Upcoming Events

Anne, Kelley, and Pete have substantially completed the artifact catalog (there are always minor corrections and clarifications to make), logging in just under 125,000 artifacts recovered since Scott and I first put spade to ground in the fall of 2006. We don't have a catalog of all the paperwork that we generated as a consequence, but suffice it to say it is a ponderous stack. I'm beginning to feel a bit like Jacob Marley, dragging behind me the ponderous chain of artifacts, forms, and reports forged in life. Unlike the links of Scrooge and Marley, however, I hope that our assemblage of data will effect some good in life, recognizing and celebrating the histories of the forgotten and contributing to a larger understanding of the interaction of historical and environmental processes.

Now that we are current in our cataloging and making some headway in analysis and report writing, we are returning to the field this Monday through Friday. We will be on the backside of the hedgerow that stands between Compton field and the Jamieson family field and the creek, so we will be out of sight. Volunteers and visitors should walk past and to the left of the courthouse and follow the woods along the creek. Alternatively, drive across Compton field to the end of the hedgerow and walk a few yards toward the creek. We start at 9 AM.

On Tuesday evening at 7:30 Dr. Julia A. King will speak to the Charles County Archaeological Society in the Port Tobacco courthouse about the search she is undertaking for Charles, Lord Baltimore's summer house and Zekiah Fort north of La Plata. It is absolutely free and you get to hobnob with many of the PTAP participants while hearing a report on some groundbreaking research.

This Saturday is the annual meeting of the Archeological Society of Maryland, held this year in Havre de Grace. For details, visit the ASM website: http://www.marylandarcheology.org

The PTAP team looks forward to an exciting autumn. Please join us.

Jim