Investigating Native American Site - Part 2

On May 24, 2013 CCASM finished all planned field work on the  Native American site near Bryans Road in Charles County.  We had run out of time.

Starting in February 2013 CCASM put in eleven 5'x5' excavation units.  Data on the artifacts collected from the 273 shovel test pits (STPs) completed in 2012 (see Finishing STPs) and maps done by Jim Gibb helped us determine where to dig the units.  We put in test units in three areas in the northern part of site.  Most of the units were in one area around a feature identified in the STP phase.  The final day and a half, we put in units in two other areas to get some slight feel for what might be there.

To date twenty-nine people have helped with the project.  In total twenty-eight people volunteered 396 hours digging STPs and 360 hours excavating test units.  This does not include all the volunteer hours put in to process the artifacts that were recovered.  It took 178 volunteer hours to process and catalog the artifacts recovered from the STPs.  So far 96 volunteer hours have been spent processing the artifacts recovered from the test units, but there is still a lot of work remaining.

CCASM would like to say "thank you" to all those who have volunteered their time to help with this project.

As indicated the work is not complete.  We still need to complete processing and cataloging the artifacts.  And, of course, we need to write the report.  No archaeological project is complete without a report. 

Here is a brief overview of our activities at the site (in reverse order)--

Saturday May 25 was our last day at the site.  Jim, Steve, Annetta, Peggy, Rich, and Carol excavated three test units in a promising area (based on the STP data).  The pottery was similar to that found in our first area - Accokeek, Pope's Creek, and another hard pottery yet to be identified.  Everyone seems to like to find projectile points, and we found three.  In one unit when we were about to stop we sound one lone projectile point - a Archaic/Woodland Savannah River point.  The other points were found intermixed with the other artifacts and were Early/Middle Woodland points - a Rossville point and a Selby Bay point.  At the end of the afternoon we back filled any open units, removed any equipment we had on site, and left the site.

 

Just a comment - before our last day at the site I reviewed the pottery that had been recovered from the STPs in this northern part of the site.  The largest percent of identifiable pottery was Accokeek, pottery associated with the Early Woodland Period.  Only a small percent was Pope's Creek, pottery associated with the Early/Middle Woodland Period.  (There were also a number of small pieces of Potomac Creek, pottery associated with the Late Woodland Period as well as pieces of other unidentified pottery.)  And yet in the test units (#2-#9) excavated this year, the majority of the pottery was Pope's Creek.  So a lot is going on here, and working in just one area cannot provide a complete picture.  We knew this going in.

We were able to get back to the site Sunday April 28.  Jim, Steve, Elsie, Peggy, Rich, Carol, and a new member James continued excavating the unit we had started the previous time that we were at the site and found a small feature.  Much of the pottery found in this area was net-impressed Pope's Creek.  After lunch we moved to a new area in the site.  The unit did not contain as many artifacts, probably because it was on a slight slope and there may have been some erosion.  We did find pottery that was cord marked as well as fire cracked rocks, flakes, and one unfinished projectile point.

Steve, Kristi, Peggy, Rich, Josh, and Carol were back at the site Sunday April 7.  We finished excavating one unit and almost finished excavating another one.  The adjacent units had lots of net-impressed Pope's Creek pottery sherds.  We'll have to see if any mend.  In two cases the sherds were near three or more fire cracked rocks.  There were fewer tertiary flakes, but we still found flakes and at least one quartz core.


Saturday April 6 was a beautiful day.  Steve Elsie, Peggy, Jim, Josh, and Carol spent the day completing work on features in two different units.  One feature was fairly small and did not contain that many artifacts.  The "center" of the other feature had been excavated on previous days, and we had found Accokeek pottery as well as several points deep in the feature.  But today as we re-looked at the feature, we decided to continue excavating.  We kept finding artifacts and near the eventual bottom we found one sherd of Pope's Creek pottery and in a different location one sherd of fabric-impressed Mockley pottery.  Since the Mockley is the most recent artifact found in the feature, this pit feature probably dates from the Middle Woodland.

Once again Rich, Elsie, Peggy, Lynne, Josh, and Carol were at the site on Sunday March 24.  We found two possible small features near the bottom of the seventh unit.  Then when we opened up the eighth unit we came upon another feature in the first stratum, the top stratum with the loamy sand and roots.  The feature contained either baked clay or soft bricks much of which disintegrated when we tried to remove it.  At lunch one of the neighbors showed Lynne where there was clay in the area.  Lynne collected a bucket full of the clay and said it would be very good for making pottery.

Never trust the weather reports.  We thought Sunday March 17 would be the better day for the weekend based on the forecast, but it wasn't.  We started a new unit as well as worked in one of the other two units that were still open.  Jim, Annetta, Elsie, Peggy, Steve, Rich, Lynne, and Carol were able to work during the morning, but had to give up after lunch when the rain started and wouldn't stop. 

Saturday March 16 turned out to be a great day, and we had plenty of help to excavate a new unit.  Pictured are Steve, Haley, Ed, Josh, Seph Carole, and Joe - most of whom were new to the site.  We found flakes, fire-cracked rock, net-impressed pottery (Pope's Creek), as well as projectile points.  We also found a feature that contained some small pieces of charcoal in addition to the other artifacts.  People sometimes ask why we just show pictures of the people working and not the artifacts.  Well, the people make it possible.  And you can see the artifacts by coming to the site.

Ed provided us several photos for Saturday including the following two. You can see the creek and marsh in the background.

At last a nice day to dig.  Sunday February 24 it was sunny and in the high 40's.  Four people (Steve, Rich, Peggy, and Carol) took advantage of the good weather to come out and help excavate a new unit.  There were lots of fire-cracked rocks and lithics.  But there was also one Potomac Creek rim sherd near the top and a couple of Accokeek sherds at the bottom with several Pope's Creek sherds intermixed throughout.  Potomac Creek is Late Woodland, and the other two are Early Woodland.  Also there was one very unusual rock (at least to us).

The Saturday February 23 dig was cancelled partially due to the threat of rain and partially due to not enough people being crazy enough to want to come out in this iffy weather.  It didn't rain at the site, but the day was foggy and dreary and pretty miserable.  So it was a good call to cancel.

On Sunday February 17 seven people (Jim, Annetta, Peggy, Steve, Kristina, Rich, and Carol) showed up on a cold sunny day to work on the site.  The top inch or so of soil in the units had frozen.  So we removed it and waited for it to thaw.  In the meantime we finished working two units and started a third one.  We are finding a working surface around the fire cracked rocks.  There are hundreds of tertiary flakes as well as a number of projectile points and other lithics.  There is also pottery, mainly sand tempered.  In one of the strata there were several pieces from the same pot.  (We haven't tried to see if any of the pieces mend, but we will be checking that out.)

Work started on the site Saturday February 16.  Eight people (Jim, Annetta, Peggy, Elsie, Steve, Josh, Barry, and Carol) braved the threat of snow to open two units in an area where a possible feature had been identified.  We did see flakes - a few snow ones in the afternoon and lots of lithic ones throughout the day.  You should be able to see the concentration of fire cracked rocks in the center photo.

CCASM tries to provide opportunities for members to participate in and to contribute to archaeological projects.  Dr. James Gibb of Gibb Archaeological Consulting in Annapolis, MD has donated his time and some of his equipment for this CCASM activity.  Jim is also a member of CCASM.