Archaeologist at Arthur Middleton Elementary School Career Day

Arthur Middleton Elementary School in Waldorf contacted CCASM looking for an archaeologist to be a presenter at their May 13 Career Day, and Jim Gibb, a professional archaeologist, agreed to go.   Above you can see Jim talking with one group of students.  Jim said he found it necessary to sit on the floor to be at eye level and to be able to hear some of them speak, but that the intimacy paid off with lots of questions and conversation.  He also indicated the students gave him some great advise. There were about seven groups of eleven each over a two-hour period.  (You should also be able to see some of the artifacts he brought on the table.) 

May 14 Public Archaeology at Port Tobacco Market Day

Saturday, May 14 was Port Tobacco Market Day, and Charles County also sponsored a public archaeology event in front of  Stagg Hall.  CCASM had a presence at both.

CCASM had a "public awareness" booth in front of Stagg Hall with several displays as well as the seeds activity (archaeobotany) for children.  Barbara, Carol, and Peggy helped man the booth and had an enjoyable day talking to all the people that stopped by.
 
Esther Read was in charge of the public archaeology, and the existing excavation site was expanded to try to follow the exposed foundation.  Experienced CCASM members assisting with the public  were Elsie, Steve, and Peggy.

Esther, Elsie, and Carol also gave a walking archaeology tour of Port Tobacco that included stops at the Courthouse the Burch House, the James Swann site, and the jail site.

And everyone still had time to visit some of the vendors at Market Day as well as to sample some of the food.

New CCASM Officers and Board

The newly elected CCASM Officers and Board Members for June 2016 - May 2018 are

• President                Carol Cowherd
• Vice-President        Barbara Kane
• Secretary                 Douglas Zabel
• Treasurer                 Elsie Picyk
• Members at Large   Michael Creveling
                                    Peggy Knoernschild

They would definitely appreciate your ideas and your support in implementing those ideas.

(Maybe we can add a photo in the future.)

ASM Field School, SERC, and the Anthrocene

James Gibb

At the May 12 CCASM Meeting Jim Gibb presented some of the findings from the 2015 Archeological Society of Maryland's Fall Field School that was conducted at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).   The field school uncovered  deposits associated with John Contee's Java Plantation and one of the slave houses, both dating to the first half of the 19th century.  Jim talked about placing what was found into the larger context of life in the Anthropocene, the Age of Humans, and explained the hypothesis that drives archaeological research at the SERC.  He is looking at how household choices contributed to global changes.

Dr. James Gibb is an archaeological consultant and a Smithsonian Research Associate.

The talk was followed by the annual CCASM business meeting that included the results of the biennial election of the CCASM officers and Board members-at-large.

Attendance: 10

2015 Charles County Historic Preservation Awards

The Historic Preservation Commission 2015 Preservation Awards Ceremony were held May 7 at St. Paul's Piney Episcopal Church,and three CCASM members received awards. 

• Jim Gibb received the preservation service award for his work on the public archaeology program at Port Tobacco.  Any one who has ever been a CCASM member should know Jim Gibb.  He is one of the founding members of CCASM. 

• Denise and Kevin Grote received the preservation project award for the restoration of their historic home - Ellerslie.   Denise and Kevin are more recent CCASM members.

Franklin Robinson was the guest speaker and discussed "Faith and Tobacco: The 18th Century Anglican Church in Southern Maryland".

Thanks to Amy Blessinger for providing the photos.

Ask an Archaeologist #9

?      Is archaeology hard?

Some of the field work can be physically hard.  Digging can be fairly strenuous.  The physical effort involved in screening varies with the type of screen used.  Other activities such as troweling, screening, drawing, and recording are not physically demanding.  Volunteers often get to select their activity and pace of work.

There are many archaeological activities that are conducted indoors and are not physically strenuous.  These include archival research, artifact washing, cataloging, and report writing.

All archaeological activities require some level of knowledge but this is not unusually difficult to develop.  Professional archaeologists have educational backgrounds ranging from college to post graduate.  Many volunteers learn on the job under the supervision of professional archaeologists.   Both groups refer to extensive libraries of on-line and hard copy research materials.

Answer provided by Elsie

Look for future postings with answers to additional questions.  And don't forget to check out the answers given in previous postings.