Port Tobacco Archaeological Project

A staff update!

2011-07-08T09:47:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone!

In the spirit of staying in touch I thought some of the PTAP fans would be interested in what I am up to now. I am working as the Public Outreach Coordinator for the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project in Niles, Michigan. I moved out here over a week ago and, while I have been very busy, I have enjoyed meeting so many gracious people...plus my proximity to pick-your-own fruit farms has ensured my happiness!

The project consists of a field school for WMU students as well as public outreach events, the culmination of which is a big Open House in mid-August. I thought it would be a great idea to have the students help maintain a blog that keeps the community and other interested groups informed of their progress in the field and lab. If you all are so interested feel free to check it out at

http://fortstjosepharchaeology.blogspot.com/

I miss the PTAP crew and volunteers a great deal and hope to see you all sometime in the fall. Stay in touch!

Kelley

Friday Lecture Series, you know you wanna go...

2011-03-30T14:15:00.001-04:00

Click on the flyer for a larger image.

Another Day Washing Dishes

2010-11-17T17:01:00.001-05:00

The Charles County Archaeological Society returns for another day of washing artifacts:
CCAS plans to wash the artifacts obtained from the excavations done with the GWU students at Burch House last month.
Please come and join us
Sunday, November 21 if it doesn't rain
10:00 - 3:00
Port Tobacco Courthouse (on picnic tables outside)
Everyone is welcome.

November Birthdays Round Two

2010-11-16T09:03:00.008-05:00

Jim's birthday is so last week, so let's spend today wishing Anne a happy 25th!

Here is a shot of Anne and I in a hole at Burch House this past summer--I miss those days filled with digging, attempts to decipher wacky profiles, and the long Beltway ride home...all with Anne!

So happy birthday! I know you'll end this first quarter-century with style!

Cheers,
Kelley

PS: This will totally be our album cover when we record "Songs to dig to!"

An Exciting Weekend!

2010-11-12T12:54:00.005-05:00

This weekend promises to be very exciting with these 2 events:

Saturday is Jim's Birthday!
Everyone should wish him a Buon compleanno; Là breith sona dhui; ¡feliz cumpleaños; sùk wan gèrt; Halala ngosuku lokuzalwa; Yom Huledet Sameakh; Zorionak zuri; or Happy Birthday!

Sunday if it doesn't rain, CCAS plans to wash the artifacts obtained from the excavations done with the GWU students at Burch House last month. They will meet at the Port Tobacco Courthouse (on picnic tables outside) from 10:00 - 3:00. Everyone is welcome. Click Here for more CCAS info.

Enjoy your weekend.

Anne

Thank You Volunteers!

2010-10-25T13:14:00.008-04:00

Yesterday was a very successful day at Port Tobacco. We had a great turn out of both regular volunteers (Carol, Elsie, Calvin, Steve, Scott, Laurie, Phil, Jane, and Rich) and a dozen G.W. University students. We reopened Unit 88 and excavated 16 strata! We ended up with 2 full buckets of artifact bags. Several strata needed multiple bags to hold everything. Hopefully we can schedule an artifact washing day to process it all.

Among the artifacts were straight pins, a mule shoe, a door knob, half of a Spanish reale, half a willow ware bowl, and an initialed pipe bowl.

Stay tuned for more details on future blogs.

We will be back at Port Tobacco tomorrow to finish Unit 96 and continue Unit 88.

Just a spoonful of sugar

2010-10-22T14:17:00.004-04:00

This amber bottle was most likely a medicinal bottle used by druggists and merchants. It held large amounts of medicine to be dispensed for customers.

It is .97 ft high and .42 ft in diameter at the base. The bottle was made in a post-bottom mold, as evidenced by the side seams, and the tooled rim is flanged.

The bottle could date anywhere from 1885 to 1900s, but small dots on the bottle, air vents from the molding process, suggest it is the later portion of the date range.

Note: We will be digging at Port Tobacco on Sunday with the George Washington University Archaeology Club from 9-3. Anyone is welcome to join.

Anne

G&Ts for one & all

2010-10-20T15:05:00.005-04:00

This elegantly shaped bottle is a gin bottle, shaped to be packed into a case. The rim is an applied oil finish, which dates from the 1830's to the 1920's, however the pointed corners of the base are pre-1870s. This bottle may have also held other liquors or wine.

We will be at Port Tobacco tomorrow, so come on down.

Poetical Potters

2010-10-19T14:57:00.003-04:00

Unit 96, between the road and the Burch House, has lots of gravel in it. But it also had a piece of whiteware with a transfer print maker's mark. The ceramic was manufactured by the Homer Laughlin China Company.

Homer and Shakespeare Laughlin, two brothers from East Liverpool, Ohio, formed a partnership in 1871 to sell pottery made in the factories located in their hometown. The Laughlin Brothers built a plant on the banks of the Ohio River in 1873. By 1877, Shakespeare, the younger brother, was ready to move on to pursue other interests. The business was continued as an individual enterprise as the Homer Laughlin China Works. The business prospered through the 1880’s and became one of the better known manufacturers of ceramic dinnerware and toilet ware in the United States. They also specialize in Fiestaware. The company website has this great film of their production process from the 1930's.

The piece we have shows only a small bit of the manufacturing serial number which records the date and place of manufacture. The "N" means it was made in Newell, West Virginia. The "3" is all that is left of the date, but we know that the West Virgina plant wasn't built until 1906. Since the sherd came from Stratum 1, this date fits in just fine.

NOTE: We will be in Port Tobacco on Thursday the 21st. See you there!

