2025 Public Archeology Lab Days (July- Sept)

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 

 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.)
Fall School Visits on Mondays scheduled Sept 22, Sept 29, Oct 6, Oct 13, and Oct 20 (make-up day)
 
  Monday,    Sept 29  (11am - 3pm) Port Tobacco Lab
  Monday,    Oct    6   (10:30am - 2pm) 2 School Groups
  Monday,    Oct  13   (10am - 3pm) Rich Hill in the field

Monday September 22 Linda, Claudia, Denise, Elsie, Ned, Kathy, and Malinda along with Esther worked with second graders to introduce them to archaeology.   There was one group in the morning and another in the afternoon.  Both groups were from Billingsley Elementary School. 
 
On week days in the Fall 2025 (Sept 15 - Oct 22) and in the Spring 2026 (Mar 2 - Apr 13) second graders from the various Charles County Schools are coming  to visit the One-room School House and Stagg Hall but also to get an introduction to archaeology.  Each group tends to include  around twenty children.  We have only been helping on Mondays, our regular lab day, when we are not scheduled to be in the field.  Esther has provided the activities and the script for docents at Stagg Hall to provide the archaeology introduction on the other days.

Monday August 11 Claudia, Linda, Peggy, and Carol were at Burch House and finished the sorting and bagging of all the remaining Swann Site artifacts recovered to date.  Denise, Malinda, and Kathy were in the field.  The base of two Swann Site units were troweled to better see any features.  This did produce five additional artifacts.

Monday August 4 was a short day in the Lab.  After Denise, Claudia, and Carol finished sorting and bagging the artifacts from the four trays of artifacts recovered from the same Swann Site provenience, we all decided to stop for the day.  Another tray had a small number of artifacts from several Swann Site provieneces that Malinda bagged and sorted, and Linda washed most of the remaining artifacts - not that much left.

Monday July 28 was another day in the lab at Burch House.  Everyone (Elsie, Denise, Claudia, Malinda, Kathy, and Carol) worked on sorting artifacts from four trays of artifacts recovered from the same provenience.  The tray highlighted last week was just one of those trays.  So each person worked on a different type of artifact - glass or ceramics or lithics or nails or brick or ...  We almost got everything sorted and bagged, and we plan to finish up next week. 

Tray of washed Swann Site artifacts

 
Monday July 21 we had seven people working at Burch House on Swann Site artifacts either washing or sorting and bagging.  It's been a while since we've had that many.  Jack joined Elsie, Denise, Linda, Malinda, Kathy, and Carol as we worked on the artifacts.  Since it's was Jack's first time, Linda gave him a tour of Burch House and worked with him as he washed Swann Site artifacts.  We decided to choose that tray of washed artifacts as the "artifact' of the day.  The tray includes a wide variety of artifacts - fragments of bricks, oyster shells, ceramics (decorated and plain), bottle glass, window glass, a tooth. and even a tobacco pipe stem.  If you blow up the image, you may see more.

Pipe Bowl Fragment

Monday July 14 we were back in the Lab at Burch House.  Denise, Claudia, and later Linda continued to wash, sort, and bag artifacts recovered from the Swann Site.  Linda also spent time straightening up Burch House, and Denise inventoried remaining artifact bags. Carol sorted and bagged artifacts from BF1-1-4.  It is from these artifacts that we selected an artifact of the day.  The artifact of the day is a fragment of a tobacco pipe bowl with a partial maker's mark that is somewhat distinctive - a "D" inside what appears to be a heart with additional geometric symbols (diamond circle, bar, possibly a stylized Fleur-di-lei) under the initial.  There isn't enough to identify the maker but there was a mid-eighteenth century London pipe maker whose makers mark was a TD inside a circle or heart.  Interestingly there are several seventeenth maker marks with initials and a stylized Fleur-di-lei inside a heart.  Maybe someone else will be able to identify the maker. 

2025 Public Archaeology Days (Apr-Jun) -- 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