2025 MHT Archaeology Workshop

The 34th Annual Maryland Historical Trust Workshop in Archeology was held in Crownsville, MD, on Saturday September 20, and as its name implies this year there were a number of workshops. 

The keynote speaker was Cassandra Michaud who is the Cultural Resources Stewardship Supervisor for Montgomery County.  The talk was entitled "Public Interpretation & the Evolution of the Montgomery County Parks Archaeology Program".

Since this was a Workshop in Archaeology, the keynote address was followed by talks, some of which had hands on activities.  Since many were held concurrently, it was often a hard choice on which one to attend.

• Not Another Sandbox Dig!
  Excavation Experiences Using 3D Printed Models 
  Rachel Aluine     
  
• Artifact Recovery: Preservation Practices in the Field and Lab
  Nichole Daub
• Identifying Stone Tool Functions through Microscopic Use-Wear Analysis
               Katherine Sterner  
  
• Adventures with Blue Painter's Tape:  A Vesselization Workshop
               Julie Mankin   
• Flotation and Fraction Separation of Soil Samples
   Alex Glass
• Illustrating History - The Basis of Artifact Illustration
               Tyler Ball
• What's That Rock?  Toolstone Identification
               Zachary Singer
• Meet Your County Archaeologist 
               Beau Lockard (Frederick County)
              Esther Doyle Read (Charles County
              Chris Sperling (Calvert County)
              Jennifer Stabler and Amelia Chisolm (Prince George's County)
              Lauren Schiszik (Baltimore)   
• CAT Workshop — Basic Lab Procedures - Parts I and II
  Rebecca Morehouse
  
  

 

CCASM members attending included Elsie, Carol, Ned, Peggy, and Patricia 

CCASM is a chapter of ASM.

Click for program and more details about talks

Volunteering at Strata Florida in Wales

Patricia Vazquez

On September 18 at our first meeting after the summer break Patricia Vazquez shared experiences from her 2024 and 2025 trips to Wales where she volunteered for the Strata Florida Archaeological Field School.  

Pat started with telling us about the location of the site and a little of its history.  Strata Florida Abbey was built in the twelfth century as a Cistercian abbey and is the burial site for numerous medieval Welsh princes.  It is considered a special place in Wales.

Pat included stories of working on the site with the Strata Florida team as well as her experiences of staying in Wales and interacting with the local residents.  Quite interesting.

A little bit of geography and history

Strata Florida Abbey

Strata Florida site

Patricia Vazquez is currently CCASM's Vice President.

We were really glad that Pat traveled down from New York to speak to us in person.  We also had a Zoom meeting set up for others to attend.   This was our first time to run the Zoom meeting without Jim being in the room.  (Jim attended via Zoom).  So we need to work on the Zoom part.  Thanks to Jim for setting up the Zoom meeting.

Wonder what Pat was telling us

Attendance: 11  (2 via Zoom)

Investigating Sites with Charles County Archaeologist

When a historic property in Charles County is to be modified or demolished, the Charles County Historic Preservation Commission reviews the plans.  Esther Read, Charles County Archaeologist, who is also on the commission, checks out if any additional archaeological information is needed.  When there is some archaeological interest in  the property, but there is no legal requirement for the owner to have archaeology done, Esther reaches out to the volunteers at Monday's Lab (most of whom are also CCASM members)  to help with digging a small number of STPs.   

Site near Marshall Hall
A historic circa 1900's house on the Potomac was to be demolished, and there had been no photographs of the house.  Esther along with Cal Carpenter from Charles County Planning did drawings and photographs of the interior of the house documenting the various additions.  Esther also wanted to verify there was no evidence of an earlier site and to investigate if this was one of the fields where William Graham had collected artifacts.  So we were at the site digging STPS before the house was demolished.

Friday September 19 Denise volunteered with Esther and Tim to finish the STPS on the west side before the house was to be demolished next week.  One of the two paved brick areas had revealed a wall.  Using a tile probe it was determined that the brick pad was a 6 by 8 foot square, with the wall running through the middle of it on the short axis. 
Thanks to Esther for the info.

On Monday September 15 Elsie, Denise, Linda, Carol, Ned, and Malinda dug around twelve STPs (I forgot to count) on the north and west sides of the house.  Artifacts included a few nails (some wire and some machine made) as well as staples, an American stoneware vessel base, a blue and white decorated earthenware fragment, a few flakes, and a point reject.  We also found two buried paving brick areas.

On Monday September 8 Linda, Denise, and Ned dug 10 STPS to the south of the house and one STP to the east for a total of eleven STPs.  There was a nice breeze when we were south of the house. but none of the east of the house (so a little hot).  The soil was sandy loam and was really easy to screen.  
 (Thanks to Ned for the September 8 info and photos.)