New Location and Day of Month for Meetings

CCASM was able to find a larger meeting room.  So starting January 12, 2012, we will be meeting in the Community Meeting Room at the

    Town of La Plata Police Department
    101 La Grange Ave, La Plata, MD
    Click to find Town of La Plata Police Department on Map

The change in location also required us to change the day of the month on which we meet.

The new day of the month is the 2nd Thursday.

The time is still 7:00 pm.

Parking is in the lot across from La Grange Avenue.  Please do not park in the area reserved for police cars.

For those long-time residents, this is the old La Plata Post Office.

Riley Tract in Rock Creek Park

Tom Forhan

At the December 7 meeting Tom Forhan told about the work he had done in Rock Creek Park.  Before the government acquired the land for Rock Creek Park in 1890, the area was farmed by a diverse group of landowners and tenants, including 100 acres owned by William Riley.  His talk highlighted cultural landscapes and the wilderness.  Tom is the Vice President of Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc.

Only thirteen people braved the weather and the traffic delays to hear Tom's talk.  Sometimes rain came down so hard it sounded like the station roof might give out.


Attendance: 14

2011 Search for Newtowne Chapel Report

Scott, J. Babock, Jim Gibb, Frankie

This year Scott Lawrence, Dr. James Gibb, Peter Quantock, and a number of volunteers searched for the 1661/2 Jesuit Chapel in the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery at Newtown, St. Mary's County, Maryland.

To view the report in Google Docs

• either select "Research by CCASM Members and Others" in the right column of this blog
  and click on "Search for Newtowne Chapel Report - 2011".
  (Good to know for future reference.)
  
• or just click here for report

The work was done for Fr. Brian Sanderfoot, Pastor of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church.  The church is getting ready to celebrate its parochial 350th anniversary.

Discovering the Piscataway Fort

Dr. King

At the November 2 meeting Dr. Julia King, Anthropology Professor at Saint Mary's College of Maryland, told about discovering the late seventeenth century Piscataway Indian Fort in the Charles County Zekiah Swamp.

Dr. King described several sites on the Wicomico River and in the Zekiah Swamp that she and her students have investigated over the last three years and how this past summer she thinks they have found the Zekiah Fort.  They did not find a palisade during their limited field session.  However, artifacts indicate that this was a contact period site, and the location makes sense.

Trade Beads
found at site

Attendance: 35

Open House and Village Ghost Walk at Historic Port Tobacco

On Saturday October 29 CCASM participated in the Port Tobacco Alliance Open House and Village Ghost Walk. Despite the cold and rainy weather we had a good time. The ghost walk was changed to ghost stories inside the warm Courthouse.
CCASM volunteers included Carol Cowherd, Jim Gibb, Rich Gorski, Barbara Kane, Steve Lohr, and Elsie Picyk.

Archaeological Artifacts

Jim with Burch House Artifacts

Steve with Civil War Objects

Children Activity - Archaeobotany

Barbara working with child

 Family working together

Ghost Talk

Elsie telling about the Cocking murders and lynching

Blue Dog Story (fuzzy)

Ghost of Tom Jones

CCASM Displays

October 8 ASM Annual Fall Meeting

Robinson Nature Center

October 8 the Archeology Society of Maryland, Inc (ASM) had its annual fall meeting at the new Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, Maryland.  Carol Cowherd provided the chapter report for CCASM.

Two of the talks related to Charles County.  The 2011 Frederick Stiner Memorial Lecture  was "A Multidisciplinary Investigation for the Original Mt. Aventine(s) at Chapman State Park".  Laura Cripps talked about non-invasive archaeology looking for the older site, and Mark Tacyn talked about the history related to the later site.  Jim Gibb, who is also a CCASM member, talked about non-invasive archaeology, shovel test pits, and evidence of sedimentation at Port Tobacco in Charles County.

Alex presenting certificate to Belinda

Belinda Urquiza, one of our CCASM members, received her certificate for graduating from ASM's Certified Archeological Technician (CAT) Program.

Congratulations, Belinda.

Other talks at the meeting included Mark Raab on the new Robinson Nature Center,  Lee Preston Jr (Upper Patuxent Archeology Group) on three centuries of milling at the site, Jennifer Chadwick-Moore on the impact of climate change and rising water levels on the archaeological resources in Maryland, Kenneth Short on 18th century architecture in Howard County, and Bob Wall on the 2011 ASM Field School at the Barton Site in Allegheny County.

