The Search for the 1634 Fort at Historic St. Mary’s City: Ground-Truthing a Geophysical Prospection Survey

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeological Research of the 17th Century Chesapeake" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1634, soon after English colonists stepped foot on the shores of the St. Mary’s River in what would become Maryland’s first colonial capital, they set about constructing a fort. In a letter from that year, colonial governor Leonard Calvert described the fort as a palisaded enclosure measuring 120 yards square with bastions on the corners. The 1634 fort was occupied for approximately eight years before settlement spread out along the St. Mary’s River. More than 50 years of archaeology at Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC) has yet to uncover definitive evidence of the fort’s location. In 2018, HSMC commissioned a geophysical survey (which included magnetic susceptibility, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar) of two areas of the St. Mary’s City National Historic Landmark in search of evidence of “Fort St. Maryes.” This paper details recent efforts to ground-truth the 2018 geophysical survey.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeological Research of the 17th Century Chesapeake   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 476