"A Parcell of Land… Commonly Knowne and Called Chancellor’s Point": Burial Excavations on an Eroding Colonial Site.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bastions, Buttons, and Burials: Recent Research at Historic St. Mary’s City", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Two burials of individuals of African descent (ca. 1680-1730s) were recently excavated at Chancellor’s Point in St. Mary’s City, Maryland. These two individuals were interred on an earlier domestic site dating to 1639 – ca. 1680. Archaeological work from previous decades suggests that blacksmithing occurred on the site in the 1650s that utilized bog iron (or limonite) that was eroding out of a nearby fossil bed for smelting in a bloomery forge. After the abandonment of the domestic site, an undetermined number of individuals of African descent were buried there. At least one grave has been previously destroyed by shore erosion and the two newly excavated ones were threatened by environmental factors. A community group was formed to guide the project, which has in turn strengthened ties between HSMC and its stakeholders. This presentation reviews the community-driven archaeological work conducted to date and discusses where the project will be heading.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bastions, Buttons, and Burials: Recent Research at Historic St. Mary’s City   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow