ASM Project for Dielman Inn - Lab Work

CCASM volunteered to process artifacts recovered from Shovel Test Pits (STPs) excavated as part of an ASM-sponsored project at Dielman Inn in New Windsor.  The lab was at Burch House on Mondays in lieu of the regular Monday Charles County Lab.

To provide an opportunity for CAT candidates and other volunteers to do field survey work (STPs), ASM had sponsored a Phase I Archaeological Survey of the area behind the Dielman Inn.  The Dielman Inn is located in the Town of New Windsor (Carroll County).  It was built in the late eighteenth century.  The project was also an opportunity for ASM to involve local members of the town in the archaeology process.  Esther Doyle Reed is the Principal Investigator.    

 

Brief Summary 

126 bags (representing 124 lots) of artifacts were recovered from the Dielman Inn site.  CCASM had agreed to volunteer 120 hours, and a total of eleven people did volunteer for 413 hours over thirteen days.  Even this was not enough time to complete the processing of all the bags.  The remaining bags will be processed by Esther Read at UMBC.

 

We washed, sorted, and bagged eight-six bags of artifacts in accordance with the 2018 Revision of the "Technical Update No. 1 of the Standards and Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations in Maryland: Collections and Conservation Standards".  For fifty-five of the sorted bags we cataloged the artifacts in the bags using the catalog classification system that Esther Read uses at UMBC. 

Here is more about what we did as well as some of the artifacts that we processed.

Monday February 14 was the last day for CCASM to process artifacts recovered from the Dielman Inn site.  Linda, Denise, Elsie, Mary, and Carol cataloged eight bags of artifacts, and we chose this metal strap as the artifact of the day.  The metal strap was different from anything else we had been processing. 
Next week we will return to processing Charles County artifacts

On Monday February 7 Linda, Denise, and Carol were able to return to Burch House to continue cataloging the remaining Dielman Inn artifacts.  All that needed to be done was to catalog the 24 remaining artifact bags at Burch House.  It didn't take that long to remember what to do, and we were able to catalog half of the remaining bags.  So we are almost finished.  Unfortunately none of the artifacts merited being an artifact of the day.  Maybe next week.

White-slipped Stoneware

 Closed during January due to Charles County Covid Restrictions

Monday December 13 Elsie, Linda, Mary, Peggy, and Carol finished sorting, measuring, tagging, and bagging all the 85 bags of Dielman Inn artifacts that were are Burch House!!!  And we also found a unique artifact for the day!  It is from an eighteenth century white-slipped stoneware vessel with a bread crumb pattern on the exterior.  It is possibly part of a stoneware bear jug.  A bear jug has the shape of a bear sitting up and has a removable bear head as the lid. The bread crumbs represent the fur.

Monday December 6 Claudia and Peggy finished washing the 85 bags of Dielman Inn artifacts that were are Burch House!!!  Just in time since Elsie, Linda, Denise, and Carol also finished cataloging the 35 sorted bags (except half of one large bag).  So next week we start sorting the remaining artifacts that are in Burch House. 
Another 39 bags were washed at UMBC and will be processed there.  Also Esther will catalog those plus an additional 27 bags.  Since she is writing the report, she will be looking at all the artifacts at some time.
Once again we didn't come up with an artifact of the day.

Screen with mostly
building material

On Monday November 22 Peggy sorted and bagged while the other four volunteers catalogued - Linda, with Elsie and Denise with Carol.  We took a break after lunch to move the archaeology boxes, etc. out of the way in preparation for the second floor of the Courthouse being painted.  Back in lab nothing stood out as an artifact of the day.  Linda suggested we show what was in one of the screens.  So here is a screen that contains coal, bricks, mortar, a few nails, and a very small amount of earthenware and glass from one level of a unit at Dielman Inn.

Wednesday is not a normal lab day, but the holidays are coming, and there will be fewer lab days.  So Wednesday November 17 Linda, Mary, Peggy, Elsie, and Carol cataloged artifacts at Burch.  This gave us a chance to choose an artifact of the day --one that we had seen Monday but had not photographed.  We chose this clear glass fragment that appears to have an embossed tree on it as the artifact of the day.  The pattern on the trunk of the tree looks like bark.  There is a different pattern on the "background" but none on the small branches.  Interesting.

Monday November 15 was too cold to be outside.  So we spread out inside Burch House.  A new volunteer Pat joined Linda, Elsie, Denise, Mary, Peggy, Claudia, Carole, and Carol.  Claudia washed.  Peggy, Mary, Denise, and Pat sorted, measured, and bagged.  Linda, Elsie, Carole, and Carole cataloged.  (We finally were able to start cataloging using two laptops.)  A lot was going on, and we forgot to choose an artifact of the day.

Washing

Sorting, Counting, Measuring, and Bagging

Cataloging

Decorative iron valence

Monday November 8 started off chilly, and Elsie, Claudia, Linda, Mary, Peggy, and Carol sorted and bagged artifacts inside during the morning.  When it warmed up in the afternoon, Elsie, Claudia, and later Mary moved outside and washed artifacts.  Linda and Peggy stayed indoors to continue to sort (which freed up screens needed for washing artifacts), and Carol started cataloging.  It's important to space out the work so all the cataloging is not at the end. 
We chose this large piece of decorative iron valance as the artifact of the day.

Esther arrived with the remainder of the artifacts from Dielman Inn.  The final STPs were dug this past weekend.  In all there are 124 bags.  So far we have washed artifacts from 56 bags and sorted the artifacts in 43 of those bags.  Only two bags have gone all the way through the process with the artifacts being cataloged.

