2016 ASM Spring Symposium

Saturday April 9 the Archeological Society of Maryland held its Annual Spring Symposium at the Maryland Historical Trust in Crownsville, MD.   CCASM members attending included Carol, Annetta, Carole, and Belinda. 


The talks at the Symposium included

• An Exploration of Archaic Rituals, Dr. Cheryl Claassen, Appalachian State University, N.C
  Extremely interesting talk.   The talk was a summary of the first section of her recent book Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America: An Interpretive Guide.  Evidently in addition to building soil mounds, Archaic people also built shell mounds (think Pope's Creek).
   
• Re-Examining 17th Century Beads from the Chesapeake, Rebecca Webster, senior at St Mary's College
   
• Large-Scale Excavations at Four Woodland Sites of Central Delaware (Carey Farm, Snapp, Leipsic and Pollack Sites): Or, What I Learned from Big-Time Archeology, Dr. Jay F. Custer, University of Delaware
   
• The River Farm Site: Part of the Pig Point Puzzle, Stephanie Sperling, Anne Arundel County The first of this year's ASM field sessions will be at the River Farm Site.  The talk described the work that had been done to date in order to whet our interest.
           
•  The Rising Star Excavation in South Africa and the Homo Naledi Discovery, Becca Peixotto , American University
  Becco was one of the six primary excavators of the site.  She shared 3-D printed examples of bones recovered, a "video" of what it was like navigating through the cave, as well as describing this unusual open access project.
   
•  Putting Classic Sites to Work: The Colonial Encounters Project, Dr. Julia A. King, , St Mary's College
  The project includes detailed summaries of over thirty sites along the lower Potomac River along with artifact and context databases, and images of important or unusual artifacts.  The web site colonialencounters.org is up, but is still a work in progress.
  
  
• The Abbott Farm Historical Landmark: Snapshots from a 13,000-Year (Pre)History, Dr. R. Michael Stewart, Associate Professor Emeritus, Temple University

CCASM is a chapter of ASM.