CCASM worked with Charles County at the ongoing Public
Archaeology Lab Days in Port Tobacco. The lab continues to process artifacts recovered
from various archaeology initiatives in Charles County - including processing artifacts recovered recently from Stagg Hall as
well as those recovered in the 1970's around the Courthouse. Esther Read is the archaeologist in charge.
Here is what we did in the first half of 2019.
On June 24 Linda and Mary were joined by Janna, a new volunteer, as they washed artifacts in the morning. They choose this very thin bone five-hole button as the artifact of the day.
In the afternoon Esther, Linda, and Mary walked the woods on the newly acquired Charles County property north of the Port Tobacco Courthouse. Last time we walked this property we found a lot of tires. Since then over 460 tires have been removed from the property.
Thanks to Mary for the photos.
After a week off Denise, Linda, Mary, Carol, and Esther returned to the picnic tables outside Burch House on June 17. While Esther worked on reports, Denise, Mary, and Carol sorted and bagged artifacts, Linda brushed rust and dirt from metal artifacts. Evelyn stopped by at lunch for what may be her last time before she leaves the state. As indicated last week we are starting to process artifacts that were not recovered from BF1. We chose this fragment of a yellowware vessel (pie pan?) with a blue glazed interior for the artifact of the day.
June 3 Denise, Linda, Mary, Elsie, and Carol worked on the picnic tables outside Burch House- some washing artifacts and some sorting and bagging artifacts in the drying trays while Esther continued on her report (also outside on the picnic table so she could answer our questions.) Only one or two of the labelled artifacts were from the BF1 area where many of our other artifacts had been recovered. These artifacts were from areas like PTn Grid nnn. The artifact for the day is this mended stoneware bottle from 520-S-10 (not sure where that is in Port Tobacco). The information stamped on the bottle is "VITREOUS STONE BOTTLE" "J. BOURNE & SON" "PATENTEES" "DENBY POTTERY" "NEAR DENBY" "------" "P. & J. ARNOLD" "LONDON". This Denby Pottery Mark dates to the second half of the nineteenth century. P & J Arnold were one of the pioneering companies in the ink industry in Great Britain and had brown stoneware master inks in several sizes. Master inks were used to fill smaller ink containers.
May 20 Evelyn and Carol worked inside and bagged artifacts that had been washed the week before. Denise and Elsie washed additional artifacts outside while Linda brushed nails and other rusted metal objects. The artifact of the day is the base from a scratch blue white salt-glazed cup or small bowl. However, the design is not scratched into the bottom, but rather it is stamped.
May 13 was wet and dreary. Evelyn, Elsie, and Carol continued cataloging artifacts from Port Tobacco while Esther worked on her report. The artifact for the day was this piece of Astbury type earthenware. A design has been scratched into the white slip. Astbury is a good time-marker for the second quarter of the 18th century (Noel Hume).
May 6 was a beautiful day. So Denise, Evelyn, Elise, Mary, and Carol set outside Burch House on the picnic tables and washed Port Tobacco artifacts. The artifact for the day was a piece of blue and gray stoneware with sprig molding. The sprig molding has a small flower and the letters "Roo" followed by what appears to be a "k" or an "lc". The "Roo" may be preceded by an "H" or an "A".
On April 29 following a week off Denise, Linda, Mary, Evelyn, Elsie, and Julie returned to the lab to help move some of the supplies and artifacts to Burch House and also to catch up. Denise, Mary, and Carol stayed on to start sorting unlabelled BF artifacts while Esther worked on the report for the geophysical survey that was done earlier this year. And Elsie had the interesting job of describing individual sherds from a cross mended Chinese porcelain pitcher. We could have chosen the pitcher as the artifact of the day, but we chose this interesting metal object - not iron but coated with rust. It had been found in a bucket in the attic along with a lot of other metal artifacts recovered in the earlier Port Tobacco excavations.
April 15, Tax Day, Elsie and Mary finished cataloging one of the lots of historic artifacts while Denise, Evelyn, Linda, and
Carol finished sorting the large bag of ceramics from the North South
Trench. We needed to get ready to move to Burch House at the next lab.
From the ceramics bag we selected this rim of an eighteenth century Rhenish stoneware chamber pot as the artifact of the week. It still has part of a sprig mold - a crown that would have been on a lion.
Esther, Denise, and Evelyn checked out the remaining artifacts that needed to be brought down from the attic. Some were in boxes too heavy to bring down, and the contents were in crumbling plastic bags. And there are several cabinets that needed to be moved in order to be opened, but the moving would be precarious. Luckily three members from the Society of the Restoration of Port Tobacco were downstairs working on a project. We showed them the problems, and they agreed to see what they could do. (Yea!)
