Volunteering with Dr. Laura Masur at Newtowne

Newtowne Manor

The third site for Dr. Laura Masur's project is at St. Francis Xavier Church/Newtowne Manor House, St. Mary’s County, Maryland: July 13-16, 19-23.  At this site Dr. Masur and her crew are using the results of a recent geophysical survey to investigate possible outbuildings around the manor.

The project is focused on uncovering archaeological evidence that will eventually tell the story of enslaved Africans, indentured servants, tenant farmers, and members of the Society of Jesus in Maryland. This project, which is taking place on three plantation sites formerly owned by the Society of Jesus, is being conducted in collaboration with descendants whose ancestors were enslaved by the Jesuits, and other interested stakeholders. The goal of this project is to identify evidence of archaeological features such as building foundations, post holes, and middens through the excavation of 5x5-ft test units.

Here is some feedback from CCASM member(s):

Saturday, July 23: Ned volunteered.  This was the last day and much of it was spent backfilling the test units.  A 2022 penny was placed in each test unit before adding black plastic and then backfilling.  And finally the sod was replaced over the backfill. 
Parishioners provided lunch that was perfect: chicken salad with rolls, homemade sliced pickles, corn chops, cookies, and banana nut bread.  AC in the community center felt great after a very hot morning.  The parishioners also gave us t-shirts and a Newtowne Manor brochure.

Friday, July 22: Ned volunteered half a day -sawing tree roots.

Thursday, July 21: Ned volunteered for the day - digging and sifting.

Wednesday, July 20: Ned volunteered for the day.   There were four other volunteers.  One of the volunteers is involved in the Georgetown slavery project.  Ned continued work on the fifth unit (referred to as the Neapolitan Sandbox) until they hit subsoil at around 22".  This unit has had the most artifacts recovered. The plans are to backfill three or more units on Thursday and to concentrate on the two units opened on Tuesday.  They will be finishing up in the units on Friday with final cleanup being Saturday.

Tuesday, July 19: Carol and Ned volunteered.   Work continued on the fourth and fifth units.  Nine students and their teachers from Loyola University volunteered on the site.  This was the first time that many of them had been in the field, and some of them helped at the two open units.  Two new units were opened by the students including one where a fence line was shown on the GPR map.  The most interesting find was the the upper torso of a Frozen Charlotte doll found in the unit where Ned was working.  And Ned's unit also had metal objects, one of which Ned identified as being used to mend a broken plowshare.
The day started with a short trip and a tour of the site of the seventeenth century Saint Francis Xavier Chapel and the cemetery.  On returning Sara, a member of the Newtown Manor House Committee, gave us a tour of the first floor of the Manor House as well as providing lots of history about the house.

Saturday July 16: Carol volunteered for the day.  There were only four volunteers so we only worked on two of the units.  By the end of the day all the sand layer had been removed from the "sand" unit.   Work also continued on the fourth unit with the building rubble - first to document it and then to excavate two features. 
Late in the day three more units were put in.  Laura determined the GPS location of each unit using a real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS instrument that consisted of a fixed base station and a rover that communicated with multiple satellites and then the resulting location data is transferred to an app on Laura's phone.  Laura had already identified the location for each of the units, and the rover was moved until it was on the exact coordinates of the northeast corner.  Then the rover was moved south about five feet and moved until it was over the exact southeast corner coordinates on Laura's map.

Friday, July 15: Carol and Ned volunteered.  The second unit with all the oyster shells yielded eighteenth century artifacts.  Nothing much to report on fourth unit where there was a row of brick rubble except that Carol really enjoyed spending most of the afternoon troweling.  Ned got to open a fifth unit on the east of the Manor House.  The GPR showed an interesting pattern that turned out to be almost a foot of sand fill.  It was a beautiful day to be outside. Here are a few photos.

 

Thursday, July 14: Ned volunteered for the day.  Jim was also there.  The top level of the third unit was removed to show lots of oyster shell.  This unit is believed to be over a cellar.  Another unit was opened where a previous building had been excavated and possibly later identified with a brick outline, but there is no documentation to indicate what was found.  There are always questions to answer, and Laura had one for this unit and that question determined the exact part of the building on which to place the unit. 

Wednesday, July 13: Ned volunteered, and here is his update and photos for the day.
The day was very strenuous but also a fun day.  Dr Masur is great.  Her crew of mostly doctoral candidates are a fun bunch. We almost finished two test units and removed sod from a third.  The one with the "pope" might have a corner of a foundation.  
The second unit was placed where GPR showed a large rectangular object near the building turned out to be a large flat stone that was outside the building.  (On well, another STP will be needed to investigate the building.)

The other two sites already investigated were Old Bohemia Wildlife Management Area, Cecil County, Maryland and Webster Field Annex, St. Mary’s County, Maryland