Burch House on 2017 Charles County Holiday Trail

On December 2 and 3 representatives from CCASM and from Charles County Planning hosted visitors at Burch House in historic Port Tobacco during the 2017 Charles County Holiday Trail.  We enjoyed sharing the history of this eighteenth-century house.  And we especially enjoyed talking about archaeology in Port Tobacco.

CCASM members decorated Burch House simply for the holidays in keeping with the house.  There was a lot of greenery and two trees - one decorated with crocheted ornaments (on loan from one of our members) and one with paper ornaments we had made.  To make it more festive hot cider and cookies were served.

Special thanks to Elsie, Evelyn, Esther, and Cathy for being there to talk with the visitors and for taking care of the refreshments.

Photographing Stagg Hall Print Shop Units

Charles County arranged for a drone pilot to take still pictures from the air of the print shop units that have been excavated in front of Stagg Hall.  Once the pictures are taken, the units will be back filled.  Denise and Elsie assisted Esther Doyle Reed, Charles County Archaeologist, in preparing the units for their "screen preview".   (Denise and Elsie are just two of the many CCASM members that were involved in the excavating the units.)

Units Ready for Their Picture to be Taken

On Wednesday November 15 Charles County employees Brent Huber, Video Production Specialist, and Eva Lightfoot, Photographer, assisted Esther Reed in directing the shoot.  And Lt. David Kelly from the Charles County Sheriff's Office piloted the drone.  In addition to the pictures of the units some pictures were taken from a higher elevation to show the location of the units in relation to both Stagg Hall and the village as a whole.

The pictures were downloaded from the drone to Brent's tablet at the end of the shoot, and the county will process them.

After the units are back filled some of the pictures from today's shoot can be used in Stagg Hall to show visitors what the units looked like when they were open.  Also some of the pictures could be used by Esther for presentations to archaeology conferences and by the county in tourism material.

Thanks to Elsie for the information and to Elsie and Denise for the photos.

Drone Anthropology and A Visit to Caracol

Alison DeCamp and Jacob Moschler

At the December 14 CCASM meeting Jacob Moschler and Alison DeCamp recounted their recent travels in Belie including a visit to the remote Caracol archaeological site in Cayo District of Belize.  Caracol was an important regional political center of the Maya Lowlands during the Classic Period.  For those who missed the talk, you can view the slides as well as the video at ter.ps/belize.

Next Jacob talked about his work with drones including a 5-year anthropology project working with anthropologist Dr Sean Downey using small drones to scan 20,000 acres of jungle in the Toledo District of southern Belize, smaller projects with archaeologist Kristin Montaperto in Prince George's County, as well as search and rescue projects.  And of course he told us about the drones and the software.  You can see videos of his recent projects on his twitter account @scallop_shell. Jacob previously had shared a YouTube video related to his work in Belize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgdeH8HTW98 - note the large bamboo pole he used for the antenna.

Jacob Moschler is an Engineer and Drone Pilot at the University of Maryland Unmanned Aircraft Test Site in California, MD.  To find out more about University of Maryland UAS Test Site check out uas-test.umd.edu/

Attendance: 15

Mt. Hope Church & Cemetery Volunteer Workday

October is Cemetery Month.  On Saturday October 28 a special "Mt. Hope Church and Cemetery Volunteer Workday" was held at Mt. Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Nanjemoy.   The event was sponsored by the Mt. Hope Church community, Preservation Maryland, Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites, Charles County Planning, and the Association for Preservation Technology.

There were four areas of activity during the day:

• Mt. Hope Cemetery Conservation and Headstone Documentation 
• Recording History - both oral and family documents
• Architectural Documentation  of Carroll Family Farmhouse
• Archaeology at Carroll Family Cemetery

Five CCASM members volunteered - Denise, Joe, Evelyn, Julie, Carol, and Jim.  And guess which activity we choose.  Archaeology at the Carroll Family Cemetery, of course.  It was not just us at the cemetery.  There were many, many members of Mt Hope Church and of the Carroll family that also helped at this site.

Esther Read, the Charles County archaeologist, was in charge.  If you have never looked for graves in an unmarked cemetery, here is what we did.  First, we looked for impressions in the ground.  Over time after someone is buried and starts to return to the soil, the ground on top begins to sink in.  We also looked for posts in the ground and rocks that may have marked graves.  And we found quite a few.  Scott Lawrence's experience working with old cemeteries definitely helped.  After the possible graves were marked with flags, we documented each one - length, width, amount of depression, presence of a marker, and presence of other plants, such as periwinkle, that were historically planted in cemeteries.  Also Jim Gibb brought a Total Station, an electronic transit, and recorded the positions of the head and the foot of all the possible graves as well of any posts or stones.

All the data gathered will be turned over to Mt. Hope Church.  Hopefully, in the future we will be able to learn more about what was found.

2017 ASM Fall Meeting

On Saturday October 21 the Upper Patuxent Archaeology Group (UPAG) Chapter of ASM hosted the Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc (ASM) 2017 Fall Meeting at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD.

The CCASM members attending were Annetta, Belinda, Carol, and Jim.  Carol gave the CCASM chapter report during the business meeting.  Sarah Grady, CCASM's previous president, also was one of the speakers.

It's always fun to catch up with others from around the state and hear what they are doing.  But the highlight of the meeting was the talks.  Below is the list.  If you get a chance to hear them at some other venue, you should try to go.  You won't be disappointed.

• In the Face of the Flood: Endangered Sites in Anne Arundel County
  Stacy Poulus, Lost Towns
   
• Report on the 2017 ASM Field Session 
  Kirsti Uunila, Calvert County archeologist, presented by Charles Hall, MHT
      
• SHA Is More than Highways, Especially if a Shipwreck Is Uncovered
  Aaron Levinthal, SHA
   
• The Frederic M. Stiner Memorial Lecture: Looking into a fort George Washington had constructed
  W. Stephen McBride, McBride Preservation Services
   
• How a Small Non-Profit Got Involved in Archeology
  Lynne Bulhack, Mid-Potomac Archeological Society
   
• The Marilyn Thompson Lecture: Preserving a Jim Crow Era School in Anne Arundel County
  Sarah Grady, University of Maryland
   
• Looking for the Wreck of the Scorpion
  WMPT videotape 

Also congratulations to Dennis Curry, the 2017 William B Mayre Award recipient;  Jeff Cunningham, the 2017 Patricia Seitz Teacher of the Year Award recipient; and Dave Peters, the latest person to complete ASM’s Certified Archeological Technician program.

And thanks to the UPAG Chapter for hosting the meeting.