Unmasking Joppa Town: Attempting to locate a colonial port town near Baltimore

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of the Mid-Atlantic (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Joppa Town was a bustling port in the 18th century and the county seat of Baltimore County. The influential town included a jail, courthouse, church, warehouses, and residences. Like so many colonial ports, silting of the harbor doomed access to the town, and by 1768, the county seat was transferred to Baltimore City. Joppa Town soon faded away and eventually vanished below agricultural fields. In the summer of 2020, excavations and testing were undertaken to locate the remains of the town and document what was a precursor to Baltimore. This paper details the struggle to find Joppa Town while attempting to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021   •
• Historical Archaeology of the Mid-Atlantic (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology