Digging St. Clement's Manor and Award of Special Certificate

Julia King

At the May 13 CCASM Zoom meeting Julia King told about archaeology relating to the search for Thomas Gerard's manor house that was located near the mouth of the Wicomico River. Thomas Gerard was a colorful figure in 17th-century Maryland and one of the wealthiest men in early Maryland. 

The story starts with homeowners in 2000 finding seventeenth century artifacts followed by limited investigations by St. Mary's students as well as a geophysical survey. The story is continuing with more investigations planned this year by St. Mary's students.  Currently they think the manor may be under a twenty-first century horse barn.  Here a composite photo of some of the artifacts*.

Dr. Julia King is a Professor of Anthropology at St. Mary's College of Maryland

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The CCASM Annual Business Meeting followed Julie's talk.  

At the Business Meeting in grateful appreciation for his support of Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland, Inc. Dr. James G. Gibb was granted a Life Membership in CCASM. 

James Gibb

A snapshot of those at the meetings -

Attendance: 13

 

*Note: I forgot to take photos during the presentation.  So the artifacts shown are from Julia King's and Scott Strickland's presentation on St Clements Manor given to St. Mary’s County Board of County Commissioners in 2019.

Belinda Urquiza Recieves William B. Mayre

At the 2018 ASM Fall Meeting Belinda Urquiza was presented with the William B. Mayre Award for her outstanding contributions to Maryland archaeology.

I'm not able to name all the things Belinda has done, but here are a couple.  Belinda Urquiza is an avocational archeologist and has been active in Maryland archaeology for over eighteen years (and probably more than that).  For a number of years Belinda was ASM's Membership Secretary.  And for the past several years she has been on the CAT (Certified Archeological Technician Program) Committee and more recently has been the chair of the Committee.      

For activities a little closer to home -- Belinda is a member of several ASM chapters and was one of the founding members of the Charles County Chapter.  She was instrumental in CCASM becoming a non-profit, and was CCASM's first secretary.

Congratulations, Belinda.

Congratulations to Julia King

Dr. King with award

On January 5 Dr. Julia A King received the 2018 J.C. Harrington Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology(SHA) in recognition of her lifetime achievements in historical archaeology.  FYI, SHA is the largest scholarly group concerned with the archaeology of the modern world (15th century-present).

Congratulations, Julie.
 

2015 Charles County Historic Preservation Awards

The Historic Preservation Commission 2015 Preservation Awards Ceremony were held May 7 at St. Paul's Piney Episcopal Church,and three CCASM members received awards. 

• Jim Gibb received the preservation service award for his work on the public archaeology program at Port Tobacco.  Any one who has ever been a CCASM member should know Jim Gibb.  He is one of the founding members of CCASM. 

• Denise and Kevin Grote received the preservation project award for the restoration of their historic home - Ellerslie.   Denise and Kevin are more recent CCASM members.

Franklin Robinson was the guest speaker and discussed "Faith and Tobacco: The 18th Century Anglican Church in Southern Maryland".

Thanks to Amy Blessinger for providing the photos.

April Beisaw Awarded Gordon R Wiley Prize

If you volunteered at Port Tobacco during 2008 or 2009, you will remember April Beisaw.  She was the co-director of the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project and of the ASM field sessions in Port Tobacco in 2008 and 2009.  

Well, Dr. April M. Beisaw has been awarded the 2011 Gordon R. Willey Prize presented by The Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association.  The award is in recognition of the exceptional work in her publication “Memory, Identity, and NAGPRA in the Northeastern United States”,  American Anthropologist, vol. 112, no. 2 (2010).

The Gordon R. Willey Prize recognizes the best archaeology paper published in the American Anthropologist over a period of three years.  April will receive the award at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Montreal, Canada, November 6 -11, 2011.

April is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio.

April, Congratulations!