real world setting in this unique experiential based educational program.

During the 1996 and 1997 field seasons Carroll County High School students participated in the excavation of test units resulting in the recovery of artifacts and the identificatio of several Archaic pits. Artifacts recovered from the site include Matanzas side notched projectile points, drills, preforms, knives, scrapers, spokeshaves, utilized flakes, cores, debitage, hammerstones, culturally altered cobbles, deer bone, and hickory nut shell. Analysis of the data recovered from this site has the potential to contribute to our understanding of Late Archaic lifeways along the middle Ohio River. Research at this archaeological site is ongoing and is focussing on questions relationg to season of occupation, diet and technology, and community organization.