Starting April Charles County Archaeology Society members helped the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project (PTAP) with excavations at the Burch House in Port Tobacco, MD. On August 31 we reached the "bottom" of the units next to the Burch House. The excavations were necessary for a planned addition to the Burch House. This house is one of three surviving 18th-century houses in the town.
Here are the pictures of us working as well as pictures of progress over the past months.
Pictured above are CCAS members Carol Cowherd, Elsie Picyk, and Jane Keller along with Dr. Jim Gibb, Managing Director for the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project. The women sitting in the units are PTAP crew Anne Hayward and Kelley Walter. And the person with the big smile is Peter Quantock, another member of the PTAP crew and also a CCAS member. The last picture indicates how we tried to cope with the heat during July. Elsie Picyk brought her box fan, and everyone drank lots of water.
On May 20 the foundation to the 19th century addition to Burch House was uncovered.
Burch House
To find out more about the 19th century Burch House addition, go to http://porttobacco.blogspot.com/2010/06/some-burch-news.htm
On June 22 we identified a post hole with a post mold from an earlier structure. The picture on the right was taken looking north from the dirt pile behind the two orange buckets seen in the June 22 picture.
The work to uncover earlier strata continued while Peter took time to talk with visitors.
In all the units we have found a layer of burned oyster shells about 2.5' to 3' below the surface. In some places only black loamy soil with no artifacts was below the oyster shells. But on August 3 an area containing charred wood fragments (up to approximately 3" x 1") was uncovered. See the darker area in the lower central part of the picture at the left. It could be a fire pit or ... The last stratum removed before the picture was taken contained very few artifacts but those found included 3 tobacco pipe stems, 3 quartz flakes, and one prehistoric pottery sherd!
On August 31 we reached sterile soil in all the units. The picture at the left shows the foundation of the Burch House. On the left are the bricks for the original cellar. To the right of that in the exposed soil under the foundation are a post hole and post mold, probably from a structure that predates the building of Burch House.
To see some of the artifacts we found see Finding 19th Century Ceramics and Glass
or look on the PTAP blog http://porttobacco.blogspot.com/.
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