History and Archaeology of Maryland Mills

Jim Gibb

At the October 5 meeting Dr. Jim Gibb of Gibb Archaeological Consulting showed how water-driven mills were built, the different type of materials processed by the mills, and what to look for in the landscape when looking for evidences of old mills.

At the end of the meeting we saw part of DVD on the Mill Brook Farm Grist Mill in Nanjemoy.

Attendance: 20

At Nanjemoy Heritage Day 2011

CCASM had an exhibit at the 11th Annual Nanjemoy Heritage Day on Saturday September 24.

Elsie with Diagnostic Information

Barbara with Archaeobotany Activity

If you look closely at the exhibit on the left, you might be able to see a DVD player showing a slide show of various CCASM activities, notebooks with diagnostic information for identifying historic and prehistoric artifacts, posters for  telling time with historic artifacts, and the back of the Port Tobacco Display.

For the first time a children's activity was included.  The archaeobotany activity involved picking out seeds, e.g. corns, beans, onion,  from gravel and identifying them.  The seeds were then taped to a form for the children to take with them.

Elsie Picyk and Barbara Kane represented CCASM at the event.  George Picyk provided the photos.  They had an enjoyable afternoon meeting others interested in archeology as well as promoting archeology in Charles County.

We would like to thank those CCASM members that provided items for the exhibit. And we would especially like to thank Barbara Kane for developing the children's activity, Dr. James Gibb for allowing us to use the Port Tobacco Display, and the Picyks for providing the DVD player.

Announcing the Discovery of the Zekiah Fort

This summer Dr. Julia King was once again looking for the Piscataway Indian Fort in the Zekiah Swamp in Charles County, and she believes she found it.  In 1680 the Piscataway moved to Charles Calvert's land in the Zekiah and built a fort initially for protection from raids by northern Indian groups.  The fort was abandoned in the mid-1690's.  Dr. King's work was funded by the Smallwood Foundation and Michael Sullivan.

The announcement of the discovery was made September 15, 2011, at Mount Victoria, the home of Mike Sullivan.  In addition to Julia King and Mike Sullivan, those speaking included Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Mike Miller, Sen. Thomas "Mac" Middleton, the presidents of St Mary's College and the College of Southern Maryland, as well as representative from three Piscataway groups- Billy Tayac, Mervin Savoy, and Natalie Proctor.

Numerous local historic and preservation organizations were represented.  At least eight CCASM members attended.  Five of them had volunteered for Dr. King this summer.   Sorry, I didn't get pictures of the CCASM members.

Skylar Bauer and Alex Flick

Here are pictures of two of the St. Mary's College alumni that worked on the project as well as a box with some of the artifacts from the site.

Zekiah Fort Artifacts

For more information on the event see St. Mary's College Press Release

Archaeology Project at Mt Aventine

Laura Cripps

Dr. Laura Cripps, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Howard Community College, conducted a small non-invasive survey project at Chapman State Park on September 2 and 3. The project was to produce additional information on the extent and preservation of archaeological remains at the Park for use by the DNR and the Friends of Mt Aventine.

You can hear more about what she found at the October 8 meeting of the Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc. (see calendar).  Dr. Cripps will be giving the 2010 Frederick L. Stiner Memorial Lecture on "A Multidisciplinary Investigation for the Original Mt. Aventine(s), at Chapman State Park".

Excavating at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery

Scott, J. Babock, Dr. Gibb, Frankie

Scott Lawrence and Dr. James Gibb are looking for the 1661/2 Jesuit Chapel in the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery at Newtown, St. Mary's County.   Based on precious STP work, 5' x 5' units are being excavated.  The site is completely clear and is situated away from known burials.

CCASM members are welcome to participate.  Carol Cowherd has helped on two days.

Current plans are to continue excavating for at least two more days. The dates will be posted once they are set.   The times are 9-4, but it is not necessary to volunteer for the whole day.

Contact Scott or Dr. Gibb for more specific information.

St. Francis Xavier Cemetery
21370 Newtowne Neck Road
Leonardtown, MD 20650

Trip to Smithsonian Museum Support Center

Friday August 5 was the CCASM trip to the Smithsonian Museum Support Center in Suitland where we toured a small part of the National Museum of Natural History archaeology collections.  This was the highest rated option on our survey for a week day CCASM trip during the summer.

Carol S, Josh, Phil, and Robin in back
with Elsie and Sheila in front looking at parkas

Jim describing drawer contents

James Krakker, the archaeological collections specialist in the Department of Anthropology, showed us just a small fraction of some of the objects from North America.  He indicated there was the equivalent of an acre of storage for archaeology and ethnology.  Of course, we had to see the collections from Maryland.  Also we saw how artifacts were catalogued in the 1800's, where collections were processed, and how the collections were stored.