Sorting Sands of the Centuries

2010-10-18T13:06:00.007-04:00

For me the month of October has been all about the Burch House. I spoke about our excavations there on Saturday at the ASM Board Meeting. In two weeks, I'll talk about the sedimentation processes at Port Tobacco, at the CNEHA Conference, focusing on soil samples taken from around the Burch House. We took column samples from 3 different units (see photo). Each stratum samples was split in half and one half analyzed, the other held for future processing. We developed the analysis procedure by trial and error and came up with a method to seperate different components in the soils:

First the sample is weighed. Then it is water screened using graduated geological screens with mesh sizes of .187 inches, .0937 inches, and .0469 inches. This removes and sorts gravel and tiny rocks from the sand and silt. The remainder is then water screened through a yogurt strainer, which is similar to cheese cloth. This catches coarse and medium sand grains. The water from the screen is collected during the process with very fine sand, silt, and clay particles in it. This is then poured through paper towels. The sand and silt remain in the paper towel; only the smallest particles escape.

In the end each stratum is divided into 5 fractions. Each fraction of the sample is weighed to determine the percentage of the entire sample it comprises. The data gathered from this method of soil characterization, when coupled with what is known about erosion processes, can tell us about the source of the sediments that were washed in and the velocity of the water that brought it.

Hopefully we will also be able to date major sedimentation events and see if they match up with archival information about catastrophic weather and the like.

We can also place the component percentages of the soils next to our own descriptions of the the soil as we excavated it, to see how they differ.

So for the rest of the month and a good part of what remains of the years, I'm going to be up to my elbows in Port Tobacco soil, literally.

~Anne~

NOTE: We will not be in the field tomorrow due to high chances of rain. We will go out some time later in the week. Stay tuned for updates!

Happy Birthday Pete!

2010-10-14T08:44:00.004-04:00

Today is GAC's prodigal son's mumblemumbleth birthday! We hope he takes a few minutes from his worthy pursuit of knowledge to enjoy it.

NOTE: We will be at Port Tobacco tomorrow to finish up Unit 96.

2010-10-06T14:35:00.010-04:00

Hello again!
Keeping with our theme of the Lawrence Collection, this brown stoneware bottle is the next bottle to be displayed here on the blog!

The bottle's dimensions are as follows: height is approx. 1', base is 3.33", inner mouth is .75", and finish (including the neck) is 1.05". The bottle's base has a straight plain twisted wire cut, sort of like the "gray and blue" stoneware jug in the Oct.4th post, but without the curved markings.

This bottle was fun to research as it was stamped with a maker's mark including the name and the location of where the bottle was manufactured (see left). Around the outer ring of the circular stamp is written "Taunus Brunnen-By Appointment", the inner area of the circle consists of a crest with feathers that are within a crown (the Prince of Wales' crest). Different crests were used by different manufacturers; I was unable to find why this one uses the Prince of Wales' crest.
Stamped beneath the circular stamp is written "J. Friedrich, Grosskarben, B/ Frankfurt A/ M" (Frankfurt am Main). During later research on the web, I found that "Gross-Karben" is a region outside of Frankfurt and near a mountain range called "Taunus"; which is known for its mineral springs. When I translated "Brunnen" into Google translate, it came up with "Fountain".

Further research concluded that the tall, slim, cylindrical shape of this bottle was used to transport mineral water and/or gin. In the case of this particular bottle, it would most likely be used for mineral water, considering the region it was manufactured in. These bottles appear to be popular for exporting from the mid-1800s to early 20th century, which is what I dated this bottle to.

Thanks!
Alyssa

Honey...I've got a headache!

2010-10-05T14:41:00.003-04:00

Hello everybody!
Continuing with the theme of the Lawrence Collection bottles...came across this medicinal druggist bottle. The color of the bottle is aqua, and the dimensions are as follows: 9.36" tall, finish height is .80", inner mouth is .53", base is 2.47" x 1.28". Embossed on one side of the bottle is "Boykin Carmer & Co. Wholesale Druggist Baltimore".

Ignoring the fact that the bottle is embossed with a company name and location, I did basic bottle analysis. The bottle was mouth-blown into a mold (post-1865). It has a tooled "oil" finish (1830s -1920s). As most druggist bottles were, it is cup-bottom molded (1870s - early 20th century). The mold had no air vents, as I was unable to decipher any marking in the shoulders, body, base or seams (from/prior to 1885 - 1890). Using these characteristics I deduced that the bottle was dated between 1870s - 1890, due to the cup-bottom mold and the lack of air venting.

However, the embossing on the front of the bottle could lead to a more accurate date. I was unable to find a whole lot about Boykin Carmer & Co.; so, if any of you are interested in this, feel free to research more!

Thanks!
Alyssa

One Man Jug Band

2010-10-04T14:27:00.004-04:00

This is an American gray stoneware jug. There are no makers marks, but possible date range can be determined from certain features. The overall shape is ovoid to tall ovoid, which is German in origin. The strap handle is pulled-on, meaning the clay was attached at the neck and then pulled into shape and attached to the body. The base of the jug shows how the clay was removed from the wheel with a wire (see left). The glaze is a standard salt-glaze with cobalt painted decoration, but there is no slip or glaze on the interior, which puts the date between the late 1700's to 1860. The lip is a simple rolled rim which is pre-1850. The tooled neck is longer than standard, with incising that mimics a reeded neck. Longer necks date to the 17th and 18th century. So the neck style paired with the lack of interior glaze most likely dates the jug to the late 1700s.

We will be at Port Tobacco on Thursday this week, not Tuesday.

It's a fake!

2010-09-28T14:16:00.010-04:00

Hi All!
While going through the Scott Lawrence Collection, Anne and I came across this really unique wine bottle. It looked to be an 18th century Belgian "onion-shaped" wine bottle.

