2024 April is Maryland Archaeology Month

African Diaspora Archeology: A Collaboration with Descendants

 
Check out www.marylandarcheologymonth.org
for everything going on

Download 2024 Maryland Archeology Month Booklet

View 2024 Maryland Archeology Month Activities
(Check out public archaeology opportunities at various sites throughout the state.)

CCASM Events during April
(All events are free.)  

Mondays April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 (11am-3pm)
Public Archeology
Volunteer at the on-going archaeology being done at the Swann Site in the Historic Port Tobacco Village (either in the lab or in the field).
Location: Historic Port Tobacco Village, MD 20677
Sponsor: Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc and Charles County Government
Contact: Esther Doyle Read email: ReadE@charlescountymd.gov 

Saturday, April 13 (11am-4pm)
Discovering Archaeology Day
Bring the entire family for a day of interactive learning and fun, including archaeological site and lab tours, exhibits, games and cool crafts.   Experience, discover, learn, and have fun exploring the “what, where, and how’s” of archaeology!   more info
CCASM will have a tent at the event.
Location: Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, 10515 Mackall Road, Saint Leonard, MD 20685
Sponsor: Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum

Thursday, April 18 (7 pm) - Charles County
Tentative Topic: Archaeology at the Chiles Site at Douglas Point
Speaker: Dr. Liza Gijanto
(CCASM April meeting)
Location: La Plata Police Department, 101 La Grange Avenue La Plata, MD
Sponsor: Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc
Contact: Carol Cowherd  ccasm2010@gmail.com

Mallows Bay Graveyard Laboratory

Allyson Ropp

At the March 21 CCASM Allyson Ropp's topic was "The Mallows Bay Graveyard Laboratory: Archaeological and Ecological Science of the Ghost Fleet".   Allyson is investigating the Aowa shipwreck in Mallows Bay.  It is one of the wrecks in the outer tier of the shipwrecks in the Bay.  Not only did Allyson cover the overall history that led to the Graveyard, but she also included the history of the Aowa and its limited number of voyages.  Allyson has started her ecological research on the impacts of of nature on the wrecks and and the wrecks on nature.  She has collected some of the first samples (from the wood and from the water) and is waiting for the results from the lab.  This is a multi-year project, and Allyson will be giving us updates in the future

Investigating the Aowa

Allyson Ropp is a Ph.D. Candidate from East Carolina University.  She is also a NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar.  NOAA’s Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program provides support for master’s and doctoral degrees in oceanography, marine biology, maritime archaeology and particularly encourages women and members of minority groups to apply.  As part of her application CCASM indicated they would be a local organization that would collaborate with her.

This was our third hybrid Zoom/in-person meeting.  We still need to work out a few more kinks.  Thanks to those who attended via Zoom for their patience.  Also thanks to Peggy for providing the hot spot and microphone and for monitoring the Zoom meeting, and thanks to Jim for using his account to set up the Zoom meeting.  

Before meeting - catching up or just relaxing

Attendance: 23 (including 5 via Zoom)

Volunteering with Dr. Liza Gijanto at Chiles Site

Dr. Liza Gijanto, Associate Professor of Anthropology at St Mary's College of Maryland, invited CCASM members to volunteer with her and her students as they investigate the Chiles Site at Douglas Point. 

Dr. Gjanto is working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to try and define the limits of the house site and to test a structure that they hope is an enslaved quarter site.   Dr. Wes Willoughby is the BLM archaeologist for the project.  The goal is to find out as much as they can about the enslaved and possibly emancipated population and incorporate this history into the overall site interpretation.  Work, mainly STPs, had previously been done at the site in 2005 by William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research.  To see an overview of that work, check out https://www.wm.edu/sites/wmcar/research/chiles/archaeology/

Friday March 15 Carol returned to the site and was able to help with the troweling in one of the units. Interestingly there were a lot of fat rusty nails as well as some brick fragments in this unit, but there were more bricks in the adjacent unit.  Saturday will be the last day for the crew to be on site during Spring Break, but there may be other Saturdays that the crew will be on site.  Here is a picture of the students we worked with this week.  Always fun to work with students.

