Dr. Julie King, Anthropology Professor at St Mary's College of Maryland,
invited CCASM members to volunteer with her and her crew as
they investigated a Native American site in Newtowne Neck State Park. (This is not to be confused with the investigations of a historical site in Newtowne for which two of our members volunteered. A lot of trips from Charles County to Newtown Neck.)
Tuesday, August 9: Pat and Carol volunteered in the lab washing lots of oyster shells. We didn't have to count the shells (there were thousands), but the shells will be weighed once they dry, and only the whole halves will be kept. I was originally planned to be dwork outdoors, but thankfully we were inside on this hot day. Julie's crew had worked in the field the previous week and had finished four test units. Then on Monday they had washed the shells from the STPs outside and weighted them. I forgot how many pounds they said, but it was a lot.
Since there was not that much additional help we could provide, the planned volunteering by Mary and Elsie was cancelled. There should still be opportunities to help at another site.
Thursday, July 28: Mary and Carol volunteered for half a day. Mary helped Garrett finish one of the original test units just before lunch while Carol helped Aidan open a new test unit at a location further south. The photo shows Mary wearing her new CCASM shirt.
Again we found lots of oyster shell fragments. It was good to be in the trees or under a tent where we occasionally felt a slight breeze. Not too bad, but still a little hot.
An update on the flooded field. We could find no way to get from the site to the car without going through water. Mary wore wellies through the water and carried her shoes to/from the site. So if you don't have waterproof boots, you might want to bring wellies for the field.
Tuesday, July 26: Carol volunteered. On Tuesday two test units, the first ones, were opened by four of Julie's crew. There were lots and lots of oyster shell fragments to be retrieved and later weighted. (Thankfully don't have to count.) Also found a few flakes, several FCR, and some small fragments of Native American pottery, but we're not at the bottom of the units yet. It was nice in the woods.
Carol has a story about finding the site and how a humongous water "puddle" ending up causing her to not get to the site until 10am although she had arrived at the parking location at 8am.
Julie's crew dug hundreds of STPs in the woods over a two week period several weeks ago and identified locations to place test units.
