ASM Annual Meeting

Just back from the annual Archeological Society of Maryland meeting held in Frederick. The presentations, as advertised, covered the late prehistoric period and early encounters with Europeans. Unlike many interpretations in recent years, which have focused on environmental change and local cultures adapting to those changes, these six presentations focused on the movement of people and goods.

The two trade beads recovered from Port Tobacco would have fit very well with those shown by a couple of the presenters. It is still early in the Port Tobacco research, but I'm confident that we will have something to contribute to this discussion in a couple of years. In the shorter term, I am proposing to the ASM board that the Spring Symposium take on the preceramic cultures of the Chesapeake, an area for which we already have some good data from the fields south of town.

Jim