Archeology Bingo 2025

Prizes 
on top of Bingo card

At the CCASM December 18 meeting we continued our tradition of having an archaeology game rather than having a speaker.  This year we played Archeology Bingo.  Instead of calling out letters and numbers the caller described an artifact that could be found in Maryland.  If your card had a picture of that artifact, you placed a marker on it.  And you were also encouraged to help your neighbors identify pictures on their cards.  (Nobody needed help identifying the oyster shells.)  And like Bingo when you got five in a row, you had Bingo and got to chose your prize. 

Ned provided the prizes.  He had knapped hearts and a few points from bottle glass.  We played multiple times starting over every time someone got a Bingo.  It turns out all attendees had at least one Bingo.  Below is a photo of all the winners holding up their prizes.  

Winners holding up their Prizes

Attendance: 9  

CCASM obtained information for this game  from the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference Student Committee at the 2019 MAAC Conference. 

Archaeology Jeopardy 2024

At the CCASM December 19 meeting we decided to repeat what we had done last December and play Archaeology Jeopardy instead of having a speaker. 

Carol provided the game (Powerpoint) and choose the "answers" (many of which were repeats from last year). Between getting ready for Christmas, getting ready to move, and the flu several of our regular attendees were absent.   So we had four individual teams of one person each and rather than ringing a buzzer you had to call out your name.  Team Elsie won the game and got the "trophy".  Everyone seemed to enjoy the game even though the host had to occasionally be reminded of the rules. 

 

For four of the categories Carol provided answers relating to local archeology, previous CCASM speakers, or other things we have been exposed to while volunteering in Charles County.  The legal category answers came from a Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference version of the game.

Joe had just received the new batch of t-shirts that people had ordered.  So Denise brought them to the meeting to distribute. 

Sorry, completely forgot to take any pictures.

Attendance: 5

2023 Archaeolocy Jeopardy

At the CCASM December 21 meeting we did something a little different.  It was so close to the holidays that we decided not to have a speaker but to still have an archaeological theme.  So we played Archaeology Jeopardy.  And since it was the holidays, Mary brought cookies and snacks we could enjoy while playing the game.

Those attending (including one attending via FaceTime) divided into three groups.  Instead of using buzzers that we would not be able to distinguish, each team has to choose an animal sound.  We got this idea from the Mid-Potomac Chapter that  routinely plays this game. So we had a duck team (Linda and Mary), a dog team (Doug, Linda, and Denise), and a cow team (Peggy, Pat, and Ned).   As often happens the Final Jeopardy wager was the decider.  The cow team won.   Carol was the host and Frank was the score keeper.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the game even though the host had to occasionally be reminded of the rules.

 

Answers for two of the categories came from an older Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference version of the game.  For the other three categories Carol provided answers relating to local archeology, previous CCASM speakers, or other things we have been exposed to while volunteering in Charles County.

Thanks to Peggy for bringing the hot spot and allowing us to test out connecting to someone remotely, and thanks to Pat for being the guinea pig.  It turns out FaceTime is not the best option for a presentation, but it worked fine for Pat to be able to participate in the game and demonstrated that we can now get internet access in the Community Room.

As always, thanks to Mary for the great refreshments.

Sorry, completely forgot to take any pictures.

Attendance: 10

Tabletop Excavation

Patricia Samford

At CCASM's December 12th meeting we did something different - investigated a "site" without getting our hands dirty.  Dr. Patricia Samford led us in an activity that she had developed using a pretend historic site.  We could only excavate half of the site, and we could only look at three of the archival documents.  Tricia guided us in using the same processes of reasoning and analysis that archaeologists use when excavating and researching real sites.  Then we used what we had found out to draw conclusions about the pretend site.  But unlike a real investigation, Patricia shared with us how close our conclusions were.

Dr. Samford is the Director of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.

The pretend site and archaeologists

Field Crew
You'll have to play to see what's under the black areas.

Researchers

Attendance: 11