August 28, 2024

2024 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-September)

CCASM has been working with Charles County at the ongoing Public Archaeology Lab since 2015.  The lab is for processing artifacts recovered from various archaeology initiatives in Charles County -  including artifacts from investigations of sites on County properties, artifacts recovered from savage archaeology in the County, as well as artifacts recovered around the 1970's before the Port Tobacco Courthouse was reconstructed.  Esther Read is the archaeologist in charge.

Health precautions:  Following guidelines for Charles County. 

Location: Courthouse (2nd floor; use South Wing door) and Burch House (both inside and outside) in Historic Port Tobacco Village  map 

Note:  Public Archeology Days at Swann Site (10am-3pm)
                      Saturday Sept 14 and Sunday Sept 15 

 Next dates: 
  Note: depending on the weather, we may be the field at Swan Site in Port Tobacco on Mondays; 
            (we try to post latest schedule as soon as we get it - may not get until Monday morning)
 
            Monday,    Sept    2 -  Labor Day- No Lab
            Monday,    Sept   9   (11am - 3pm) Lab (but if weather good may be in field at Swan Site)
            Saturday,  Sept 14   (10am - 3pm) Public Archaeology at Swan Site   
            Sunday,     Sept 15   (10am - 3pm) Public Archaeology at Swan Site                
            Monday,    Sept 16   (11am - 3pm) Lab (but if weather good may be in field at Swan Site)

Monday August 26 we all worked inside Burch House on artifacts from the ca 1970's excavations at Port Tobacco.  Linda and Claudia sorted glassware and Denise sorted a variety of artifacts .  Carol and Jadyn tried to identify animal bones as they sorted and later washed quite a lot of animal bones.  The artifact from the day comes from the glassware artifacts.  On first glance it looked like the base of a olive green bottle with a kick-up, but when turned over there is no kick-up.  The other side is completely flat.  Interesting.

Raised area inside
Opposite side
completely flat

Buckle fragment
Monday August 19 everyone was in lab working on artifacts from the ca 1970's excavations at Port Tobacco.  Inside Burch House Linda, Claudia, and Malinda sorted and started bagging a large collection of interesting glass fragments while Evelyn and Jadyn washed animal bones.  Denise, Mary, and Carol decided to wash artifacts outside with the majority of the artifacts being animal bones although Mary did wash some Late Woodland prehistoric pottery sherds and other non-bone artifacts.  
The artifact of the day was part of a decorative copper alloy buckle.  We chose this one artifact that was found in a bag of miscellaneous somewhat identifiable metal objects.


Monday August 5 was another hot day - so a lab day.  At Burch House Claudia, Malinda, Kyle, and Jadyn were joined in the morning by Linda and Linda's granddaughter Hadley in washing artifacts from the Swann Site.  Denise, Mary, and Carol were at the Courthouse sorting stoneware from Feature BF1.  Linda joined them in the afternoon. 

Small ceramic sherd
Monday July 29 was too hot to be in the field.  So everyone was in the lab.  Linda, Claudia, Kathy and Malinda continued to sort and bag artifacts from Swann Site Unit 10.  Esther spent time talking to the new volunteers (Evie, Jadyn, and Kyle) about the different types of artifacts we find and how to identify them.
Once again we chose a small ceramic sherd from the Swann Site as the artifact of the day.  This one was engine turned.  As you can see it was smaller than a push pin.
Thanks to Linda for the photo and the info.

Summer is a busy time, and Monday July 22 turned out to be a busy day for most of those who normally volunteer in lab.  The day started out with only Linda and Carol in the lab working on Swann Site Unit 10 Level 1 - Linda washing the remaining artifacts, and Carol trying to merge/separate artifacts from three trays/bags.  Before lunch Pat joined us and also talked about her recent archaeological volunteering on a site in Wales.  Elsie stopped by near the end of the day just to touch base.

Small ceramic sherds
Monday July 15 was too hot to be outside, so we were in lab but at two different Port Tobacco locations.  Over at the Courthouse work continued on sorting and cataloging artifacts recovered from BF1-BF during the ca 1970's excavations at Port Tobacco.  Mary and Linda were working on glass while Linda and Carol were working on ceramics.  There were hundreds of BF1-BF artifacts to be processed.  Note: We moved downstairs after lunch since the air conditioning upstairs wasn't working. 
At Burch House Claudia sorted and bagged artifacts while Kyle and Jadyn washed additional Swann Site artifacts.  We decided to feature a selection of small decorated ceramics as the "artifact" of the day.  Most are painted earthenware sherds.  The center piece is stoneware (Nottingham).

Worked Chert
Monday July 8 CCASM members Linda, Evelyn, Peggy, and Carol were at Burch House while four other volunteers were working with Esther to finish up at the Swann Site until it gets cooler.  After lunch they were joined by Denise as well as Kyle and Jayden who came in from the field (it was getting way too hot).  It was Kyle's and Jayden's first time in the lab.  We were all either washing or sorting/bagging artifacts from the Swann Site.  These artifacts included a lot of brick fragments and fire-cracked rocks as well as small pieces of ceramics and glass.  Even with all these artifacts it was hard to find one for the artifact of the day.  We finally chose this piece of black chert with interesting flake scars as the artifact of the day.

 

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