The bottle has all the characteristics of an onion shape: a height of .53', a 5.5" base, a .77" mouth hole, a .47" rim finish, the classic string rim finish (found on onion shaped bottle in the 1700s), it even has a combination pontil scar (an open pontil and sand pontil scar).

However, upon further research on SHA's website, we decided that it is a little too perfect...Just perfect enough to be a reproduction. The shape is entirely too symmetrical: the heel was even in thickness and the neck was perfectly straight. The base was also too clean looking with no signs of wear on it. Unfortunately, because it is a reproduction, dating it is virtually impossible.

~Alyssa

Also, we will be at Port Tobacco tomorrow, Wednesday, starting a new unit next to the Burch House!

Whatever he's got, they should bottle it.

2010-09-27T14:10:00.006-04:00

Today Alyssa and I began cataloging the Scott Lawrence Collection. Scott generously donated 30 glass and stoneware bottles to PTAP. As we research each bottle, using the SHA website, we will report back to you, our faithful readers.

Today's bottle is a large one, 1.14 ft high and 0.48 ft in diameter at the base. It likely held soda water or mineral water.
It has a cup-bottom mold seams that run from the base and fade away at the neck. The rim finish was applied by hand. The lack of air vent marks narrows the manufacture date to the 1880's.

Stay tuned for more from The Lawrence Collection!

Due to weather, we will not be at Port Tobacco tomorrow. We are shooting for Wednesday instead.

Anne

Wading through a Sea of Buttons

2010-09-22T14:45:00.005-04:00

The wooded unit behind the Burch House has given up another interesting little artifact. From Stratum 1 comes this copper alloy button! Despite lengthy online research, we can't seem to find a similar button. This one is stamped and pierced, but the details are etched in by hand. The button's diameter is 17.5 mm.
Stamped pierced buttons were popular during the Victorian era. The decoration may be a fleur de lis, gathered plants, or feathers. If you have a good button book and see this little darling, let us know!

~Anne and Alyssa~

Fancy a Haircut?

2010-09-20T15:00:00.003-04:00

While doing the normal lab work of washing and cataloging artifacts, I came upon a cool find…Scissors! This then made me want to know exactly how old these scissors are, and maybe get a brief history lesson of scissors in as well.

I did a little web research and found numerous articles that date scissors back to our pyramid-building friends in Egypt around 1500 BCE. At this time, they were but a single piece of bronze metal formed into a U shape in which either side was sharpened into blades. The curve of the U acted as a spring in which to push the sharp blades together in order to cut (think of grilling tongs).

The cross-blade scissors are attributed to the Romans around 100 AD. These scissors were essentially shears, used more for sheep and gardens. Ivor Noël Hume mentions in Artifacts of Colonial America, that these types of shears were used onward into the early 17th century. These big chunky shears were anchored together in the middle by a rivet and two washers on either side of the blades.

So how old are the scissors found in Unit 95, Stratum 2 behind the Burch House? Drum roll please…We believe they are mid-17th – early 18th centuries. This is due to the fact that the axis for the rivet is well below the eyelet handles. Furthermore, the handles themselves are thin and curve up and outward back into themselves, which is typical in mid-17th century scissors.

That’s all for now!
Alyssa

We will be at Port Tobacco tomorrow, behind the Burch House. See you there!

Alyssa Marizan

2010-09-17T14:48:00.005-04:00

For this week's blog, I would like to introduce myself as the newest member of the GAC team!

My name is Alyssa Marizan; I grew up as a typical military brat...around the world...however, I consider Alaska home (even though my family is technically from Guam)...

I started my college career at the University of Alaska Anchorage, getting a two-year Associates Degree. I finished my undergrad at George Mason University, getting a B.A. in Anthropology in 2008. Since then, I worked at Mount Vernon; where I met the lovely Anne Hayward! I joined the GAC team the day after Labor Day. Jim has put me to work immediately: excavating, cataloging, mapping in AutoCAD and...today, blogging. He also has me focusing on what it is about archaeology I'm interested in.

Apart from archaeology, I spend time with my wonderful husband, Marvin, and our "she-devil" dog, Annie. We just got married this past March and are loving married life. I also enjoy traveling, singing, reading, and other leisurely activities...Who doesn't!?

As for future plans, I would like to continue my education in archaeology by going to grad school within the next two years.

Midwest Historical Archaeology Conference

2010-09-11T12:25:00.003-04:00

A slight departure from the usual posts...

The 6th annual Midwest Historical Archaeology Conference will take place Saturday October 9th on the campus of Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio.

The conference will feature 4 invited speakers who will give presentations on their research into the archaeology of conflict. Topics include an Indian trading post, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War. A fifth guest speaker will give an evening lecture on the excavation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War.

Submissions are being accepted for poster presentations on any aspect of historical archaeology. Student submissions will be entered into a student poster prize to be voted on by attendees. Winners will receive a cash award.

A series of small roundtable discussions will provide opportunities for individuals with similar research interests and career goals to interact. These discussions will be led by experts in each area.

All attendees must register for the conference. The cost is $20 per person. Undergraduate students can register for $15 if they include a copy of their student ID with their registration materials. This cost includes a catered lunch and morning coffee/tea. The deadline to register is Monday, September 20th. The deadline to submit poster titles and abstracts is Friday, September 17th.

Additional details and registration forms are available at:
http://herald.heidelberg.edu/mwhac10

Please send questions and poster submissions to mwhac10@heidelberg.edu

Yep, got it!

2010-09-08T20:35:00.004-04:00

I am confident that I know the approximate location of the Atzerodt Brothers carriage factory. Their 1857 advertisement in The Port Tobacco Times places the shop opposite the dwelling of Dr. Neale, and that is roughly on the east side of Main Street and High Street (see map) and includes the Hamilton lot and a portion of the lot immediately to the north.

