A Search for the Fort at St. Mary’s City: Results of a Tripartite Geophysical Prospection Survey at Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Technology in Terrestrial and Underwater Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1634, mere weeks after English colonists arrived on the shores of St. Mary’s City, Governor Leonard Calvert described a "pallizado" fort that measured 120 yards square, with bastions on the corners. Although it was only used for approximately three years after its construction, this fort represented the first major foothold of European settlement in the state. Its precise location, however, remains unknown, despite fifty years of archaeological fieldwork conducted within the St. Mary’s City National Historic Landmark. In spring of 2018, Tim Horsley, in collaboration with Historic St. Mary’s City staff, began a geophysical survey in two promising locations identified by previous archaeological survey in search of evidence of the 1634 fort. Horsley’s survey utilized three techniques: magnetic susceptibility, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar. This paper details the results of the geophysical survey and places them in historical context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Technology in Terrestrial and Underwater Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 311