Mt. Hope Church & Cemetery Volunteer Workday

October is Cemetery Month.  On Saturday October 28 a special "Mt. Hope Church and Cemetery Volunteer Workday" was held at Mt. Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Nanjemoy.   The event was sponsored by the Mt. Hope Church community, Preservation Maryland, Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites, Charles County Planning, and the Association for Preservation Technology.

There were four areas of activity during the day:

• Mt. Hope Cemetery Conservation and Headstone Documentation 
• Recording History - both oral and family documents
• Architectural Documentation  of Carroll Family Farmhouse
• Archaeology at Carroll Family Cemetery

Five CCASM members volunteered - Denise, Joe, Evelyn, Julie, Carol, and Jim.  And guess which activity we choose.  Archaeology at the Carroll Family Cemetery, of course.  It was not just us at the cemetery.  There were many, many members of Mt Hope Church and of the Carroll family that also helped at this site.

Esther Read, the Charles County archaeologist, was in charge.  If you have never looked for graves in an unmarked cemetery, here is what we did.  First, we looked for impressions in the ground.  Over time after someone is buried and starts to return to the soil, the ground on top begins to sink in.  We also looked for posts in the ground and rocks that may have marked graves.  And we found quite a few.  Scott Lawrence's experience working with old cemeteries definitely helped.  After the possible graves were marked with flags, we documented each one - length, width, amount of depression, presence of a marker, and presence of other plants, such as periwinkle, that were historically planted in cemeteries.  Also Jim Gibb brought a Total Station, an electronic transit, and recorded the positions of the head and the foot of all the possible graves as well of any posts or stones.

All the data gathered will be turned over to Mt. Hope Church.  Hopefully, in the future we will be able to learn more about what was found.

2017 ASM Fall Meeting

On Saturday October 21 the Upper Patuxent Archaeology Group (UPAG) Chapter of ASM hosted the Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc (ASM) 2017 Fall Meeting at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD.

The CCASM members attending were Annetta, Belinda, Carol, and Jim.  Carol gave the CCASM chapter report during the business meeting.  Sarah Grady, CCASM's previous president, also was one of the speakers.

It's always fun to catch up with others from around the state and hear what they are doing.  But the highlight of the meeting was the talks.  Below is the list.  If you get a chance to hear them at some other venue, you should try to go.  You won't be disappointed.

• In the Face of the Flood: Endangered Sites in Anne Arundel County
  Stacy Poulus, Lost Towns
   
• Report on the 2017 ASM Field Session 
  Kirsti Uunila, Calvert County archeologist, presented by Charles Hall, MHT
      
• SHA Is More than Highways, Especially if a Shipwreck Is Uncovered
  Aaron Levinthal, SHA
   
• The Frederic M. Stiner Memorial Lecture: Looking into a fort George Washington had constructed
  W. Stephen McBride, McBride Preservation Services
   
• How a Small Non-Profit Got Involved in Archeology
  Lynne Bulhack, Mid-Potomac Archeological Society
   
• The Marilyn Thompson Lecture: Preserving a Jim Crow Era School in Anne Arundel County
  Sarah Grady, University of Maryland
   
• Looking for the Wreck of the Scorpion
  WMPT videotape 

Also congratulations to Dennis Curry, the 2017 William B Mayre Award recipient;  Jeff Cunningham, the 2017 Patricia Seitz Teacher of the Year Award recipient; and Dave Peters, the latest person to complete ASM’s Certified Archeological Technician program.

And thanks to the UPAG Chapter for hosting the meeting.

History of Archeology in Maryland's First Capitol

Silas Hurry

At the November 12 CCASM meeting Silas Hurry recounted the history of archaeology at Historic St. Mary's City starting with evidence that a colonial resident probably collected projectile points and continuing up to the present.  We learned about all (or most) of the archaeology projects and research that has been done there in the past 200+ years.  Along the way we also saw early photos of many of Maryland's archaeologist when they were working at St. Mary's City.

Silas D. Hurry is Historic St. Mary's City Curator of Collections and Archaeological Laboratory Director.

Getting time to catch up
before the meeting

You may notice our meeting room looks a little different.  At the last minute our regular meeting room was not available, and Mike offered to have us meet at his house.  So thank you Mike. 

Attendance: 8

Get Into Mallows Bay Day

Saturday October 7 was a beautiful day for "Get into Mallows Bay Day!".  The sign at the left shows the various organizations that sponsored the event.  CCASM was one of the sponsors.

It was 4th annual trash clean up at Mallows Bay Park co-sponsored by the Alice Ferguson Foundation.  (The Alice Ferguson Foundation has been cleaning up the Potomac for twenty-nine years.)

But there were also other activities - a bird walk by the Audubon Society, two heritage and history walks with Don Shomette,  and kayak tours for families and for the general public.  Someone had donated money so that kayaks could be available at no charge for the kayak tours.

And there were also a number of tables related to archaeology (both on land and in the water), fossils, fish identification, and reptiles (a snake and a turtle).  CCASM had the two tables related to terrestrial archaeology.

Checking out Display and CCASM Activities

Identifying Artifacts

Thanks to Denise and Carol for staffing the table.  They had a good time talking to people and giving out stickers to anyone that completed the artifact activity.