This is the lot on which Griffin Carter operated his vehicle shop from at least as early 1842. Blacksmith Charles E. Wade probably succeeded Griffin, after the Atzerodts ceased operations, first working briefly for Carter than acquiring the operation for himself. Given widespread changes in industrial production after the Civil War, and especially in the mass-production of wheeled vehicles, Wade probably did little in the way of manufacturing and increasingly concerned himself with repairs.

If I'm correct, the Carter-Atzerodt shop is on the land of the Wade family, just south of the house in which they now live. There is no evidence pointing to the Atzerodts' shop, or any other shop, behind the Chimney house.

Atzerodt Carriage Shop Site Suspected!

2010-09-06T15:41:00.003-04:00

Readers will note from previous postings that we have looked for the carriage shop and house of Lincoln conspirator George A. Atzerodt. Previously the team focused on the land immediately behind the Barnes-Compton, or Chimney, House. The reason for doing so was a sketch and remark made by George Townsend in his 1865 book on the assassination of President Lincoln. We had reason to question the veracity of the sketch, April having pointed out several inconsistencies.

Today, while working on our final report for the Preserve America grant, which funded our exploration of Civil War era Port Tobacco, I put together several bits of information that resulted in the formulation of a hypothesis: the Atzerodt carriage shop and the house in which George Atzerodt lived with Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler might have been leased from wheelwright Griffin Carter, and that property lies on the east side of Chapel Point Road, where we have not undertaken any archaeological investigations, directly across from the road that runs west to the courthouse.

There were three individuals listed for Port Tobacco in the 1860 census engaged in the horse-drawn vehicle trade, and three others in the 1870 census. Only two (Griffin Carter and Charles E. Wade) owned land and their holdings included the Hamilton lot (a portion of the subsequently named Dr. Neale lot) from as early as 1842 until 1895. It is possible, and even likely, that Rufus Vincent, John E. Daily, and Charles E. Wade worked for Carter, and subsequently (by 1870) Washington Pye and Ralph H. Way worked for Wade, Carter having died by 1866. If true, the Atzerodts may have leased the carriage and wheelwright shop in 1857 from the then 52-year-old Carter. All of the deeds from 1852 onward note that the lot was situated on the east side of the road that runs south to north through the village, with the lot of the late William Boswell on the north and most of the east side, and the lot of John Hamilton on the south and part of the east side. The 1852 deed also places the lot “under the hill at the head of the street running east from the courthouse” (Land Records RHM 1/401, May 4, 1852).

This chain of title is partial and may include errors, especially because Lot 59 was divided and conveyed in small portions; e.g. Land Record JHC1/450, dated October 1, 1860, wherein Griffin Carter conveyed a northern strip of his houselot to Dr. Bennett Neale whose houselot bordered the north line of Carter’s houselot. The chain of title is integral to the proposition that Griffin Carter’s house and shop were on the east side of Chapel Point Road opposite the road that leads directly east of the courthouse (shifted slightly since the 1970s). Other archival data might be sought to determine whether the Atzerodts had leased Carter’s shop between 1857 and 1859., and, of course, archaeological survey should uncover the remains of 19th-century vehicle making and repair.

Westward Expansion

2010-09-05T18:37:00.006-04:00

Greetings from Denver!
It was a long road trip out here but I arrived mid week and have been unpacking and settling in to my new apartment...and doing some sightseeing too!

Here's some highlights and photos!
BBQ road trip:Lexington KY - Billy's BBQ...averageOwensboro KY - Moonlite BBQ Inn...buffet style and very good
St. Louis, MO - Pappy's Smokehouse...my favorite!
Kansas City, MO - Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue...not what you would expect but very good!

While in Kentucky we visited the Maker's Mark Distillery. We did a tour and of course went to the tasting room! Oh and...it's in the middle of nowhere!
We also went up to the top of the Arch in St. Louis! Great views but nothing compared to Mt Evans in Colorado. About 2 hours west of Denver is the highest paved road in America at 14,130ft! A hair-raising drive up and around a narrow road with no guardrails! Summit Lake is about 1000ft lower and was absolutely gorgeous:

It was cold and windy that high up and we did get a little lightheaded and short of breath but it was absolutely worth it.

Classes don't start for another week but I have lots of work to do to get ready. I'll try and update on the happenings of the "GAC Denver office" when I can.

New Online Data Source

2010-08-30T20:34:00.003-04:00

Anne and I will be working at the Burch house tomorrow (Tuesday). Do join us.

Cathy Thompson forwarded to me the link below. It is for the Richmond Daily Dispatch. This newspaper provides material during the critical Civil War years, a period for which few issues of the Port Tobacco Times survive. I'm drilling through for 'Port Tobacco,' but other keywords may also provide useful material. We'll add this material to our Port Tobacco Times digital database.

http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr/index.html

Thank you Cathy!

No news yet on Pete's great adventure to Denver. He should arrive in a couple of days.

Jim

A Note to my Fans...

2010-08-26T14:00:00.006-04:00

It's the end of my last day with Jim and crew at GAC and I thought I would take this time to reflect on the past three years with GAC and with PTAP.

It was a hot and muggy (typical) August day in 2007 that I started working with Jim. It was a project down in Brandywine with 90% humidity on a 100 degree day. We were surveying a wooded lot with poison ivy everywhere and briars taller than I. It was also my first introduction to Scott. Somehow I managed through the day and despite better judgement (haha) I came back again the next day!

Since that day I have worked on numerous CRM projects with Jim and have been heavily involved with PTAP on many levels. An ongoing shovel test survey, surface collection and two field sessions later, I can say that Port Tobacco has become like a second home to me and the people I have met and worked with there like family.

I was a wide-eye "rookie" when I started but Jim and everyone involved with GAC and PTAP have helped me grow as a professional and as a person.