"DIELMAN"
glass fragment

Most of Monday November 1 was spent washing artifacts.  Even though it was a chili day most of us decided to wash outdoors on the picnic tables.  Linda, Elsie, and Mary were joined outside by three new volunteers.  Claudia helped for the entire day while Chris and Mary (another Mary) helped for a couple of hours just to see what we did.  Indoors Denise and Peggy washed while Carol sorted.  Later Peggy, Denise, and Linda assisted with the sorting effort.  In all we washed enough artifacts to fill six screens and sorted two screens of artifacts that had been washed last week.
We found this interesting clear glass fragment and chose it as the artifact of the day.  The letters "DIELMAN" along with some decorations are embossed on the glass.  Interesting since this excavations are at the Dielman Inn. 

Washing Outdoors

More Washing Outdoors

Washing Indoors

Creamware with
interesting design

Monday October 25 was another of those crisp days.  Carole joined Denise, Mary, Linda, Elsie, Peggy, and Carol to work outside on the picnic tables.  We spent most of the day sorting and bagging the remaining seventeen bags of artifacts recovered from the first day of digging STPs.  This freed up the drying screens to be used when washing the 61 bags of artifacts recovered from STPs dug this past weekend that Esther brought around noon.  In the afternoon while the rest of us continued to sort, measure, and bag, Elsie and later Linda started washing artifacts from this new batch of bags.
Since it is getting close to Halloween, we chose this printed creamware sherd as the artifact of the day.  The pattern made some of us think of spider webs, skeletons, and other scary things.

Sorting

Adding bag tag with
count and measurement

Washing artifact bag
from next batch

Glass sherd
with Fish Scale Pattern

Monday October 18 was one of those crisp days.  Denise and Mary decided to stay outside and finish washing the two remaining bags of artifacts while Elsie, Peggy, Linda, and Carol stayed indoors and started sorting measuring, and bagging the now dry artifacts that had been washed the previous week.  In the afternoon Mary joined those sorting while Elise and Denise left to help Esther Reed put poles in the ground at Rich Hill.  With the reduced work force we were only able to process nine of the 26 bags, but the artifacts from one of those bags covered an entire screen.  In the time it took us to process that one bag, we were able to process eight other bags.  So not bad.  By the way, a bag contains artifacts recovered from one level of an STP. 
Among all the brick, coal, schist, and miscellaneous other artifacts we found this glass sherd with a fish scale pattern. and we chose it as the artifact of the day.

Sorting, Measuring,
and Bagging Artifacts

Ceramic Sherd

At the October 11 Lab there was a slight hiccup.  Esther, who was bringing the artifacts to be processed, had car trouble and was delayed.  Mary, Elsie, Denise, Linda, Peggy, and Carol sat outside on the picnic tables and enjoyed talking with each other until the artifacts arrived.  On the past Saturday ten STPs that had been excavated in levels.  So there were 26 paper bags of artifacts.  We were able to wash the artifacts from 24 of the bags - a lot of washing, a lot of artifacts.  We chose this printed ceramic sherd with a possible Chinese design as the artifact of the day.  One of the men appears to be looking through a telescope.

Washing Artifacts While
Socially Distancing

Calvert County Archaeology Update

At the February 10 CCASM Zoom meeting we had two speakers that talked about archaeology in Calvert County.  

Kirsti Uunila

 

Chris Sperling

First Kirsti Uunila shared stories from a variety of archaeology projects undertaken while she was Calvert County's Historic Preservation Planner.  This included archaeology at  the Calverton Site, a multicomponent site that served as the first County Seat for Calvert County until 1724.  Most of this archaeology was undertaken during the 2017 and 2018 ASM Field Sessions.  She also talked about consulting a voodoo priestess(?) about a broken hoe found under a door post of the slave cabin.  And Kirsti related two times that she worked with the family and community for the reburial of bones that had been removed under unusual circumstances.

 Next Christopher Sperling described Calvert County archaeological projects for which he had submitted grants or else could use volunteers.  One grant is for a seventeenth century site that is eroding into the Chesapeake Bay.  Another ongoing effort is to document abandoned tobacco barns and other buildings in order to add them to the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (MHIP). 

Kirsti Uunila is an independent consultant who retired in 2020 after twenty-seven years as the Calvert County Historic Preservation Planner and de facto Archaeologist. 
Chris Sperling is the current Historic Preservation Planner for Calvert County and also an adjunct instructor at Stevenson University. 

We would like to thank James Gibb for hosting the Zoom meeting. 

 A snapshot of some of those at the meetings - 

 Attendance: 13 people

Helping with Geophysical Survey at Port Tobacco

Archaeological field work does not always involve digging.  Sometimes it means moving lots of magnolia branches so the area beneath the brush pile can be surveyed with ground penetrating radar (GPR).

Doug, Linda, Mary, Carol, Jim, Esther, and lots of magnolia branches that were moved

On Saturday February 5, a really cold day, work began on new geophysical surveys around the Port Tobacco Village.  Tim Horsley of Horsley Archaeolgical Prospection was contracted to do the survey, and members of CCASM were able to observe and to offer some help on Saturday and Sunday.  The surveys include a magnetometer survey and a GPR survey.  One of the larger tasks where we could help was dragging lots of magnolia branches and debris (from the big winter storm) from an area in front of the Courthouse that needed to be surveyed.  

Tim Horsley doing GPR Survey

CCASM members participating for at least one of the two days were Doug, Linda, Mary, Elsie, Carol, and Jim.  Jim brought his equipment to map the sites, and Esther Read was the Principal Investigator.