The St Mary's College Crew

Wednesday March 13 Mary, Linda, Doug, and Carol volunteered on the site.  Doug and Linda screened soil from the various units including from Unit 10 that Carol and Mary spent the day troweling.  The troweling was a little different since the grass roots were also removed with a trowel rather than by flat shoveling.  And there were lot of roots crisscrossing the unit that required clipping or pruning. The few artifacts recovered (brick fragments, flat glass fragments, possible nail,...) came from the southwest part of the unit,   We weren't able to complete the level before we left.  Still it was an interesting experience.

Screening in the morning
(new units opened)

Screening in afternoon

Tuesday March 12 was the first day for volunteers on the site.  Mary, Linda, Elsie, and Carol worked with the students/crew (Mac, Emilia, Laura, Yasmin) on a number of test units, mainly screening although Carol also troweled.  Since this was the upper level of the units, we weren't finding a lot, but it's always fun to work on a site when the weather is nice. 
Interestingly Linda's parents had once rented part of the Chiles Site for farming.  Also two men whose family had lived near the house visited us along with Cat Warren, the project genealogist.  There were a lot of stories swapped.

CCASM members and students
screening

Using drone to document site

Visitors with connection to site

An Afternoon at the Charles County Expo - 2024

On Saturday March 9 Charles County Public Schools once again held its History, Industry, Technology, and Science (H.I.T.S.) Expo at St Charles High School in Waldorf, Maryland.  There were forty-one tables and seven classroom activities/presentations sponsored by different organizations and school groups with CCASM having two of the tables.  A lot was going on.  There were a variety of hands-on activities to engage the students (and the adults).

One of CCASM's tables included a display depicting the various archaeological skills related to history and science.  The other table contained an activity we call "Archaeologists Dig for Clues".  We didn't count the number of students completing the activity but we were able to interact with a number of children as well as with their parents.
 

CCASM Table with display and activity

Looks like a fun conversation

Thanks to Elsie Ned, Denise, and Linda for being there to interact with the students and their parents. 

Click to see the winner of the special History Day award sponsored by the Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc.

Thanks to Linda for the photos.

2024 Charles County History Day

On March 9, 2024 the combined Charles County Public Schools Annual History Day  and the Annual Science Fair (now referred to as H.I.T.S.) was once again held at the St Charles High School in Waldorf, Maryland.  CCASM sponsored one of the special History awards.  The award was $50 and a one-year membership in CCASM.

Display - King Tut

This year's history topic was "Turning Points in History”.  The History Day judges identify projects with merit and assign them to one of the organizations sponsoring special awards. 

The CCASM Special History Award went to Jhori Graham for the display titled "The Excavation of King Tut's Tomb".  Jhori is in the 7th grade at General Smallwood Middle School.

Thanks to Ned and Elsie for the photos and the info.

In past years CCASM has also sponsored a Science Fair Award for a project "demonstrating excellence and scientific thinking relevant to the field of archaeology.  CCASM provides the judge(s) for this award, but this year our usual judges had other commitments.

2024 MAAC Conference

The Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference (MAAC) held its 2024 Conference at Ocean City, MD March 7-10.  MAAC is an organization that includes anyone interested in the archaeology of the area from New York to Virginia, and from the Atlantic coast to West Virginia.  Its mission is to provide a yearly conference and a professional journal for archaeologists, both avocational and professional, working in the Middle Atlantic area.  It provides an opportunity to meet, discuss problems and issues, present recent work, and socialize.

There were a number of really interesting talks as well a lot of informal interesting conversations.  Rather that summarizing the various talks, here is a link to the final program including talk abstracts - https://maac10.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/2024/MAAC2024_Program_Final_Color.pdf

Two CCASM members (Carol and Pat) attended the conference.  Jim, another member, attended but he was in charge of a session where a number of Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's Archaeology Lab (SEAL) volunteers gave talks related to their work at SERC.