I hope to continue the great work PTAP has done in graduate school and beyond.

I truly am grateful for my time here. I will miss you all.

So until we meet again in the field, at a conference, in a bar, or elsewhere...it's time to say goodbye!

With great admiration and affection,
Peter

New Report Released

2010-08-24T06:59:00.002-04:00

Well, the report on the 2009 field session at Port Tobacco with the Archeological Society of Maryland was new last December. Having heard no requests for revision, I decided it was high time to post the report on the web. April kindly accommodated yesterday.

Readers can download a PDF file of the report from the Society of Restore Tobacco website at: http://www.restoreporttobacco.org/page5/files/Field%20Session%202009%20Report.pdf

or just go to www.restoreporttobacco.org, click on Download, and select the December 2009 report, or any of the other four or five reports that we have posted to date.

The PTAP team will be at the Burch House today, dodging rain drops. Do join us.

Jim

Unbridled Buffoonery

2010-08-23T12:42:00.005-04:00

Yes folks, Laurie and I got married last month and we had a small party at our house in Park Hall last weekend. We even had some of the PTAP crew on hand.

Left to right: The Dynamic Bonnie Persinger, Jim, The Oh-So-Lovely Anne Hayward, and me with a face full of food.

We had a wonderful evening and are glad that some of the PTAP folks could celebrate with us. Laurie and I look forward to seeing many of you again in Port Tobacco!

This is Laurie and I from a while back. I couldn't find any pictures from the party with both of us together that would be acceptable on this forum, but as you can see, I am a very lucky man!

PS. The PTAP team will be at the Burch House tomorrow. This will be the last opportunity to see Pete who is off to the University of Denver at the end of the week.

Whaazzit?

2010-08-20T13:42:00.006-04:00

What have we here? This copper alloy object was found at Burch House recently. It is decorative, possible a clasp or brooch with a flower applique. It first appeared to be in one piece when it came out of the ground, but the flower center quickly separated from the base. The back of the piece (below) shows a band for something (leather strap? ribbon?) to slide under. So, does anyone know whaazit?

Anne

Greetings from Williamsburg!

2010-08-18T20:39:00.018-04:00

Hello!

I know I've hardly been gone, but I thought that I would send a little Williamsburg update to the PTAP team (whether you all want to hear from me or not)! I settled myself into a lovely apartment an easy 10 minute bicycle ride from campus, and have spent the past few days soaking up all Colonial Williamsburg has to offer before I am buried in books and assignments. As a William and Mary student I have access to all of the exhibits, and boy it is easy to fill up a day!

In order to make this blog a little bit more relevant I thought I would highlight my trip to the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. This place has enough intact ceramic pieces to make any archaeologist's mouth water! Here are a couple of choice pieces that I thought you folks may be interested in. Please click on the picture for a close-up.

This fine brown stoneware mug with silver-gilt lid belonged to John Winthrop, one of the first governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The mug was made sometime between 1550 and 1557 in Germany, and it traveled with Winthrop to America in 1630 after he inherited it from his father.

Winthrop's mug is actually part of a larger exhibit on stoneware at the museum right now. Displays were filled with Rhenish Brown jugs with molded faces, Nottingham teapots, elaborately designed Westerwald vessels, and more! The guy on the left was certainly one of my favorites, as was the vessel to the right that portrays a scene from a peasant wedding. Neat!

Of course, earthenware and porcelain lovers would find plenty in the other exhibits. Some of these pieces should look familiar...remember that blog on the Melon teapot? The style really was that popular! This tureen was one of the museum's favorite pieces. It is creamware of the Whieldon-type and was made in Staffordshire in 1760.

This melon was not alone, as the design was part of the larger movement of decorating in the rococo style. I found this corn-cob teapot, a little melon teapot with raised political scenes, and more!

I have clearly gone on long enough, but I hope you all found some of these pieces interesting-I know I did. I assure you that I have not only been hanging out in museums, but have been enjoying the musical demonstrations, folk art, building tours, lectures, and even a speech by Thomas Jefferson. Oh yes, and I have dedicated time to learning the campus, investigating classes, and preparing for school (don't worry Jim, I'm not just site-seeing). So that's all for now, but if any of you think you'll be in the Williamsburg area in the near future be in touch!

Best,
Kelley

The Search for GRB

2010-08-17T14:14:00.006-04:00

Jim was recently contacted by Sue Hodes, a descendant of Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown II, of Port Tobacco. She was interested in finding a portrait of Dr. Brown and acquired a copy of an unsigned painting from the Mount Vernon Ladies Association with the inscription "G. Washington in his last Illness attended by Docrs. Craik and Brown". The style of the painting dates to the period of Washington's death in 1799, but it is likely the tableau is fanciful, rather than factual (Note Washington lacks a lower body, though he died of complications from an acute respiratory ailment).

During the 2009 field session, we recovered a wine bottle seal with the letters "GRB." We think it likely that the seal belonged to Dr. Brown, since he had the means to personalized wine shipments. Click here to read a previous blog entry about Dr. B.

Anne

New Finds

2010-08-16T19:53:00.003-04:00

Just a brief note today. I was at Burch House today with Pete, Anne, and Carol. We are getting down to small details around the house and trying to figure out the stratigraphic sequence and the extent of the prehistoric component that underlies the historic deposits.

Pete excavated two small posthole and mold complexes that look like the scaffolding postholes that I documented at the 17th-century Patuxent Point sites. These are small (< 1 ft long) rectangular or square holes with circular mold. They would have been used to secure scaffolding in the ground while raising, siding, and roofing a structure.

Because of weather and other commitments, we do not expect to be out the remainder of this week.

