Buckley Ware

(Jefferson Patterson Park Museum website www.jefpat.org )

Hello everyone! Time for another ceramic blog. Today we are going to go over the basics of a rare piece of pottery in the Chesapeake region. While it's use in England was seen over a span of about 200 years from the 17th to 19th Centuries, in the Chesapeake area it is only seen from about the 1720's to around the revolutionary war when it was heavily imported.

The Buckley ware is a lead glazed ware made of mixed red and yellow/white clay from the northwest region of England mainly near Wales and of course Buckley. The use of two clays tends to be more obvious on utilitarian pieces than on tablewares, which are more finely and completely mixed. The two different colored clays tend to give the paste a purplish look with swirling seen in the cross section. The Buckley wares are usually undecorated with a dark brown or black lead glaze. Some ribbing from manufacture can be seen on the exterior of the vessels. A red slip can usually be seen under the glaze. Most of the large utilitarian vessels also had very thick rims.

The forms of buckley ware were a wide variety but was mostly utilitarian ware in the form of large bowls and storage jars. Other forms of table ware were also made but most of the pieces found in the Chesapeake region are those of the large utilitarian types.

At Port Tobacco we have seen ceramics from different time periods including 18th and 19th Century pottery and Native American pottery as well. Buckley ware is one of those 18th Century types that we have found during our shovel testing. Several pieces of buckley ware have made their way into our collection. As with most of our artifacts, the pieces are small and don't show us enough to define the vessel it came from but with further excavations we might find some larger pieces.

The website at Jefferson Patterson Park Museum is a great tool for identifying and learning about many of the ceramics I have discussed on the blog. It is in fact where I get some of the information I use when I compose these blogs. Here is the website address: www.jefpat.org

Tomorrow I head to the Maryland Law Library to do some research and Jim and April will be headed to New Mexico. I will post some news this week on the research I am doing as well as an updated map of Port Tobacco!

-Peter

Burch House Lives!

Restoration work on the Burch House is nearly complete and it looks marvelous. This is one of three surviving 18th-century buildings in Port Tobacco. I toured it several weeks ago and found it remarkably spacious and solid. It occurred to me, however, that we conducted archaeological investigations around the building but never really talked about what we found, apart from discussions of sedimentation in town. (There is a technical report on the work, but who reads technical reports?)

Burch House prior to restoration in 2006.

In November 2006, Scott and I dug 20 shovel tests around the Burch House, principally in the rear yard, and that is where we found the surprisingly deep archaeological deposits that we have since encountered throughout the southern part of town.

We also uncovered a brick pavement, at least three courses deep, and a brick foundation on the downstream side of the house.

Burch House and remains of addition.

We might have expected it because the 1960 redrawing of the 1942 Barbour map shows an addition in exactly this location. Why three courses of brick paving? Why was the addition removed? What does it date to and how was it used? All good questions. Hopefully, the team will have the opportunity to examine this structure and its associated deposits in the years ahead.

Jim

Spring Symposium on Town-Founding

The Archeological Society of Maryland hosts a symposium each year during Maryland Archeology Month (April). As the ASM's Vice President, I'm charged with organizing the event and suggesting a theme to the Board of Trustees. The subject this year is Town-Founding and the program will consist of several presentations on archaeological research on Maryland town sites. These may include Native American village sites, Colonial settlements, and 19th-century port towns. Port Tobacco, as you might imagine, will be among the subjects of those presentations.

The symposium will be held in Annapolis in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the City charter. The First Presbyterian Church on Duke of Gloucester Street, across from Annapolis City Hall and the Noah Hillman parking garage, will be the venue. I hope you will join us on April 12, 2008, from 9AM to 3PM. And take advantage of the location: there are lots of wonderful eateries in the neighborhood and the Historic District is ideal for a stretch of the legs after the symposium and before the drive home. There is a nominal admission fee and proceeds go toward symposium expenses and support of the Society.

Stay tuned for additional details.

Jim

Society for Historical Archaeology Conference

To give you all a better idea of what Jim and I will be doing at the conference, here are excerpts from our itinerary.

Jim has co-organized a session on public archaeology that is being presented on-line and will be a panelist in two other sessions. He will be talking about Port Tobacco in a session on historical ecology.

I will be presenting a paper on my research into the history of the Susquehannocks and meeting with the publisher of our book, The Archaeology of Institutional Life.

To my dismay, it will probably be warmer in Binghamton than in Albuquerque for the few days that I will be there. Is it summer yet?

-April

The Cat's Are Away!

Greetings all,

With Jim and April in New Mexico for the SHA annual meeting next week, the blogging duties have been given to me. Since I have been out of the office working on other projects for Jim I haven't been able to produce my weekly artifact blog. But since I am going to do most of the blogs for next week I would like some input from all of our readers. Is there anything you want to know more about? Something we haven't covered yet? Let me know and I'll dig up (pardon the pun!) whatever information I can!

Post a comment with your suggestions or email me at porttobaccoarchaeology@yahoo.com

- Peter

We Need A Logo...Request #2

Are you creative and artistic? Want to donate these services to help us out?
The Port Tobacco Archaeological Project needs a logo.
We are looking for a simple black and white line drawing that can adorn our webpages, business cards, and such. Ideally it would convey the goals of the project and/or the importance of the town.

In return we offer you our gratitude and a blog post all about you and your logo design.

We will entertain logo suggestions until February 1st. If we receive multiple submissions we will post them on the blog and let our readers help us select the best one.

Ready? Set? Draw!

-April

Upcoming talk and field opportunity

Greetings all:
I will be giving the first comprehensive talk on our work at Port Tobacco in the courthouse at Port Tobacco on Sunday, January 27, at 1PM. Please join me and the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco for this illustrated presentation...it should last about 50 minutes and there will be plenty of time for questions.

I also will use the opportunity to announce the formation of the Charles County Archaeological Society and will discuss meeting venues and dates.

Please also note that we will be doing some fieldwork at Port Tobacco over the winter, probably beginning in February, taking advantage of warmer days. As always, details will appear on this blog.

Jim

Dr. James Craik

I am honored to provide the first blog of 2008. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. I, for one, am glad it's all over! Hopefully, this year will find the team back at Port Tobacco and uncovering the many mysteries of this lost town.

James Craik was George Washington's personal physician and was one of three doctors to attend him on his deathbed.

Born in Scotland in 1730, Craik immigrated to the colonies in 1751 and began his medical practice first in Norfolk and then in Winchester, Virginia. He accepted a commission as a surgeon and saw a lot of action during the French and Indian War and became a good friend to Washington at that time. At the end of the war, he moved to Port Tobacco and began a new medical practice there.

When the American Revolution began, he again was commissioned and was granted the second highest medical post in the American military. He treated the wounds of General Hugh Mercer and Marquis de La Fayette as well as other distinguished figures.

Craik died in 1814 and was buried at the cemetery of the old Presbyterian meeting house on South Fairfax Street in Alexandria.

His home was not in the town proper, but less than 3 miles out. Known as La Grange, it stands today and can be seen from Route 6 on the way to Port Tobacco.