Volunteer Weekend in Late October

On the weekend of October 19 through 21, Maryland Historical Trust staffers and volunteers from the Archeological Society of Maryland will join the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project crew at Port Tobacco. Non-members are welcome to join us as well as we continue the survey and testing program, searching for parts of the Colonial town site, its Native American precursors, and 19th-century successors. This is a great opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with a group of great people committed to archaeological research and conservation. I will not jinx us by prognosticating about the weather, but I'll just say that autumn in Southern Maryland is pretty okay if somewhat noisy from the honking of geese flying overhead.

The field day will run from 9Am to 4Pm. Participants should wear sturdy shoes and clothes. Bring a lunch and dine al fresco, or run into nearby La Plata (3 miles) for a sandwich or hot meal. We expect to have a field laboratory running throughout the weekend to process material as it comes out of the ground. Candidates in the Certified Archeological Technician program can fulfill their survey requirements and attend one or two workshops. (Workshops, at least one of which will be on archaeological ethics are open to all.)

We are looking into the availability of motels and campgrounds and will make that information available soon. Contact us via e-mail or phone if you would like to join us.

On related notes, I will join April and Pete in the field on Wednesday for some extensive mapping and gridding. We have been working in the office today on cataloguing artifacts (Pete), refining our research design (April), and preparing grant applications to fund the work. In a future blog I would like to talk about the research design, an important document that guides what we do and how we do it and, most importantly, why.

Jim