Jim

PTAP Family Grows

2010-08-15T07:25:00.005-04:00

Like any family, the PTAP team perpetually changes as we adopt new members and those close to our hearts go off in search of their futures.

In the past month, Scott Lawrence (pictured center) married Laurie Ward. Laurie (now calling herself Laurie Lawrence) has been volunteering with the team for about a year and a half by my reckoning. Congratulations to both.

Kelley Walter (pictured right), who joined the GAC staff after volunteering with PTAP in May of last year, is off to graduate school at the College of William & Mary. She remains, and always will be, part of the team and the PTAP family. Marking her departure is the acceptance for publication in Maryland Archeology by Dennis Curry, editor, of a paper on Middle Archaic sites prepared by Kelley, Peter, and Anne. Congratulations to all three on what I expect will be a steady production of published scholarly papers.

Peter (pictured right) is off to the University of Denver in two weeks. Pete has been with me for three years, the longest of my three 'kids.' I'll miss him, but expect him to remain a part of the PTAP family.

Anne (pictured left in first photograph) will remain onboard helping me to rebuild the team. We have one new person whom one of us will introduce in a posting next month.

Change is difficult, but good. I look forward to continued good times and rewarding research with the entire PTAP family, wherever their futures take them.

Jim

A Mending we will go!

2010-08-13T14:13:00.005-04:00

Yesterday Anne told us how much she loves to mend artifacts and that we have had many to mend from the excavations at the Burch House. So...here's a new old set of dishes from the site! It's a matching transfer print pearlware plate and mug! This mending job was quite easy as the two were only broken in half. Part of the mug is missing, maybe we'll find it again, maybe we won't.

There is a maker's mark on the back of the plate reading "Lanthus C. & W.K.H.". Here's a picture:

Unfortunately we have yet to find a match online. I believe Kelley might know the answer but we'll have to see if she chimes in now that she is off at William and Mary.

And of course if anyone else out there can identify the mark, we would be very appreciative.

**Burch House Fieldwork** We will be at Burch House on Monday next week (8/16). See you there!

- Peter

Making Sense of Pieces

2010-08-12T14:25:00.011-04:00

Mending is one of my favorite things to do. We use a glue that will dissolve with acetone if need be and a sand box to support drying artifacts.

The units around the Burch House have yielded a large number of mendable artifacts. Usually we can fit 2 or 3 sherds together, but lately we have been reassembling nearly complete vessels! The stoneware pan is one example. The finished product has only 2 little spaces for missing sherds.

This wine bottle was a bit more difficult, since the glass is thin in places, but it was worth it to see it go from a big pile of green glass, to a recognizable object. By mending artifacts we can measure the volume of vessels or have an object ready to display.

The Burch House in Profile.

2010-08-11T14:30:00.005-04:00

For the next few days in the office, we will be processing and digitizing the information we've gathered from the Burch House excavations. I am drafting the unit profiles into AutoCAD. Above we have a profile from Unit 92, which is directly next to the western wall of the building. We excavated this unit to get a better idea of the construction of Burch House.

You can see from the image that the foundation extended only a few courses of brick below grade. A horizontal gap of over an inch was discovered between the modern upper bricks and those below the soil. This most likely happened when the wall was repointed. The brick pavement was flush against the wall one course below grade.

Soil descriptions are in the image, below the profile. We found that the strata below the house was similar to those in nearby units. We now know which strata pre-date the building. This information will help us close in on the construction date of Burch House.

Please click the image for a larger view.

Anne

Itty Bitty Button

2010-08-09T13:23:00.004-04:00

We found this little button next to the Burch House last week. It has a copper alloy backing with a shank (a small metal loop). There is a small bit of wire through the shank, which is interesting because we would expect a button to be attached using thread, not wire. The inset is porcelain with a flower painted on it in a sparkling gold. Painting buttons and other ceramics was a popular past time in the Victorian era, however the picture on our button looks more like it was executed quickly and somewhat sloppily. It was most likely made in a button factory.

We will be at Port Tobacco tomorrow.

Anne

Aboriginal Activity at Burch House

2010-08-05T13:26:00.005-04:00

Hi folks!

Remember all those times we were working at Burch House and lamented the lack of aboriginal materials? Well my friends, those days are over! This past week we came across a stemmed quartzite projectile point (see image) while excavating the dark, organic layer beneath the burnt oyster shell, prompting us to investigate this stratum in an adjoining unit. Before long the screeners were finding a couple of flakes and even some aboriginal pottery! It looks like there is an aboriginal component to this site...it's just three feet below the surface.

Each of these three sherds of aboriginal pottery (above the projectile point) is different. The one farthest to the left is cord-impressed, and at first glance appears to be sand and shell-tempered, suggesting that it may be Rappahannok. The sherd on the left is sand-tempered, and resembles Potomac Creek pottery. The one in the middle...well, we aren't sure! It appears to be sand-tempered, but with the mortar on it is difficult to see (it almost looks like a brick). We will have to do a bit more research to see what we can come up with about this one. The crew will be out next week to see what else may come out of this deposit-I think Carol may have been uncovering some sort of hearth/campfire feature.

I have to say, I wish I was going to be around to see the extent of the aboriginal material at Burch House-it seems like I am leaving just when things are getting even more interesting. This will be my last blog, save perhaps for an occasional update from Williamsburg. I wish you all the best, and will be sure to check the blog to see what's happening at Port Tobacco!

Over and out
Kelley

Happy birthday to you...only one day late!

2010-08-04T13:16:00.010-04:00

Hi folks!

Our work at Burch House yesterday caused us to miss a very important blog opportunity to wish PTAP member April Beisaw happy birthday! Fieldwork down in Port Tobacco this summer hasn't been the same without April...it's actually been rather calm and peaceful since she packed up her interns and headed back to Ohio!

