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, Dec 9 (11am - 3pm) Lab at Port Tobacco
Monday, Dec 16 (11am - 2pm) Christmas Party
Monday, Jan 6 (11am - 3pm) Lab at Port Tobacco
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;
On Monday December 2 we decorated Burch House for Christmas. In keeping with the history of Burch House, we try to keep it simple. Elsie was in charge of the greenery displays. Linda, Denise, Mary, Carol, and Jadyn put up the two Christmas trees and lots of other decorations through out the House. The lab was set up to highlight archaeology including the archeology related to Burch House. The children's activity was put on one of the tables. And Mary brought the plates, cups, and all the things needed for the refreshments. Now everything is set for the Holiday Tour that will be this coming Saturday.
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Arranging greenery
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Everything's ready
(Just a little tidying up left to do.)
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Monday November 25 Claudia, Denise, Peggy, and Carol were at lab continuing to work on recently recovered artifacts from the Maxwell Hall Equestrian Park. It was such a lovely day that Claudia and Peggy decided to brush and bag metal artifacts outside on the picnic table but later in the day joined Denise and Carol inside to bag and brush additional metal artifacts. Denise and Carol mostly bagged artifacts from the drying screens, but in the afternoon decided to wash some of the remaining artifacts so they would be ready to bag on the last Maxwell Hall lab day in December. Among the barbed wire, partial bricks, and bottle glass fragments nothing stood out. So there is no artifact of the day.
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Anchor Hocking
Brown Bottle Base
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On Monday November 18 while the other volunteers were at Maxwell Hall looking for more artifacts, Claudia and Carol were at Burch House processing the artifacts that had already been recovered from Maxwell Hall. Since it was a nice day, we worked outside on the picnic table. In the morning we brushed and bagged metal artifacts labeled E-#. There were more metal artifacts to be processed but we switched to washing artifacts (mostly glass) in the afternoon. It's always nicer to be able to wash outdoors. We chose this base from a brown bottle that was embossed with the word "RAINBOW" as the artifact of the day. The "anchor" trademark indicates it was made by Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation between 1938 and ca 1980. It had been recovered last Saturday from an area identified as a bottle dump.
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Barb Wire
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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.
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Porcelain cup
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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.
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Various Bottle Finishes
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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.
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| 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.
