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.
Here is what we were doing the first quarter of 2026.
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March 30 was a special day at Lab. Remember when we found what we thought was a blacksmith site while investing in the northern part of Port Tobacco during 2023 (Fieldwork for Village of Port Tobacco). We recovered so many iron artifacts, and these were sent to the SERC Archaeology Lab (SEAL) to be conserved and cataloged. Today Jim Gibb and many of the SEAL volunteers that had worked on the artifacts brought the conserved artifacts back to Port Tobacco. Josefa O'Malley, who was the team lead, described how the artifacts had been desalinated and then protected with tannic acid. The effort took three years and three months. Josefa also indicated that examination of the artifacts pointed to this being a blacksmith site. In addition to the artifacts themselves, they provided a catalog as well as thumb drives with numerous photos and 3-D images of many of the artifacts.
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Boxes containing
processed iron artifacts |
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Some of larger artifacts
on top of boxes |
On March 23 there was only one school group from Dr. Thomas L. Higdon Elementary School in the afternoon. On a windy afternoon Linda gave the introduction to archaeology and then joined Claudia, Denise , and Esther as the students washed artifacts and mended broken ceramics.
March 16 was another day when the weather forecast cancelled the school visits and lab. The weather didn't turn out to be that bad, but it is always good to be safe.
March 9 started much earlier than usual since we needed to set up
for a school visit by second graders from Mary B. Neal Elementary
School, and they were arriving earlier than usual. This was the first visit on a Monday for this calendar year. There were two groups of students - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Linda gave her introduction to archaeology talk with
lots of examples. Denise, Elsie, Claudia, Evie, and Ned guided
the students through two activities - washing artifacts and mending
broken ceramics. It was a great day to be outside.
Once again Lab (Feb 23) was cancelled due to weather. On Monday March 2 only Esther, Linda, Claudia and Elsie were at the Lab in the Courthouse. Linda, Claudia, and Else sorted artifacts from BF1-BF Lot 68 artifacts (all the miscellaneous artifacts that didn't fit into one of the larger categories) into the
groups used for cataloging. We picked this engraver's plate as the artifact of the day. We are including it's mirror image in hopes of you being able to read part of it. Esther worked on organizing Rich Hill artifacts and getting Maxwell Hall artifacts ready for
storage at the Mac Lab.
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| Engraver's Plate |
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| Mirror Image |
Thanks to Elsie for the info and to Linda for the photo,
Well the snow and freezing rain came. Monday Jan 26 we were either trying to shovel out our driveways or were snow/ice bound. Monday Feb 2 most roads were better but the Courthouse Parking Lot was not plowed, and we couldn't have lab. On Monday Feb 9 the Parking Lot had been cleared, but when got there, the walkway was not cleared. Linda, Denise, Elsie, Malinda, Carol, and Ned joined Esther to gingerly walk over the frozen walkway to the Courthouse, While the rest of us were inside discussing how we could help with several displays Linda plans to put up in the Courthouse, Ned was outside chopping away the ice so we would have a clear path for getting back to our cars. It took him several hours to do this. Thanks Ned!
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| Tin-glazed Sherd |
Monday January 19 we once again divided up. Claudia and Malinda continued to work on more recently recovered artifacts at Burch House. Denise, Elsie, Carol, and Linda were at the Courthouse working on artifacts recovered at Port Tobacco around 1970. Carol and Linda continued cataloging BF1-BF refined earthenware. Denise and Elsie completed cataloging all the BF1-BF glassware!! Yay! Look back through the blog to see how long they have been working on this.
The artifact of the day probably should have been the last BF-BF1 glass artifact catalogued, but instead we chose this tin-glazed rim sherd. The almost pastel bands were unusual.
Monday January 12 after a long holiday break nine volunteers met at the Port Tobacco Courthouse. Of course, we had to catch up on what we had been doing. Then Esther started planning for weekend dates when we might have public archaeology events and also suggested other clean-up projects for the Port Tobacco Village. After lunch we split up and got to chose which activity we would like to do. Evie, Claudia, Malinda, and Kathy went to Burch House to finish processing the few remaining artifacts at Burch House. Carol and Denise stayed in the Courthouse and continued the processing of refined ceramics recovered from BF1-BF. Ned, Elsie, and Tim joined Esther to walk the shoreline from the causeway to the place where years ago a wooden casket had eroded into the river. They wanted to mark the location as a reference for an upcoming river restoration project this spring.
2025 Public Archaeology Lab Days (Oct-Dec) -- 2025 Public Archaeology Lab Days (July-Sep)
-- 2025 Public Archaeology Lab 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
