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.
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| The Site |
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| Matt McKnight (wearing signature bandana) |
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| Some of those participating on May 29 |
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| 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).
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| 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?)
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| Bottle Seal |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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