Pottery in Native American Component

I stopped by the Crownsville lab yesterday afternoon where Pete, Maxine, and Steve were working. Maxine was washing several large (more than one-inch square) aboriginal pottery sherds with well-placed, sharp-edged cord marks. The remarkable state of preservation suggests that they were not subjected to motorized plows, and possibly not even by plows drawn by draft animals. This bit of evidence further confirms that we have an intact aboriginal component dating to the Late Woodland period. How late (is it Contact period?) remains to be determined.

I'll ask Pete to bring the sherds back to the office on Friday so that we can scan them and post the image on the Friday blog. (You listening Pete?)

I'll be in the northern part of the state tomorrow meeting with folks from the Archeological Society of the Northern Chesapeake (we'll be discussing further work at Octoraro Locks, the 1803 canal on the Susquehanna River), but Pete will be at the Crownsville lab. Friday I'll be attending a meeting in La Plata concerning Port Tobacco.

Jim