2018 ASM Spring Symposium

Saturday April 28 the Archeological Society of Maryland held its Annual Spring Symposium at the Maryland Historical Trust in Crownsville, MD.  

The talks at the Symposium included

• ASM Student Spotlight:
  A Methodological Review of Forensic Aviation Archaeology: Addressing International Multi-Organizational Collaboration in Practice
  Siobhan Summers, MAA Student at University of Maryland
     
• The Significance of Small Sites
  Paul Raber, Senior Archaeologist, Heberling Associates, Inc.

       Featuring the Life of Josiah Henson

• In Search of Josiah Henson's Birthplace: Archaeological Investigations at La Grange, Near Port Tobacco, Maryland
  Julie King, Ph.D., St. Mary’s College of Maryland Archaeology Professor
   
• "Truth Stranger Than Fiction" Archaeological Investigations at the Josiah Henson Site, Montgomery County, Maryland
  Cassandra Michaud, MA., RPA, Montgomery Parks
     
• The Iris McGillivray Memorial Lecture: Freedom Seekers: Archaeology at the Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, Canada
  Dena Doroszenko , Ph.D., Ontario Heritage Trust Archaeologist

• Understanding Coastal Processes and the Chesapeake Archaeological Record
  Darrin L. Lowery, Smithsonian Research Associate
    
• The Richard E. Stearns Memorial Lecture:
  Underwater Archeology (The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and Merchant Marines)
  David W. Alberg, NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program 
  

CCASM members attending included Elsie, Pat, Annetta, Carol, and Belinda.

 

CCASM is a chapter of ASM. 

2018 Discovering Archaeology Day

On Saturday April 21 Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc participated in Discovering Archaeology Day at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in St Leonard, Maryland.

It was a great day to be outdoors.  There was a scavenger hunt with our booth being one of the stops, hands-on activities for children and the young-at-heart, and free guided tours of the MAC Lab, the American Indian village, and public archaeology at the Smith site.  Lots of children and a number of adults checked out our "What is it?" activity.  And we also shared information about CCASM and about archaeology in general. 

This is also an event for interacting with other archaeological organizations and sharing ideas.  Overall it was a good day.

Thanks to Barbara, Evelyn, and Carol who represented CCASM at the event.

Volunteering at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Haberdeventure

Was there a circular drive in front of Haberdeventure?  Where might the slave houses have been?  For a week in April there was an Archaeology/Cultural Landscape Project at Thomas Stone Historic Site in Charles County to try to answer these questions as well as to learn more about the cultural landscape of the site by using non-invasive remote sensing.

It's not often we get a chance to help with remote sensing, but April 17-20 volunteers were invited to participate.  Two CCASM members (Elsie and Carol) along with three other local residents (Linda, Lisa, and Elaine) volunteered.

Collecting GPR data

The effort was a combined approach by the National Park Service Regional Archaeologists and the Regional Cultural Landscape staff (from both the Regional Archaeology Program and the Cultural Landscape Program).  In three areas at the historic site several twenty-meter grids were laid out to assist with gathering data.  The remote sensing survey methods used included ground penetrating radar (GPR), electrical resistivity, and electromagnetic conductivity.

Although we were shown the results of the data gathered for each method, it is expected to take several months to combine and interpret all the data in order to determine where there might be features that could be ground truthed.

Scott Lawrence

Before there was a Charles County Archaeological Society, there was the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project. And that is where many of us first met Scott - helping dig and record archaeological sites at Port Tobacco and later at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Newtown.  Scott last worked with us at Mt Hope as we looked for graves in an unmarked cemetery.  He was the "expert" on grave sites.  

Scott Lawrence left this life on April 17, 2018.  Here is a link to his obituary - 
http://www.somdnews.com/enterprise/obituaries/scott-lawrence/article_a23e07de-0b85-5773-80d3-12b22ff48ee0.html 

You can join family and friends Saturday, April 28th between 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. at the Green Door in Park Hall for a memento mei in morte Celebration for Scott.

Smith's St. Leonard Site

Ed Chaney

At the April 12 CCASM meeting Ed Chaney showed us how archaeology being done on the Smith’s St. Leonard Site is telling us more about the site and life in the 18th century.  The Smith’s St. Leonard Site was the location of a tobacco plantation occupied during the first half of the 18th century.  Since 2002 JPPM has been offering a Public Archaeology Program at the site.  As part of the program, several buildings including an eighteenth century horse barn have been investigated.  There appear to have been a number of buildings with large deeply planted posts and even larger post holes.

Catching Up Before the Meeting

Ed Chaney is the Deputy Director of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory in JPPM.  He is also in charge of the JPPM Public Archaeololgy Program.  To register for the program, contact Ed at at 410-586-8554 or email him at ed.chaney@maryland.gov.

Attendance: 14

2018 Archaeology Month Display at LaPlata Library

On April 2 CCASM put up a display celebrating Maryland Archaeology Month in one of the display cases at the LaPlata Library (2 Garrett Ave., LaPlata, MD). 

This year's theme is "Charting the Past: 30 Years of Exploring Maryland's Submerged History", and the display highlights three shipwreck sites that have been charted in Southern Maryland - a War of 1812 shipwreck in the Patuxent (possibly Barney's Scorpion), the U1105 Historic Shipwreck Preserve near Piney Point, and the numerous shipwrecks at Mallows Bay in Nanjemoy.

The library provided several books relating to the shipwrecks.  On the right side is the Proclamation from the Charles County Commissioners that proclaims April as Archaeology Month in Charles County.  And if any of the shipwreck images look familiar, that's because you have probably seen them on previous Maryland Maritime Archaeology Program displays.

Thanks to Barbara, Elsie, and Carol for putting the display together.

The image of the display is not that crisp.  So stop by the library for a better view.