New Pre-Revolutionary War Site

I was out surface-collecting with Pete and Elsie yesterday. We found unequivocal evidence of a pre-Revolutionary War site.

Of the hundreds of objects that we mapped and collected, we found no Pearlware ceramics (1780s+), some Creamware (1764+), Chinese porcelain (18th through early 19th centuries), tin-glazed earthenware (18th century), and lots of white salt-glazed stoneware (1720s to ca. 1800).

There are a few later ceramics, but they are so few and scattered that they probably represent a later occupation.

These historic materials are interspersed with lots of prehistoric lithic artifacts, mostly flakes, and two early prehistoric projectile points. There is a fair amount of oyster shell that I suspect is associated with the historic occupation, not the prehistoric. If the latter is as old as I think it is (Archaic), oyster was not available in the area at the time those peoples lived along the Port Tobacco River.

Again, we have a large amount of data to process, so I don't have any images to post at the moment. We also have much more to collect in the field.

Jim

Cemetery Preservation

Mount Rest Cemetery sits on a hill just south of La Plata and is the burial grounds for Christ Episcopal Church, the same one moved from Port Tobacco in the early 1900s. Most of the stones in this spot are fairly modern, but according to Dave Chapman, cemetery director for the parish, many of the older stones and burials were removed to this site.

My firm, Grave Concerns, was hired by the Charles County Genealogical Society to repair two of the older stones that had broken. This cemetery was vandalized about 10 years ago and was restored, but careless grounds keepers have damaged other stones over time. Another problem is that well-meaning people decided to encase some of the fragile marble tablets in concrete...always a bad idea.

An employee of Grave Concerns mending the gravemarker of Virlinda Stone.

The same stone after reapir.

There are many ways to preserve old burial grounds and just as many things one should NOT do to fix a stone. Like I mentioned above, a marble marker should never be repaired or re-erected using concrete or Portland cement. That material is much harder than marble and will create a snap point for the softer stone.

I will be speaking to the Charles County Genealogical Society on May 15th about cemetery repairs, research, and preservation and I will also discuss the subject one evening during the summer archaeology session at Port Tobacco in June. See ya'll there!

And Yet More Sites...

Yes, Pete and I were out again with Elsie and Carol. We were collecting the field immediately south of Port Tobacco proper and found compelling evidence that the town site extends further south than the current landscape suggests. Aside from one or two historic period sites, we found a good deal of late prehistoric material (Late Woodland).

We also noted that the concentrations of artifacts and oyster shell paralleled a linear area, poorly drained. I had noted it last year and suspected it might be a relict stream channel, and it may be; but it also might be the road leading south from Port Tobacco to Warehouse Landing.

We have a great deal of artifact washing and cataloguing, and lots of drafting to do, but hopefully we will have something more definitive ready by the end of next week. I'll try to snap a few photographs tomorrow.

Jim

Sites Found in Fields

Sunday was a beautiful day to spend in the fields south of Port Tobacco. Elsie, Pat, Frank and Carol joined Pete, Scott and me for a day of controlled surface collecting and precision mapping. It will take a week or so to get everything washed and mapped, but I think we have two 18th/early 19th century sites and at least one relatively well-defined Late Archaic site.

We'll be out again tomorrow surveying the field immediately south of Port Tobacco.

That's all for now. My neighbor has a nice bowl of risotto waiting for me.

Jim

PTAP in the Field

Sunday and Monday the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project returns to the field. We will be surface collecting the fields extending southward from town to Warehouse Point.

We are looking for Indian sites as part of our continuing effort to understand Native American lifeways in the valley, as well as determine how and when the Port Tobacco River shifted and the role of upland sediments in that movement.

Of course, we are also trying to locate historic period sites. Are there early sites south of town representing Chandler's Town (late 17th, very early 18th centuries)? Did the move of port facilities south to Warehouse Point occur at one time, or incrementally, leaving traces of progressively later occupations as one moves south along the river?

Our study will be complicated somewhat in that the process of sedimentation from the uplands to the east that buried the town and filled the river channel probably covered the fields as well. Hopefully, the plow will have scratched some of these deeper deposits, bringing enough artifacts to the surface to allow us to identify prehistoric and historic deposits.

I'll post some initial impressions after fieldwork tomorrow, if I have the energy after slogging through plowed fields all day.

Jim

Movie Night Poll

After some techinical difficulties, the new poll is up for movie night. You have 4 choices and once the polling is done on June 1st, we will have a run off of the top two vote getters and post a second poll to decide which movie we will watch!


- Peter

Field & Lecture

Pete had some technical difficulties launching the poll for the field session movie night...hopefully we can get it done tomorrow. I'm half glad for the difficulty because I have two announcements and I prefer to make them today rather than wait:

1. We will be conducting a controlled surface collection of the fields south of Port Tobacco. So far, weather permitting, we plan to be there from 9:30AM to 3PM this Sunday and Monday. We will rendezvous in front of the courthouse. Volunteers welcome. Please contact me at JamesGGibb@comcast.net if you are interested in participating.
2. On May 13, the Charles County Archaeological Society will meet at the old Train Station in La Plata, 7:30PM to 9PM. I will speak about a ca. 1690-1730 site that I excavated in southern Prince George's County, a site likely to be similar to its contemporaries in the Port Tobacco. A brief discussion for our new bylaws and election of officers will precede the talk.

We are gearing up for an eventful summer.

Jim