2016 MHT/ASM Workshop in Archeology

The 25th annual MHT/ASM Workshop in Archeology was held on March 26, 2016 at the Maryland Historical Trust in Crownsville, MD.

Here is an overview of the talks -

• Exploring a Beautiful Place in Time: Reflections on Half a Century of Archeology at St. Mary's City
  Henry Miller
• Searching for King Opessa's Town in the Mountains of Maryland
  John Bedell
• Heritage from the Ground Up: Using Technology to Study Enslaved and Free Workers in an Iron-making Community
  Elizabeth Comer, et al.
  
• Outfitting Outlander: Costumes, Props, and Comparisons to Maryland Archeology
  Sara Rivers-Cofield*
• Mallows Bay, the Ghost Fleet and Beyond
  Susan Langley
• New Technologies in Site Recording
  Kirsti Uunila and Scott Strickland)

And there was also a CAT Workshop - Prehistoric Overview (presented by Charlie Hall and Bob Wall)

CCASM members attending included  Elsie, Belinda, Carol, and Jim.  It was also a good time to catch up with what is happening across the state.  

* "The Artifacts of Outlander" exhibit was on display on the third floor. (Sarah had talked about this at the CCASM January meeting.)

A Day at the 2016 Charles County H.I.T.S. Expo

In 2016 Charles County had its first (hopefully) Annual History, Industry, Technology, and Science (H.I.T.S.) Expo.  Both the Charles County History Day and the Charles County Science Fair were held in the morning with awards being presented in the late afternoon.  (CCASM provided both a history award and a science award as well as judges for the science award.)

Something else different this year was that organizations sponsoring awards were invited to participate in an Expo from 12pm-4pm.  There were forty-seven table presentations and displays with CCASM having one of them.  A lot was going on.  Jim, Carol, Elsie, and Barbara manned the display table.

If you look at the display table (2nd photo), you will see a few remaining copies of American Archaeology, the magazine of The Archaeological Conservancy.   Kelley Berliner from the East Regional Office  provided these for us to hand out.  Thanks Kelley.   For more information here is the link to The Archaeological Conservancy website.   (Kelley used to work with us at Port Tobacco before she went to graduate school.)

Also on the display table, you will see a big question mark on a box where people could leave "questions for the archaeologist".  In future blogs we will be answering the questions.

2016 Charles County History Day and Science Fair

This year the Annual Charles County History Day  and the Annual Science Fair were held together on March 19, 2016.  CCASM sponsored one of the special History awards and one of the Science awards.  In both cases the award was $50 and a one-year membership in CCASM.

This year's history topic was "Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History ".  The CCASM History award for a project related to archaeology went to Jacob Elder for his individual exhibit entitled "Mallows Bay".   Jacob attends General Smallwood Middle School (grade 7).

This year's CCASM Science award for a project "demonstrating excellence and scientific thinking relevant to the field of archaeology" went to Sydney Swann for her project entitled "Truss Design".   Sydney attends T. C. Martin Elementary School (grade 4).

Congratulations, Sydney and Jacob!

CCASM would also like to thank Jim and Carol for agreeing to be the judges for the 2016 CCASM Science Fair award.

CCASM at 2016 MAAC Conference

The 2016 Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference was held March 10-13 in Ocean City, MD.  CCASM had three members (Sarah, Carol, and Jim) that gave papers/presentations at the conference.

Coincidentally Charles McNett, the archaeologist that recorded Pomonkey North in 1970, was also at the conference.  As you may remember, Pomonkey North was the site CCASM investigated starting in 2012.

CCASM Investigation of Pomonkey North

Carol Cowherd

At the March 10 CCASM Meeting Carol Cowherd gave the final report on what was found during the CCASM investigation of Pomonkey North that started in 2012.  This included information that had not been previously reported about what was learned from the excavation of the test units.  CCASM was able to update the description of the site as well as to document that the site extended farther west.  Pomonkey North is a multi-component site dating from the Archaic Period into historic times with the major component being associated with the Early Woodland/early Middle Woodland Periods.

Carol Cowherd, an avocational archaeologist, is the Vice-President of CCASM.

Attendance: 15