Volunteering with Dr. Julia King at St Clements Island

Arriving at St Clements Island

 
Dr. Julie King, Anthropology Professor at St Mary's College of Maryland, invited CCASM members to volunteer with her and her student crew as they investigated St Clements Island looking for evidence of the Native American site that was there in 1997.  The site was identified before DNR built the lighthouse in 2008.  Initially this involved STPs but later it also included test units.  Native American ceramics found in 1997 include Townsend, Yeocomico, and Camden. 

View of Island from Water Taxi

Getting to the site involved a water taxi ride from the St Clement's Island Museum.  The water taxi landing on the island could vary from the schedule depending on the wind and the weather. 

Monday June 20 was the last day at the site, and once again Ned volunteered.  Here are Ned's notes for the day.|
This Monday, the water taxi captain was about a half-hour late arriving, but it was a beautiful morning as we sat on the dock, so no one cared.  We were told he would pick us up eventually.  The entire six-person college crew plus a volunteer, Isobel, from St. Mary’s College got busy completing the remaining shovel test pits.  Isobel and I completed three STPs.  All were dug and sifted by 11 a.m.  Megan and Travis documented what had been bagged along with the soil colors, etc.  Isobel volunteered to help count the hundreds of oyster flakes from some of the STPs.  I told them to have fun counting.  I walked to the north end of the island and back using both of the paths.  By 11:30, we had carried all of the equipment out to the end of the dock before having our lunch under the gazebo.  The water taxi arrived before 1 p.m. Because the tide was going out, the three large sifting units had to be left behind on the island until high tide at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. The sifting units barely fit through the water taxi’s step area, and couldn’t be loaded or unloaded when the boat was well below the level of the dock. All of the other tools and storage cabinets were taken back to Colton’s Point and loaded into the college van.

Counting Shells

Leaving the Island

On Thursday June 16 two CCASM volunteers - Mary and Ned --showed up.  Unfortunately no one could get to the island.  Due to the weather, the water taxi captain indicated it was not safe to take the boat out on the water.

For Wednesday June 15 here are Ned's notes for the day.
Because the two test units had thousands of tiny oyster shell pieces to collect, Julie decided against digging a third unit.  Instead she and Travis selected 17 more STP locations, and we dug about half today.  (I dug 4.)  Will finish them tomorrow unless it rains too much.  These new ones are around the cross.  Plan is to leave the island next week.  Julie was pleased that ceramics were found in sufficient quantity.

Tuesday June 14 Ned volunteered again,  Here are his notes about this day -
Tuesday could have been rained out, but it was a mostly nice day. No breeze in the morning as we started a second test unit.  We almost had too much breeze by afternoon as the day shades came close to blowing away.  Travis found a small quartz scraper.  We were also finding what Travis thought were tiny bits of ceramics.  Again, we bagged thousands of oyster shells and very tiny oyster shell flakes.  Will be bagging more oyster shell flakes on Wednesday.

Lots of small
shell fragments

Digging Test Unit

Sifting

Monday June 13 Ned was the only CCASM volunteer.  Here are his notes about the day -
On Monday I arrived before 7:30 a.m.  Dr. King arrived at 7:45.  I helped her unload three sifting stations and surveying instruments. The grad students arrived just before 8 a.m.  Spent the morning and half the afternoon finishing digging the last of the STPs.  I dug 5.5 STPs.  Got complimented on my straight-sided, flat bottomed STPs.  Had to rest some around 2 p.m. while they started the first test unit.  After Dr. King had to answer phone calls, I helped sift and collect what were mostly hundreds of oyster shell flakes, many barely 3/8” in diameter. The water taxi was delayed until 3:30 p.m. All of us were very tired, very sweaty, and very dirty. Got home, put dirty clothes in washer, and took a cold shower to cool down. Face was burning.

On Thursday June 9 Carol volunteered for part of a day with Dr Julie King and her student crew.  Due to the rough water, the water taxi had to land on the side closest to the Museum. The site was on the other side of the island - an easy fifteen-minute walk.  If the water hadn't been so rough, the water taxi would have landed next to the site.  Carol mainly worked with Laura on STPs, but there were five others in the crew including Megan who was the field supervisor.  We were mainly finding shell fragments but also found a few lithics.  STPS are important for telling us where things are but also where they aren't.   There should be additional opportunities to volunteer when they start doing test units.

STPs (June 9)

Julia King with Megan