Investigating the James Swann Site - 2025

CCASM and other Monday volunteers are working with Esther Read to continue the investigation of the James Swann Site that is now owned by Charles County.  James Swann was a "free man of color" (believed to be Native American) that acquired land in Port Tobacco in 1840's and operated a tavern and oyster house in the village for almost twenty-five years. 

Check Public Archaeology Lab Days post for weekday schedule.

June 9 we returned to the Swann Site after taking time off for the ASM Field Session at Maxwell Hall Equestrian Park.  We started cleaning up the floor in three units as we try to follow up on possible post holes for a building.  Denise, Carol, Cal, and Esther troweled in the shade of tent.  Cal indicated he may be joining us more often.  Linda, Malinda, Kathy, and  ChiChi screened in the shade of the trees.  Kathy had invited ChiCHi to visit with us, and ChiChi volunteered to help.  It's always interesting to meet new people and to introduce them to the site.

Those Troweling

Those Screening

Monday May 19 was a beautiful day to be in the field at the Swann Site.  We were even serenaded by a Orchard Oriole.  Esther continued excavating Unit 13.  Elsie, Claudia, Kathy, Carol, Linda (morning), and Claudia (afternoon) screened and looked for artifacts.  The artifacts today were similar to what we found last week, but there were also nails and possibly more flakes.

Monday May 12 was a great day to be in the field at the Swann Site.  Denise shaded by a canopy shoveled soil from the new unit while shaded by the tress Elsie, Kathy, Linda, Malinda, and Carol screened the soil.  Since this was in the plow zone, we found smaller fragments -- bricks, ceramics (various types), glass (olive green and clear), bifaces, flakes, and fire-cracked rocks.

End of Day-
Folding up Screen

Saturday May 3 was the first of two planned Public Archaeology Days at the Swann Site.  This coincided with the annual Port Tobacco Market Day held in front of the Port Tobacco Courthouse.  Esther Read, the archaeologist in charge, removed the bulkhead between several existing units and cleaned up the units by troweling.  Elsie and Denise got to screen the soil and to talk to visitors.  Four or five groups of visitors came over from Market Day for a tour of the site and to see what archaeologists do.  At the end of the day we covered the units with new black plastic to protect them until we can come again.
The Public Archaeology Day planned for May 4 was cancelled due to rain. 

Thanks to Denise and Elsie for the info.

Monday April 21 Denise, Malinda, Kathy, and Carol were in the field at the Swann Site with Esther.  Denise opened up a new unit, and at some point during the day everyone got a chance to help screening.  Carol did a profile drawing of the north wall of one of the units.  Kathy got to hold the stadia rod for Esther as Esther shot in the coordinates of the various units.

Finally a nice day so we could be in the field at the Swann Site.  Monday April 14 Elsie, Carol, and Malinda joined Esther to start cleaning up units that had been under black plastic since last fall.  We cleaned up walls in three units and lightly troweled another unit so it could be photographed.  We are getting ready for a Public Archaeology Weekend May 3-4.   In this area we are chasing post molds/holes for a possible early post-in-ground building.

 

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Investing the James Swann Site -2024
Investing the James Swann Site -2023

2025 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Apr-Jun)

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.

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 (10:30am-3pm)
                      Saturday June 28 and Sunday June 29
If you are part of a large group, you need to let us know when you are coming and how many.  

Next dates: 
Note: (We try to post the latest schedule as soon as we get it - may not get until Monday morning. 
            Being in the field depends on the weather - if it's not raining and not too hot.)

  Monday,  June 16  (11am - 3pm) in field at Swann Site; lab
  Monday,  June 23  (11am - 3pm) in field at Swann Site; lab
  Monday,  June 28  (11am - 3pm) in field at Swann Site; lab
  Monday,  July 7 - no lab
  Monday,  July 14  (11am - 3pm) in field at Swann Site; lab
  Monday,  July 21  (11am - 3pm) in field at Swann Site; lab
  Monday,  July 28  (11am - 3pm) in field at Swann Site; lab

After a break for the ASM Field Session at Maxwell Hall Equestrian Park, we were back in Port Tobacco. on June 9  However, we all in the field so there was no one working in the lab.

