Jim Delgado, an underwater archaeologist, was the keynote speaker. He showed the site where a copper-clad Baltimore Clipper had sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. The exploration and 3-D mapping of the site was done remotely aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. People could log in and watch a live feed showing what was happening underwater, as well as ask questions of an archaeologist on board the ship. The artifacts were found exactly where you would expect if the boat had sunk suddenly due to a catastrophic event. The Okeanos Explorer plans to return to the site this year. We hope to be able to provide a link so you can watch the live feed.
Actually Charles County was mentioned a number of times during the meeting. Susan Langley, Maryland State Underwater Archaeologist, indicated they were trying to have Mallows Bay designated a NOAA National Marine Sanctuary. There are currently only fourteen of these marine protected areas. She also pointed out the 100 year anniversary of the start of World War I was approaching. In case you don't know, Mallows Bay contains nearly 200 sunken ships above and beneath the surface of the Potomac River. Most of the wooden hulled ships date back to World War I.
During Tim Horsley's talk on remote sensing, he showed the results of magnetometer and GPR work done at the Juhle Site in Nanjemoy. This is the site of three known ossuaries. He found eight anomalies in the area that could be additional ossuaries. Of course, it would be necessary to ground truth one of them, and that is problematic. Tim also did magnetometer and GPR work at Zekiah Fort that Julie King recently discovered, and he identified a "square" area. The talk also included results from other Southern Maryland sites - Notley Hall, Smith St. Leonard, and Mount Calvert. Tim indicated multiple times that we should be using plastic rather than metal pin flags. The magnetometer picks up every pin flag location as well as the location of the nails used to mark the corner of units.
Other speakers were Al Luckenbach on the Pig Point Site, Mike Lucas and Emily Swann on the Nottingham Project, Kim Popetz on JPPM's traveling trunks, Roy Brown on atlatls and spears, and Charlie Hall with a preview of this year's field session. Also Becky Morehouse conducted a CAT Workshop on Basic Laboratory Techniques.
Below are five of the CCASM members that attended the Workshop. Trying to take pictures of the group was catch as catch can, and we didn't catch Jim. (Once again Maxine, a fellow ASM member, was our photographer.)
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| Belinda, George, Elsie, Annetta, Carol |
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