2024 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Oct-Dec)

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: depending on the weather, we may also be in the field on Mondays; 
            (we try to post the latest schedule as soon as we get it - may not get until Monday morning)

            Monday,   Nov 11   (11am - 3pm) Lab at Port Tobacco and
                                                 (10am - 3pm) in field at Maxwell Equestrian Park
           Saturday,   Nov 16  (10am - 3pm) in field at Maxwell Equestrian Park
             Monday,   Nov 18  (11am - 3pm) Lab at Port Tobacco and
                                                 (10am - 3pm) in field at Maxwell Equestrian Park

Last Lab date for 2024 (and Christmas Party) will be Dec 16
Dates for School Visits 2025: Mon, Mar 17; Fri, Apr 4; Mon, Apr 7: Fri, Apr 11; Wed, Apr 23;

Barb Wire

On Monday November 4 Mary, Claudia, Evie, Jordan, Peggy and Linda cleaned artifacts from Maxwell Hall, the Oyster House in Port Tobacco and artifacts brought down from the courthouse attic. We chose this barb wire fencing from the Maxwell Hall Daffodil Site as the artifact of the day.

Thanks to Linda for the info and to Mary for the photo.

Monday October 28 was supposed to be a lab day but ...  Mary was the only one in lab in the morning and decided to clean - floors, bags, whatever needed cleaning while the other volunteers were with the school group.  After lunch we decided to take the afternoon off.

Porcelain cup

The Monday October 21 Lab was a little crazy with people doing lots of different activities during the day - cleaning up and inventorying tools and equipment in the shed, inventorying bags and pens in the lab, retrieving some of the last bags of artifacts from the rafters of the Courthouse (a dirty job), stabilizing some of the retrieved bags, putting new flagging tape around the Swann House foundation, and also the normal activity of sorting and bagging some of the artifacts washed in previous weeks.  Not sure this was everything we did.  There were eight volunteers - Linda, Denise, Elsie, Claudia, Evie, Carol, Jordan, and Jadyn -- along with Esther and Esther's sister who was visiting from the West Coast.

We chose these Chinese porcelain cup sherds (from a group of porcelain sherds) as the artifact of the day.  The mended sherd on the left contains seven pieces.  The sherd on the right appears to have a similar design and may or may not mend at the rim to the other sherd. They had been among the 1970s Port Tobacco artifacts that were brought down from the attic.

Various Bottle Finishes

 

At the Monday October 14 Lab it was just Linda and Jadyn.  We bagged dry brushed items from last week and washed items from the Courthouse box (1970s Port Tobacco artifacts).  We chose these glass bottle fragments with different finishes as the "artifact" of the day.

Thanks to Linda for the photo and the info.

Buckle

Monday October 7 while several of the regular volunteers were in the field, Linda, Claudia, and Jadyn were at Burch House sorting and bagging the artifacts that were washed last week and then dry brushing the remaining metal artifacts.  We chose this sturdy copper alloy buckle as the artifact of the day.  It was with the other artifacts recovered during the 1970s excavations at Port Tobacco but that's all we know.  So it is listed as Port Tobacco, no provenience.

Thanks to Linda for the photo and the info.

2024 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Sep) --2024 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Apr-Jun)  --2024 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-Mar)
2023 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec) --2023 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2022 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec) --2022 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Feb-Jun)
2021 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Mar-Dec)
2020 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Sep-Dec) --2020 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-Mar)
2019 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jul-Dec)   --2019 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2018 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec) --2018 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2017 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec) --2017 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2016 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Dec) --2016 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-June)
2015 Public Archaeology Lab Days