April 8 turned out to be a clean-up day rather than a lab day. At Burch House Denise, Linda, and Carol swept, dusted and removed cob webs while Elsie vacuumed. Burch House had not been used since last fall, and we had to get ready to host around one hundred students on Wednesday.
On April 1 Elsie and Mary catalogued historic artifacts while Denise, Linda, and Carol worked on sorting a large bag of ceramics from the North South Trench. There were a number of ceramics that could have been the artifact of the week, but we chose this small knob from the top of a creamware lid for a teapot or a sugar bowl or ...
March 25 Elsie, Mary, Denise, Linda, Evelyn, and Esther all continued to catalog the historic artifacts from Port Tobacco.
On March 18 Denise, Elsie, Linda, and Carol joined by Sally, a new volunteer, continued cataloging the historic artifacts from Port Tobacco while Esther worked on the computer. We chose this nice example of a tin-glazed ceramic bowl sherd as the artifact of the day. And that isn't a shadow in the photo. Part of the exterior surface had been blackened by fire.
On March 11 Denise, Elsie, Mary, and Linda continued cataloging the historic artifacts from Port Tobacco while Evelyn and Carol started working with the prehistoric artifacts. We chose this pressed glass base as the artifact of the day. It may have been the largest artifact catalogued this Monday.
At lunch we were joined by Cathy Thompson. Esther showed us some of the preliminary results from Tim Horsley's geophysical survey that we had helped with last month.
Once again on March 4 several activities were going on. Denise, Elsie, Linda, Evelyn, Julie, and Carol worked in the lab cataloging for most of the time. Elsie also had to go to Burch House to return the artifacts that had been pulled for the DAR talk. And Esther labelled some artifacts that were pulled for another talk or exhibit. It is unusual, but we did not encounter any artifact that we wanted to designate as artifact of the day. So here is a photo of the artifacts Esther was labeling.
Several activities were going on at the February 25 "Lab". Denise, Elsie, Linda, Carol and Esther worked in the lab cataloging for at least part of the time. Evelyn, Mary, and Denise helped Tim Horsley with the GPR survey out front by helping to put in lines (and were out in the windy, cold weather). Elsie and Linda went to Burch House to put away the remaining Christmas decorations.
And we chose these tobacco pipe fragments --some pipe bowls with partial stem, some stem tips, and some that are just plain stems-- as the "artifact" of the day. All of the stems had a 4/64" internal bore. All the pipe bowls are the same. And they all were found in one level of one square - BF1, Square 8, Level 7. Also they were not tobacco stained. Interesting.
We had missed so many labs recently that we had lab on February 18, even though it was a holiday, President's Day. And the activities were varied. Esther, Carol, and Tim worked on the catalog while Denise pulled together the inventory so we would know which bags to catalog next. Elsie and Mary went to Burch House to pull specific artifacts to be used in a presentation. They were only partially successful. And we had a special visitor - Ben, Esther's and Tim's dog. For the artifact of the day we chose this large white salt-glazed stoneware base, probably part of a pitcher or a large bowl.
February 4 Elsie, Denise, Evelyn, and Carol continued cataloging and Esther continued working on the catalog. Julie reviewed historical research related to long-gone churches near Port Tobacco. One smaller lot from Port Tobacco Feature BF1 contained patinated olive green bottle glass fragments. We choose this straight-sided, octagonal bottle with a slight pontil mark on the base as the artifact for the day.
On January 28 after another three week hiatus (due to snow and the Martin Luther King Holiday) Elsie, Denise, Linda, Mary, Carol, and Esther returned to the lab to continue cataloging the artifacts we had washed this summer. We chose this Nottingham Stoneware lid, possibly from a teapot, and associated body pieces as the artifact of the day. We had not found that many pieces of Nottingham and were unsure we had identified it correctly. Nottingham is a salt-glazed stoneware, and salt-glazed stoneware normally has an "orange peel" texture. This didn't. Then we read that a metal oxide slip applied under the glaze tends to smooth the surface so it would not have the "orange peel" texture.
January 7 marked three weeks since the last lab and was also the first full day in our winter home- upstairs at the Courthouse. So it was a little hectic at first. Mary, Linda, and Carol worked on cataloging artifacts. Denise, Elsie, and Julie started identifying artifacts that could be used in a large display case for the north Courthouse wing. Evelyn investigated what was needed to start mending some of the artifacts. And Esther reconciled the artifact catalogs on the various computers. And we chose these rims from five different eighteenth century Whieldon creamware plates as the artifact of the day. They were recovered below an ash lens in a unit of Port Tobacco BF1.
2018 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec)
2018 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2017 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec)
2017 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2016 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec)
2016 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2015 Public Archaeology Lab Days
