"Maryland, My Maryland": Current Archaeology in the State

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Bodor. Matthew D. Cochran. Lyle Torp.

Generally speaking standing structures are most typically the domain of Architects, Structural Engineers, or Architectural Historians.  Recent efforts to stabilize the Melwood Parke, a ca.  c.1715-1767 manor house  located in Prince George’s County, Maryland, highlight the critical role of archaeology in understanding construction chronologies, as well as form and function of colonial American architecture. Topics to be addressed within this paper include: the role archeology can play in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caitlin Shaffer. Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory Federal Curator.

The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory (MAC Lab) is a State-owned facility serving as the primary repository for collections excavated in Maryland. Artifacts come to the MAC Lab from every part of the state, and while the estimated 8.5 million objects in our collections are regularly used by researchers and school groups, our broken bits of "stuff" are less of a draw for the general public. This paper discusses how the MAC Lab staff turned their love of Outlander, a popular...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Valerie M. J. Hall.

Subtypological analysis of historic-period indigenous ceramics indicates changes in Maryland Indian women’s pottery over the course of the seventeenth century may have helped normalize the selection and adaptation of aspects of English material culture, while preserving family- and clan-based cultural traditions.  Previous research, hypothesizing that native-made items including ceramics were purchased/traded for and used by English colonists, elucidates a shift in surface treatments while...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Swain.

On the night of August 21st, 1814, British troops under the command of General Robert Ross camped at Nottingham in Prince George’s County, Maryland, while on their march to burn Washington, D.C. Nearly 200 years later in 2010, The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission began a multi-year survey at Nottingham with the goals of finding evidence of the encampment and of the nearby colonial town, established in 1706. Using a map drawn by a British engineer travelling with the troops,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah A. Grady.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center located in Edgewater, MD is a 2,650 acre campus consisting mostly of eroded farmland. This paper focuses on the complex erosional processes occurring at a historic farmstead located on campus, Sellman's Connection (18AN1431: 1729-1917) by looking at key excavation units along with soil borings that identify the source of eroded material and its final resting place.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert W. Wanner. Jane I. Seiter.

From 2014 to 2015, excavations within the historic crossroads town of Neelsville in Montgomery County, Maryland, now a residential neighborhood, revealed a complex of features including a structure with a stone foundation. Initially identified as a blacksmith shop based on historic research, the structure was later revealed to be an adjacent domestic structure, presumably where the blacksmith and his family lived. A nearby sheet midden showed evidence of shared usage between the household, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy J Horsley.

As geophysical techniques become more frequently integrated into archaeological investigations in Maryland, methodologies are being refined, and their potential is becoming better understood across the discipline. Many factors affect the successful outcome of these non-invasive surveys, including the specific natural conditions and archaeological features at a site, but also careful selection of appropriate techniques and data collection strategies. This presentation will review a variety of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristin M. Montaperto.

During excavations conducted in the 1990s by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a number of small religious objects (i.e. medals, rosary, cross) were uncovered at Northampton, a prominent Prince George’s County, Maryland, plantation. These artifacts were discovered within two slave quarters, a wood frame quarter dating to the late 1790s and a brick quarter dating to the second quarter of the 1800s. Both enslaved African Americans and African American tenant farmers lived...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Donald K. Creveling. Matthew D. Cochran.

Compton Bassett is a multi-component historic and archaeological site located on the Patuxent River in Prince George’s County, Maryland. It embodies the evolution of a plantation landscape that bridges the establishment of large scale slavery in the early eighteenth century to the formalization of architecture and landscapes from the mid-eighteenth century though the late nineteenth century. This paper will look at the development of the architecture and landscape of Compton Bassett via...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah N. Janesko.

This paper compares two late nineteenth-to early twentieth-century African American tenant farm sites located on the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) campus in Edgewater, Maryland. I used historical population and agricultural census data to provide context for initial field findings, and used these contextualized findings to formulate questions about changing social and agricultural practices after emancipation.

DOCUMENT Citation Only cassandra michaud.

Long overshadowed by and conflated with the fictional story of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the life of Josiah Henson is revisited at the location he was enslaved in suburban Maryland.  Archaeological research on the former plantation has uncovered traces of life on the farm and the 19th century landscape.  This work provides part of the framework for the design of a public museum to be built at the park, dedicated to Henson's life and slavery in Montgomery County.  This paper will discuss the ongoing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kiley A. Gilbert.

Between 1850 and 1880, the First Election District of Anne Arundel County, Maryland hosted a variety of farm types and farm sizes. K-means cluster analysis of agricultural census data identified farm types over this forty-year period. The findings serve as a basis for understanding the archaeology of two farms on the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center campus and assessing the effects of late 19th-century land management strategies on local ecosystems.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer A. Stabler.

In November 2015, Prince George’s County, Maryland celebrates the ten year anniversary of the passage of local regulations that require review of all subdivision applications for their effect on archaeological resources. This paper will examine the results of ten years of archaeological investigations under the local regulations, lessons learned from these efforts, and future directions. Various techniques, such as conservation easements and the conveyance of sites to entities such as the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bill Auchter.

An examination of an antebellum plantation in Prince George’s County, Maryland can be a case study into how to see a subaltern group (slaves) living within a dominant culture. To do this, three entities will be examined: a place, a slaveholder, and a slave. How are these three elements related and interdependent upon each other as a means to understand the elements individually and as a social group? All three elements occupied the same time and space but would often be described as three...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirsti E Uunila. Lionell Sewell.

The Calvert County, Maryland cultural resources planner has worked with the county GIS team to develop a Collector for ArcGIS app template for collection of data in the field for archaeological sites and architectural properties. The Collector for ArcGIS template is designed to capture the information required by the state on its forms, acquire geolocation information, and attach pictures for each site.  With minimal editing, a mail merge is used to produce a printable form that is acceptable to...