Port Tobacco Jail Site Grant (PTRC)

Charles County recently acquired the 1860 Jail Site behind the Port Tobacco Courthouse.  Excavations had been done there in 2008 as part of an ASM Field Session.  Now the site is overgrown, and it is difficult to see what is there.  So the Port Tobacco River Conservancy (PTRC) submitted and received a grant from the County Tourism office to assist with the preparation of the grounds and fabrication of an interpretive panel for the site.  CCASM is one of the partnering organizations on the grant.

Next Date : TBD

Wednesday September 27 Tina, Julie, and Carol continued preparing the grounds.  Tina and Julie removed small "trees" and invasive plants while Carol removed leaves and twigs to uncover artifacts related to the destruction of the jail.  We found lots of bricks, some slate (roof), some mortar, a cut nail, two pieces of whiteware as well as several larger iron objects.  Nice cooperation between PTRC and CCASM.

Tina and Julie

Building debris around tree

whiteware on brick

nail on slate

2017 Fieldwork Opportunity at Stagg Hall

Charles County with the support from CCASM members continues to investigate the land around Stagg Hall in Port Tobacco.  Esther Read is the archaeologist in charge.

Location: Stagg Hall in Historic Port Tobacco Village  (map)

Come join Esther Read as well as several CCASM members as we learn more about the Print Shop in front of Stagg Hall.


When working outdoors, it's always good to bring - a hat, sturdy gloves, sunscreen, bug spray, and water to drink.   Also any children must be accompanied by an adult.

CCASM members with previous experience (e.g. at Pomonkey North or at Port Tobacco or ...) are encouraged to come early to help set up.

Saturday September 23 once again CCASM members and other volunteers joined Charles County archaeologist Esther Reed along with fellow archaeologist and CCASM member Jim Gibb in front of Stagg Hall for a Public Archaeology event.  And we finally uncovered a corner (the northeast one) of this nineteenth century print shop.  Yea!

Excavating Print Shop Site

Uncovering the NE Corner!

CCASM Table

On Saturday August 5, CCASM members and other volunteers again joined Charles County archaeologist Esther Reed at a public archaeology event in front of Stagg Hall.  For most of the day we continued work on the new unit we opened the previous Sunday.  We have not totally answered the mystery of the dense gravel but believe we may have encountered either a utility trench or the drain tile field for Stagg Hall's previous septic system.  During the week a long time Port Tobacco resident told us this septic field was in the front yard.  We now believe the corner of the print shop is probably in the narrow non-excavated area between our original units and the unit we opened last Sunday.  We probably missed it by only a couple of feet!  Towards the end of the day we started excavating in this area but didn't get down to the level where we expect to find the foundation corner.  Thanks to Elsie for the pictures and the write-up.
 

On Sunday July 30 during the archaeological fieldwork in front of Stagg Hall we opened a new unit near the print shop hoping to find the back corner of the building.  We found an area of very dense gravel which raised some new questions about the area.. Hopefully we will find some answers when we work on this unit again next Saturday.

The fieldwork coincided the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco hosting bicycle riders from the STIHL Tours de Trees and with the dedication of a Tulip Poplar tree (grafted from Revolutionary War era tree) donated by the tour.  Thanks to Julie for the pictures and Elsie for the write-up.

 

Bones for Beginners Workshop II

Dr James Gibb

At the September meeting Dr. Jim Gibb gave the third of a series of talks on bones.   Archaeologists frequently recover bones left over from past meals. They need to identify the animals that the bones represent and from these identifications evaluate past diets and environments.

At this meeting Jim conducted a hands-on workshop using bird road kill specimens to review anatomy and point out distinguishing features of bird bones. We had a chance to try to identify the bones and try to determine how they fit together for over seven birds including owls, a cormorant, and a turkey vulture.

Dr. James Gibb is the sole proprietor of Gibb Archaeological Consulting.  He is also a Smithsonian Research Associate and directs SERC’s Environmental Archaeology Laboratory.  Jim is one of the founding members of CCASM.

For previous workshop on mammals -  Bones for Beginners Workshop I

Attendance: 10