October 22, 2022

What If You Find a Projectile Point or a Rusty Nail on the Ground?

Carol Cowherd

Have you ever wondered what to do when you find a projectile point or a broken piece of pottery on the ground?  Can you just pick it up and take it home or should you just leave it? 

On Thursday October 20 Carol Cowherd shared what she had learned as a member of the Archeological Society of Maryland about what you could and could not do when you find an artifact such as a projectile point on the ground.  It all depends on where you are.  Then Carol described several ways to document what is found.  She also brought several shoe boxes of documented artifacts that she had surface collected on her property. 

Carol Cowherd is an avocations archaeologist and president of the Charles County Archaeological Society.
 

Catching up before the meeting

Attendance: 12 members

October 19, 2022

In the Field at George Washington Birthplace National Monument

Dr. Julie King has a grant for  investigating a mid-17th century site at the George Washington Birthplace National Monument on Pope's Creek in Virginia.  The site is in danger of loss through erosion.  Dr. King invited CCASM to come and volunteer in the field.   Initially it was just for a half day, but later she indicted her crew were clamoring for us to return.  (Maybe they weren't exactly clamoring, but they did seem to enjoy working with us as we did with them.)

Wednesday October 19 CCASM members Mary, Elsie, Pat, and Carol once again carpooled to George Washington Birthplace National Monument for an opportunity to be in the field for part of a day (9am-2:30pm).  Ned arrived earlier at 7.  We came prepared for a chilly day (56 degree high).  The sun was out, the air was crisp, and it was a great day.  After Ned, Pat, and Carol helped Garrett complete a test unit, everyone worked on a new unit.  The plowzone in this unit contained lots of interesting artifacts in addition to shells (of course).  We found several Pope's Creek pottery sherds including one thick piece that would have been near the base of a large vessel.  There was also early Colonial ceramics, a couple of machine cut nails, fire cracked rocks, various unidentified Native American pottery sherds, ...  Really a nice day.


Tuesday October 18 Ned again volunteered on the site for the whole day.  The weather had turned colder and there were 10-15 mph wind gusts as well a sustained wind coming off the Potomac.  Since the weather kept changing, it was good to wear lots of layers.  Today we found mostly shell, a few nails, possible fire-cracked rocks, flakes, a scraper, two pieces of lead shot, and a fair amount of ceramics.  Two park service men came by at lunchtime doing GPS measurements of the shoreline to document current and future erosion.  Here is Julie's crew (Megan, Travis, Caitlin, Garrett, Aidin)

Thanks to Ned for the photo.

Friday October 14 Ned again volunteered on the site for half a day.  Due to heavy Friday afternoon traffic on the Nice-Middleton Bridge (the old one), the crew only works half a day on Fridays.   

Wednesday October 12 Ned traveled to the site arriving at 6:45 (too early for the rest of us).  The STPs were long finished, and the crew had already started laying out units.  Megan laid out two new test units first thing.  Aidin and Ned were able to complete the unit farthest down the peninsula.  That unit had some shell, a few possible ceramics, three nails, and a very small fragment of pipe initialed WE which was either William Evans of Bristol (1660-1682) or William Evans II (1667-1682). The pipe fragment was their artifact of the day.  Garrett finished up the sidewalls of a unit they were calling the Devil Unit. They had several of these hard-subsoil units that took too long to complete.   Travis spent the day documenting the 4-unit combo where they detected a feature or two that might be indigenous. Also Ned was able to cross the new Nice-Middleton Bridge on the way home.

Wednesday September 21 CCASM members Mary, Elsie, Pat, Ned, and Carol carpooled to George Washington Birthplace National Monument on Pope's Creek in Virginia for an opportunity to be in the field for part of a day (9am-2:30pm).  The weather was perfect, and we even got to wear our new CCASM t-shirts. 


We worked with Julie's crew--Megan, Travis, Garrett, Aidin, and  Caitlin for 5.5 hours sifting dirt from four different test units  We recovered both Native American artifacts such as pottery sherds and pipe fragments as well as historic artifacts including colonial ceramics and nails.  

 

If you think the screens look somewhat tilted, they weren't on level ground.  
Also here's the rest of Julie's Crew.

Afterwards we listened to a video at the Visitor's Center and walked around the grounds looking at the various buildings.  Overall a really nice day.

Many thanks to Mary for driving.

October 17, 2022

2022 Maxwell Hall Colonial Faire and Fall Festival

Maxwell Hall held its annual Colonial Faire and Fall Festival on October 15 and 16.  We had two really nice days for being outdoors.  This year the tents and exhibitors were more spread out, and there were lots of people in Colonial attire.  CCASM's table was near the house and the musicians.  It was a nice location since the shuttle from the parking area dropped people off near us.  We were able to talk about archaeology with quite a lot of people.   And we also got to hear some local oral history. 

The first day was a little windy.  Winds gusts even tried to take our canopy away--frame , weights, and all.  So the second day we didn't even put up the tent.

Ned with a number of our visitors
including possibly the youngest one.

Elsie talking with one of the
families that stopped by.
Carol with Mike Callahan
from Friends of Maxwell Hall

Thanks to Elsie, Carol, and Ned for representing CCASM at the Faire.

October 3, 2022

2022 ASM Fall Meeting

On Saturday October 1 the Central Chapter of ASM hosted the 2022 Archeology Society of Maryland, Inc Fall Meeting at the Marshy Point Nature Center in Middle River, MD (northeast of Baltimore).

The Fall Meeting started with the Annual ASM Business Meeting that also included the presentation of the 2022 William B Mayre Award to Don Housley for all his contributions to Maryland archaeology, as well as the presentation of certificates to recent graduates of the Certified Archaeological Technician (CAT) program -- Tom McLaughlin, Fran Kline, and Paul Bollwerk. (Congratulations to Don, Tom, Fran, and Paul.  Interestingly they are all from the Mid-Potomac Chapter.)

The election results were also reported -- President: Valerie Hall; Vice-President: Katherine Fernstrom; Membership Secretary: Ethan Bean; Secretary: Barbara Israel; Treasurer: Elaine Hall Chhean; At-large Trustees: Lynne Bulhack, Brent Chippendale, Jim Gibb, Aaron Jarvis, Don Housley, Jim Gibb, Becky Morehouse.  (And many thanks to Claude Bowen, the outgoing president.)

But the highlight of the ASM meetings are the talks. 

  • Cassandra Bond Hamilton (whose tombstone is in Marshy Point Cemetery)
     Daniel Dean, Research Chair, Marshy Point Nature Center Council.

  • Many Faces of the Dead: Different Facets of Cemetery Archaeology
      Dr. James G Gibb, Research Associate, Smithsonian Environmental Research Cente
          
  •  Frederick M. Stiner Memorial Keynote Lecture
     Historical Preservation and Historic Cemeteries
       Howard Wellman, Conservator, Wellman Conservation
        
  • Learning and Teaching at the Mace Family Cemetery, Community College of Baltimore County, Essex
      Katharine Fernstrom, Adjunct Faculty MICA and Towson University
     
    Nina Brown, Professor, Social Science
     
    Debra Sambuco, Collection Development Librarian, CCBC, Essex
This year there was also a tour of the Marshy Point Cemetery.

Two  CCASM members attended the meeting.