It was quite an interesting trip.

Click on NMNH Anthropology Collections to learn more about the collections.

Museum Support Center

The tour was set up by Carol Cowherd who volunteers for Jim Krakker at the MSC.

Trip to Mount Calvert

Saturday July 16 was the CCASM trip to Mount Calvert Historical and Archaeological Park in Upper Marlboro. This was the highest rated option on our survey for a weekend CCASM trip during the summer.

Rich and Belinda

Josh and Mike Lucas

At Mount Calvert they are currently excavating a late 17th- early 18th century site.  But the site was also occupied in Archaic and Early Woodland times. Two of the more interesting artifacts we found were an Archaic LeCroy point and a Rhenish stoneware sherd with the letters "ET•HIB•"

We also took time to visit the museum and to enjoy the view of the Patuxent.  It was a beautiful day.

Mount Calvert Museum

View of Patuxent 

Dr. King Thanks CCASM Volunteers

On July 14 Dr. Julia King thanked the CCASM members that volunteered to help process artifacts from Notley Hall.  CCASM's help in the lab allowed Dr. King's crew to spend more time in the field at Windy Knoll, the possible Piscataway Fort.

Dr. King shared photos of the work done this year at Notley Hall and at the Windy Knoll.  There was also an opportunity to looks at the artifact distributions and to try  to understand what the distributions might indicate.  Some of the contact period artifacts found at Windy Knoll are shown below.  You should see a copper point, a gun flint, a white tobacco pipe stem with a maker's mark, and glass trade beads.

Not all the volunteers were able to come to the informal show and tell.  But for those who could,  Julie took to lunch at the Front Porch in Leonardtown.

It was quite a nice "thank you".

Thanks to Sheila Smith

CCASM would like to thank Sheila Smith for her generous donation.

As she requested, CCASM is using the money to fund a grant for Peter Quantock's magnetometer and ground penetrating radar research in Port Tobacco Village.

CCASM appreciates their efforts in increasing the archaeological knowledge of Charles County.

(Peter is currently working on a Masters in Anthropology at the University of Denver.   He was a charter member of CCAS and part of the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project.)

Volunteering for Dr. Julia King

This summer Dr. Julia King was once again looking for the Piscataway Indian Fort in the Zekiah Swamp in Charles County.  And CCASM volunteered to help.

But first Dr. King and her crew worked at the Notley Hall site at the mouth of the Wicomico.  Notley Hall was the home of Thomas Notley, the seventh Maryland governor.

Polly, Rich, Carol, Carole (June 3)

Elsie (June 22)

Members of CCASM volunteered over 130 hours.  They helped wash, bag, and count the artifacts from the 250+ shovel test pits dug at the Notley Hall site.  CSM had provided a lab in which to process the artifacts.

Those participating included Carol Cowherd, Joshua Eller, Rob Gibbs, Rich Gorski, Elsie Picyk, Carole Raucheisen, Carol Starnes, and Polly Zimmerman.

Pictured below is Dr. Julia King and two of her crew, Scott and Skylar in the lab.  Skylar supervised our labs.

Julie King, Scott, and Skylar

2011 ASM Field Session

The 2011 ASM Field Session was June 10 – 20 at the Barton Site in Allegany County, and three of our CCASM members were able to attend.

Rich troweling

Belinda with ceramic sherd

Carol removing post mold

Rich is troweling in one of the northern units looking for additional sections of a Page palisade.  Belinda is holding a piece of pottery that may predate the Page occupation and was found in one of the southern units.  Carol is working in a unit with part of the deep Susquehanna storage pit (later trash pit) that cut through a Page occupation feature.

Looking south

Looking north

Roy Brown

Bob Wall and Charlie Hall

Dr. Robert Wall of Towson University is the principal investigator.  He is pictured at right with Dr. Charlie Hall, the
Maryland State Terrestrial Archeologist.

Also pictured at the right is Roy Brown, the president of the Western Maryland Chapter of ASM that has been volunteering with Dr. Wall at the site for the past several years. Roy provided the atlatls and a target that we tried to hit.

The Barton site is part of a series of prehistoric sites that contain artifacts dating from the Paleo-Indian period to Contact times. It was purchased in 2002 by The Archaeological Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to acquiring and preserving archaeological sites.

Click on  Barton Village Site to find out more about the site and about work done there in previous years.