Monday May 19 Evie was at Burch House washing artifacts from the Swann Site while others were in the field looking for more artifacts.  Claudia worked with Evie in the morning.  At lunch Linda came in from the field to work in the lab and Claudia decided to work in the field.  Linda found a piece of sponge ware, but we didn't get a picture of it.

For various reasons not everyone could be in the field on Monday May 12.  Evie and Claudia continued getting the Maxwell Hall grant artifacts ready to be sent to the MAC Lab.  Since Ned was also there identifying metal artifacts from the 1970s, Ned was able to help Evie and Claudia identify nails (e.g. machine made or hand wrought).  It's always good to get a chance to learn something new or to verify what you already know. In the afternoon there were also lots of shells to sort. 
Ned also finished repairing the CCASM Trifold that was damaged at Market Day when the wind blew it off the table.  (Thanks, Ned)

Patinated Glass

Monday May 5 everyone worked in the lab on artifacts recovered from Port Tobacco in the 1970s.  Ned continued to sort and identify the metal artifacts with no provenience.  Carol and Malinda cataloged the rest of the stoneware and most of the coarse earthenware from BF1.  Elsie and Denise sorted lots dark green bottle glass fragments from BF1, and they chose the artifact of the day.  We are used to seeing the golden patina on olive green bottle glasses, but this fragment had strips with little or no patina that created an interesting design on the fragment.  Also the surface was perfectly smooth.  So this patinated glass fragment is the artifact for the day.

In the morning of Monday April 24 we (Linda, Claudia, Ned, Kathy, Carol, and Malinda) worked with  twenty second graders from Berry Elementary School to introduce them to archaeology.  Second graders from the various Charles County Schools have been coming almost daily to visit the One-room School House and Stagg Hall but also get an introduction to archaeology.  We have only been helping on Mondays, our regular lab day, but Esther has provided the activities and the script for docents at Stagg Hall to provide the archaeology introduction.

In the afternoon Denise, Kathy, Carol, Malinda, and Cal joined Esther in the field at the Swann Site working on the  newly opened unit.  Cal from Charles County Government (historic preservation) did the shoveling while Denise, Kathy, Malinda, and Carol screened.  Linda and Claudia went to the Burch House to continue to wash oyster shells that had been recovered in 2017 from Rich Hill.

Esther found some additional buckets of artifacts (mostly oyster shell) from Rich Hill.  So Monday April 21 Evie, Linda, and Claudia were at Burch House washing the oyster shells and any other artifacts in the buckets.

Monday April 14 Claudia and Evie decided to work in the lab rather than in the field.  They continued getting the Maxwell Hall grant artifacts ready to be sent to the MAC Lab- putting paper tags with provenience into the artifact bags.

Monday April 7 in the morning we (Elsie, Claudia, Ned, Carol, Malinda and later Denise and Esther) worked with the twenty-seven second graders from Eva Turner Elementary School to introduce them to archaeology.  This included an introduction to archaeology as well as two activities. The students were divided in half with one group learning about archeology in the Courthouse while the other group was learning about Port Tobacco history at Stagg Hall. Then the two groups switched.

In the afternoon we went upstairs to the lab.  We had planned to be in the field but it was raining.  Dominique, a potential new volunteer, joined us at lunch time and worked with Carol cataloging BF1 stoneware.  Denise and Elsie catalogued BF1 Glass, and Ned identified BF1 metal artifacts.  Claudia and Malinda continued getting the Maxwell Hall grant artifacts ready to be sent to the MAC Lab.

2025 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Jan-Mar) 

2024 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Oct-Dec) --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

2025 ASM Field Session in Charles County

From May 23 through June 2 people from all over Maryland as well as some from DC and some from Virginia came to participate in the 2025 Tyler Bastian Field Session at the Teagues Point archeological site (18CH1005), near Hughesville, Maryland.   The Field Session was held by the Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc (ASM) in cooperation with Maryland Historical Trust (MHT).  Dr. Matt McKnight, MHT Chief Archaeologist, was the Principle Investigator. 

