Looking at Massive Soil Changes at Port Tobacco

Anne Hayward

At the April 6 CCASM meeting Anne Hayward discussed the soil changes that have occurred in the Port Tobacco area.  A review of historical records documented the increasing sedimentation of the Port Tobacco River.  Recent excavations at Burch House in Port Tobacco indicated layers of gravel that would be consistent with a sedimentation event.  A special analysis of the soil in the various layers provided additional information.

Several CCASM members volunteered at the Burch House excavations last year and remember those gravel layers.

Anne works with Gibb Archaeological Consulting and will be going to graduate school at Penn State this fall.

Attendance: 20

April is Maryland Archeology Month

Maryland Archeology Month

Events in Charles County

• April 6 - 7pm
  CCASM Meeting at La Plata , MD
  Sands of Time: Sedimentation of Port Tobacco
  for more details go to April 6 CCASM Meeting
  
  
• April 15 - 7pm
  Talk cosponsored by CCASM and CSM Friday Lecture Series at La Plata Campus
  Sunk Beneath the City Streets: The Excavation, Analysis, and Care of the World Trade Center Ship
  for more details read CSM Friday Lectures Celebrate Maryland Archeology
  
  
• April 30 - 9am - 3pm
  Port Tobacco, MD
  Come and see a historical site being excavated.  Members of CCASM and ASM members will be excavating near the Burch House in Port Tobacco.  The site was occupied from the mid-1700's through the twentieth century.

Other Maryland Archeology Month Events of note

• April 9 - 9am - 3pm
  ASM Annual Spring Symposium on Archeology at Crownsville, MD
  The Uses of Forensic Sciences, the Natural Sciences, and New Technologies in Support of Archeological Research
  for more details go to http://www.marylandarcheology.org/symposium.php
  
  
• April 16 - 10am - 4pm
  Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum. St. Leonard, MD
  Discovering Archeology Day--Discover the what, where, and how’s of archaeology!  Also watch people making stone tools the way they have for thousands of years.
  CCASM will have a table there.
  
  

Go to Maryland Archeology Month 2011  for all events in Maryland during Archeology Month

Searching for the Seventeenth Century Wollaston Manor

Kelly Copper

At the March 2 CCASM meeting, Kelly Cooper provided an overview of the 2008 excavations conducted along the Potomac River in Charles County.  Local lore has often credited this area to be the location of the original Wollaston Manor house built by Captain James Neale in 1661.  However, the artifacts and the dimensions of the two dwellings excavated indicated that these buildings were not Wollaston Manor.

Kelly is the Education Coordinator for Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.  She had participated in the 2008 excavations.

The winners of the raffle for the classic ASM t-shirts were Kitty Frick and  Anne Zabel.

Attendance:28

Looking at Prehistoric Artifacts in Charles County

Carol Cowherd

At the February 2 CCASM meeting, Carol Cowherd talked about the artifacts that have been appearing in her backyard over the past several years.  In order to help understand these artifacts Carol gave a brief overview of prehistoric lithics and ceramics that can be found in Charles County.  The answer to the talk's question "Is there a prehistoric woodland site in my backyard?' was yes there is either a site or part of a woodland site.

Artifact Distribution

On the right is a map indicating what she found where along with an image of one of the ceramic sherds.

Carol is the president for the Charles County Archaeological Society of Maryland Inc. and a member of the Archeological Society of Maryland Inc.

Everyone got to a chance to hold a mortar and a pestle brought by one of our visitors.  The woman also brought  a picture of some of the projectile points that she had found.

The winners of the raffle for two copies of Jim Gibb's The Layman's Guide to Historical Archaeology in Maryland book were Carol Raucheisen and Gary Frick.

Attendance:16

Google Calendar for CCASM Events

The larger version of the Google Calendar now works.

In December we started putting CCAS events and other archaeological events of interest into a Google Calendar.  Also we put a small embedded version of the calendar on this blog rather than just putting up a picture of a calendar.

Now by clicking on "Calendar - Large View"  it is easier to see the details.  You also have the ability to use the "Agenda" tab to create a list of upcoming events.

If you do click on dates within the small calendar, here are things that you need to know.

Clicking on a date with text (usually only a few letters or numbers) will pop-up a small window with the event, location, and description information.

Unfortunately, the right side of the text is cut off and there are no scroll bars.  On a Mac, using the right and left keyboard arrow keys will allow you to scroll in this pop-up window and see all the information.

To close this window, you have to click on some part of the calendar that is outside this pop-up window.  For example, try clicking the "Today" button at the top of the small calendar.