Just kidding April. We miss you and wish you a happy birthday!

Also, I wanted to thank everyone again for the lovely potluck we had at Port Tobacco yesterday-I sure wish lunch would be like that every time we were in the field! I had a fun year working with the PTAP crew and will miss you all now that I am heading off to do my graduate studies at William and Mary in Williamsburg. Thanks to all for a year full of fantastic finds! Keep in touch.

Kelley

Feeling "melon"choly? How about a cup of tea?

2010-07-29T11:33:00.013-04:00

Today while cataloging Anne and I came across a single sherd of possible creamware or pearlware with a green and yellow lead-glaze (image to the right). It also appeared to be stippled, judging by the small darker dots across the sherd. These are likely small indentations in the clay. When glaze was added to this vessel it pooled in these indentations, creating darker spots of color. Having never seen a decoration like this before, we thought that perhaps it was a version of Wieldonware, which is creamware with a clouded combination of green, brown, yellow, blue, and/or purple coloring in a glaze.

This label did not seem quite right, however, as the green and yellow glaze were not mixed together, and I have never seen a Whieldonware vessel with stippling. In a last ditch attempt to solve the mystery I searched for green and yellow glazed creamware, and look what came up!

Images courtesy of http://antiquesandthearts.com/Antiques/TradeTalk/2007-05-29__12-40-58.html and http://www.vandekar.com/about_vandekar.asp.

These melon-shaped teapots look like a perfect match for this sherd, if it is indeed creamware. These teapots date between the mid-1700s and the 1780s, and, in the case of this one, was produced in Staffordshire. Apparently melon-shaped teapots were all the rage at the time. If this is actually pearlware, then perhaps this design was used on later vessels as well. It is also possible that this sherd is not from a teapot, but perhaps from another vessel that was part of a tea service decorated in this style. Either way, it sure was nice to find out a little more about this unique sherd!

Kelley

Burch House Drafting

2010-07-23T14:11:00.008-04:00

Hi all!
The heat and humidity have kept the PTAP crew indoors today-I hope you all have made the same choice! There is plenty of report writing to catch up on for other projects, as well as keeping up with paperwork and artifacts from Burch House.

As part of our work at Burch House I have been drafting a floor plan and each of the elevations (Jim informed me that in architect-speak this is how each side of a building's exterior is referred to, while facade generally denotes the front). Digitizing dimensions of the Burch House will come in handy for images to use in publications and displays. Also, with a bit of work we should be able to turn these 2-D drawings into a 3-D representation of the Burch House, sort of like we do when we are reconstructing vessels.

Here are the north and west elevations of Burch House-please click on the image for a close-up (and yes, I am aware that Burch House is not actually green, aqua, and blue...it just helps me keep the different parts of the drawing straight!)

Stay cool this weekend! We plan on being at Burch House on Tuesday, but we will keep you posted on any changes in our field work schedule.

Kelley

A post about posts

2010-07-19T14:56:00.006-04:00

Hi folks,
Last week I mentioned that Elsie and I had been spending a lot of our time excavating post molds and holes (as well as possible replacement molds/posts) at Burch House. To give you all an idea of what this involves, I figured I would post a photo of the first post mold/hole that we removed. In this photo the top of the hole and mold (the lighter area outlined) is roughly 3 feet below grade, and the bottom of the post hole was another half foot down. It sure is hard to feel the breeze down there! It is possible that the two larger areas outlined are an original post hole and a replacement hole, while the small circular area is the mold. Since the excavation of this feature Elsie and I have been working on two more, and I believe Pete and Anne may have some features to report on as well.

We will be at Burch House tomorrow to continue with some of these features-hope to see some of you there!

Kelley

Visiting a Bone Detective

2010-07-16T08:38:00.009-04:00

If you recall, we worked on a cemetery up in Aberdeen a few months back and recovered some remains. As part of the project, the remains were being sent to Dr. Doug Owsley at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.

(image from washingtonpost.com)

Doug Owsley is the forensic anthropologist at the museum. In his work he has been called in to help with some of the country’s most notorious crime scenes and tragedies—Branch Davidians, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Pentagon after 9/11. At Jamestown, VA, and St. Mary’s City, Md, Doug has been working to uncover the lost stories of the men and women who settled in these early colonial outposts. His exhibit, "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake" details some of this work.

On Wednesday, the GAC crew visited the museum to transfer the remains found at the cemetery in Aberdeen to Dr. Owsley and were treated to a tour of the facilities of the Anthropology Department.

Our tour started with Dr. Owsley's assistant, Kari Bruwelheide, showing us some of the forensic files they are working on and explaining some of the tools and procedures used in identifying human remains as well as how they ended up in their laboratory.

On our way into the museum we ran into one of our volunteers, Phil Angle. What a surprise! For those who don't know, Phil worked at the museum for over 30 years in the Division of Birds. After our visit with Kari, Phil took us on a tour of the bird collection. There we were introduced to some of the museum's finest bird specimens including a very large ostrich, ivory bill woodpeckers, emperor penquins, birds of paradise and many others!

Once we were done there, Dr. Owsley took us further into the depths of the museum to the mummy room! I must say, this was my favorite part of our tour. There we got a first hand, up close and personal look at a few Egyptian and Peruvian mummies along with some shrunken heads from South America.

We also got a look at some cast-iron coffins which weigh in at around 300 pounds when they are empty! Jim had mentioned these to us when we were excavating the cemetery and we were all relieved that we didn't encounter them!

After we were done with the behind the scenes tour Doug took us through the Written in Bone exhibit and pointed out some of his favorite parts and then left us on our own to explore it.