The Site

Matt McKnight
(wearing signature bandana)

 

Some of those participating on May 29

Guiding the Drone 

On May 29 a reporter from WMARTV2 in Baltimore visited the site.  Her report is on Facebook https://ow.ly/8eyn50W3KWX .  It includes drone footage of the site that Stephanie Soder (MHT) had previously taken.  
A final drone flyover was done at the very end of the Session. 
https://www.facebook.com/marylandhistoricaltrust/videos/1254998173015261

 

The site was a mystery.  It was only assigned a site number in September 2023 after a resident contacted MHT about a site on which he had collected artifacts decades ago.  The artifacts pointed to a late 17th to mid 18th-century colonial occupation at the site.  MHT conducted a GPR survey of the area the resident identified.  (For more information about this, check out Matt McKnight's Maryland Historical Trust Blog posting on Field Session Planned at Maxwell Hall Equestrian Park).  The Field Session was to ground truth the GPR results and to learn more about see what we can learn about the site.  

We started opening test units over four areas identified by GPR.  By the end we had opened a lot of test units as we tried to find the edges of features.  Here is what it looked like after it was troweled down for the final drone flyover.

What we accomplished

And here are some of those doing the final trowel down (in the sun).

Final troweling down of units
(Largest feature took longest time to finish.)

At the Field Session we did recover late 17th-century artifacts.   The artifacts I recall include lots of hand wrought nails, a pair of scissors, a two-tine fork, a barrel stave, a lead cloth seal, almost half of a North Devon earthenware milk pan, green glazed (Dutch) red earthenware, a tin-glazed earthenware bowl fragment, the top of a English Brown salt-glazed jug, and a olive green bottle glass seal.  There were also lots and lots of oyster shells as well as pig bones and teeth and lots of fish scales. (Have you ever tried to pick up a fish scale?)

Bottle Seal

Dutch Earthenware

We will have to wait for the report when all the data is pulled together to see the bigger picture.   I'm not sure how clear it will be yet since almost every professional archaeologist looking at the features had a slightly different interpretation. The results can also be compared with what has been found at two nearby 17th century sites. 

There were plenty of opportunities to dig, trowel, map, document, work in the lab, and screen whether it was your first time or your hundredth time.  But the Field Session also gave us a chance to reconnect with old friends, and to meet new people.  

The Field Session is also a time to learn, and when better to get everyone together than lunchtime.  On Tuesday Silas Hurry talk was called Sherds for Nerds, and he described and passed around examples of colonial ceramics.   On Thursday Aaron Levinthal talk Revisiting Serenity’s Surprise - an overview of recent archaeological investigations of nearby colonial sites was about previous archeology done at Serenity Farm (just south of Maxwell Hall Equestrian Park).  

Wednesday night was the annual Spencer O Geasey Memorial Lecture.  Esther Doyle Read talk was about Landscape Archaeology at Maxwell Hall State Park.  The Field Session took place in Maxwell Hall State Equestrian Park.  The talk was held inside Maxwell Hall.

apple, strawberry rhubarb, 
blueberry, triple berry, cherry

A Field Session wouldn't be complete without the annual Saturday night "feast".  This year it was held in the Pavillion at Maxwell Hall.  It was John Fiveash's fist year to grill, and he did a great job.  Also the Montgomery Chapter and Zac Singer (MHT) provided pies made by Zac's wife Victoria.  A special thanks to those providing/preparing the food.

 

 

While thanking people, another special thanks to the ASM members that helped make this Field Session happen - from planning to registration to getting t-shirts to .... all the behind-the-scene things that need to happen.   You do so much.  Thanks.  We should also thank Dr. Zac Singer, MHT Terrestrial Archaeologist, and Stepahie Soder, MHT Research Archaeologist, who helped Matt McKnight make this field session "work".

 

Three CCASM members (Carol. Evelyn, and Elsie) attended the field session for multiple days. 
 

CCASM is a chapter of ASM.