2015 Annual Fall Meeting

On Saturday October 24 the Central Chapter of ASM hosted the 2015  Archeological Society of Maryland Annual Fall Meeting at Oregon Ridge Nature Center in Cockeysville, MD.  ASM holds its  annual Business Meeting at his meeting.  Carol provided a brief report on activites of CCASM, the Charles County Chapter.  Three members of CCASM were able to attend the meeting.

The Central Chapter put together an interesting set of talks.  The topics and speakers are shown below.  One discussion of note was not on the agenda,  and it didn't even relate to Maryland archaeology.  After her talk on Biggs Ford. Becca Peixotto answered numerous questions about her experience in a South African cave.  Becca was one of the six women researchers that retrieved fossils of H. naledi, a new human species, from the cave. 

• Threatened Heritage: Five Years of Response to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Erosion on Archeological Sites in Anne Arundel County  [Frederick M. Stiner Memorial Lecture]
  Stephanie Sperling
• Dental Health of Delmarva Adena-Hopewell Native Americans of Pig Point Site (18AN50) in Lothian, Maryland
  
  Erin Edwards 
• An Introduction: Applied GIS for Archeologists
  
  Bill Dickinson Jr
• Status report on the 2013, 2014 and 2015 ASM Field Sessions at the Biggs Ford Site: Where we are in the analysis process
  
   Becca Peixotto (introduced by Dr. Charlie Hall)
•  Recent Archaeological Investigation of the Concord Historic Site in Capitol Heights in Prince George’s County
  
  Jeanne Ward
• Archeological and Geophysical Analysis of an 18th through 20th Century Landscape in Prince George’s County
  
  Matthew D. Cochran (co-authoried with Donald K. Creveling)
• Kirby Farm Site: A Middle and Late Woodland Periods Hunting Quarter in Maryland’s Interior Piedmont Province
  Wayne Clark with introduction to talk by Stephen Israel

CCASM is a chapter of ASM. 

2015 ASM "Fall Classic" Field Session

October 9 - 20 the Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc (ASM) returned to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for the 2015 "Fall Classic" Field Session.  Dr. Jim Gibb was the principal investigator.  In addition to being a member of ASM, Jim is also a member of CCASM.  At least two other CCASM members participated.

The field session activities included excavation, feature definition and lab work.  The excavation was in several areas that had previously been identified by magnetometer.  Most of the areas were near the Java House Ruin (1747), but one that may have been associated with a tenant house was closer to the river.  A Certified Archeological Technician workshop on historic ceramics was also offered.

CCASM is a chapter of ASM.

Tracing the Footsteps of Those Who Left Calvert County During the War of 1812

Kirsti Uunila

October 8 Kirsti Uunila showed documentary evidence for individual slaves from Calvert County who took refuge with British Naval forces during the War of 1812.  A source she recommended was the Maryland State Archives' web site on "Legacy of Slavery in Maryland".  Since most of the early Calvert County land records were destroyed, it is more difficult to tie the individual slaves to the specific land on which they resided.  But Kirsti did talk about a couple of archaeological sites and how they could relate to the departing slaves. 

After the talk, the topic of slave houses was brought up.  Kirsti recommended the book Hearth and Home by George McDaniel.  The book is based on surveys McDaniel did on extant slave houses and post-Civil War tenant houses in Southern Maryland.

Kirsti Uunila is the Historic Preservation Planner for Calvert County.

Attendance: 9