Written in Bone examines history through 17th-century bone biographies, including those of colonists teetering on the edge of survival at Jamestown, Virginia, and those living in the wealthy and well-established settlement of St. Mary’s City, Maryland. Some of the highlights include sections on bone disease, a forensic anthropology lab, facial reconstruction, medical instruments of the 17th century, lead coffins, forensic cases, and lots and lots of bones! The exhibit runs through January 6, 2013 at the Museum of Natural History and is an absolute must see for everyone!

It was a great opportunity for all of us and we all had a great time. A big thank you goes out to our hosts, Doug Owsley, Kari Bruwelheide, and Phil Angle!

Burch House Update!

2010-07-14T09:22:00.010-04:00

Hi all!

So as not to make this rainy day more dreary, I thought it best to avoid doing another post on coffin hardware immediately-we'll save that for a sunny day! Instead, seeing as we are supposed to be in the field tomorrow (if the rain lets up!) I wanted to give you all an update on our Burch House activities.

The weather has not been super cooperative over the past couple of weeks, so a great deal of our Burch House work has been in the lab. We finished washing and cataloging the artifacts we have excavated so far, and Anne has made great headway on drafting some of the unit profiles to help us get a better grasp of what is going on with the stratigraphy. Pete has been super helpful keeping our paperwork in order and restocking our supplies.

While my attention has been turned to other projects this week, during the last few days in the field Elsie and I have been a post hole/mold digging duo! The crew has identified at least two post molds and a possible third, and all of them require careful excavation and mapping. Elsie is getting to be quite used to the procedure, even when it comes to holding a plumb bob to aid in mapping a mold that is 3 ft below grade!

These molds are quite an exciting find as they suggest there was an earlier earthfast structure on this site-possibly dating to the 18th century. We have not been disappointed in the artifact department either, as each shovelful of soil seems to contain a few sherds of Rhenish Stoneware, White Salt-Glazed Stoneware, and Tin-Glazed Earthenware-just what we expect to find when dealing with 18th century material. We cannot say for definite what type of structure this was, but it sure is exciting!

One of the artifacts excavated from one of the post molds is this Westerwald Stoneware stein handle with Manganese coloring. The handle has three holes in it-can you figure out why? One of my guesses was that they helped to hold a lid in place. These lids were not for decorative purposes, but for sanitary reasons, like keeping pesky insects out of your brew!

I hope to see some of you folks in the field tomorrow-let's hope the sun shows its face to dry out those units a bit! For now we do not plan to have a lab on Saturday, so tomorrow may be it for volunteer work this week!

Kelley

Bring out your dead!!

2010-07-13T13:25:00.005-04:00

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, American mortuary practices developed a popular cultural trend called the "beautification of death." Mass-produced coffin hardware have appeared in archaeological contexts throughout North America. Types of hardware range from glass viewing plates, decorative handles, screw caps, escutcheons, etc. A few months back, assisted by the Northern Chesapeake Chapter of ASM, we excavated the Cole Cemetery near Aberdeen, MD.

Over the next few weeks we will discuss some of the different types of coffin hardware found at the Cole cemetery. Today we will cover coffin and casket handles.

There are three basic types of handles: bail handles, drop handles, and bar handles. All can be either single or double lug.

The handles found at the Cole cemetery are all double lug swing bail handles, meaning they had two attachments to the coffin.

Bail handles are open loops that hang freely between two fixed mounts. Drop handles have oval or circular grips with one central bracket secured to the coffin (single lug). The bar handle comes in two styles, the short and extended bar. Short bars have only two brackets through which a bar is fixed. An extended bar handle can run the length of the coffin and often have several brackets.

The handles recovered from the Cole cemetery are double lug swing bail handles. Of course, once we find a 19th century catalog of coffin hardware we might come up with another name for them.

Stay tuned for more mortuary hardware blogs soon!

- Peter

The Magical, Mystical, Miracle Moisturizer

2010-07-12T13:18:00.011-04:00

Recently Pete blogged on a nice, almost complete spouted crock we mended. We've also mended several glass vessels. One such was this molded case bottle.

It once contained Phalon's Paphian Lotion for the Skin. An advertisement for the concoction appeared in 'The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil,' a New York publication from 1855. It was made by Edward Phalon from New York and sold for a dollar. This "Infallible...Preservative of the Skin and Complexion" cured "Freckles, Tan, Pimples, Chapped Hands, Lips, and Face, Blotches, Sun Burn, Scalds, Burns, etc., and all Diseases appertaining to the Skin."
I wonder which poor soul at Port Tobacco needed this miracle cream...

Read the original ad here.
A harsh critique of the product and its manufacturer can be found here.
Google search the word's "Phalon's paphian lotion" to read more.

Field Work: We will not be out at Port Tobacco on Tuesday as the forecast calls for rain.

Anne

I'm looking over four three leaf clovers...

2010-07-09T13:34:00.007-04:00

Burch house has again given us a unique little artifact that is quite eye catching. It was most likely a decorative pin or similar ornament. It has four shamrocks, 3-leafed clovers, on it, which can represent the holy trinity or good luck. Good luck clovers are 4-leafed, not shamrocks, but the two are often interchanged. Considering the location and time period this pin is associated with, the clover was probably meant to reflect the Holy trinity rather than the 'luck o' the Irish.

The symbolism of the shamrock dates back to pre-Christian Ireland. The plant was sacred to the Irish Druids as symbolic of a triad. Popular tradition says that St. Patrick used clovers to explain the concept of the holy trinity when he went to Ireland in the 5th century to convert the Druids. However, the first mention of this story dates to 1726, so it is somewhat suspect. In the 19th century it became a symbol of Irish rebellion against the English and began to be strongly associated with Irish identity.

Have a great weekend.

Anne

An interesting button

2010-07-07T14:10:00.005-04:00

Hi all,

Today I was able to finish up cataloging, and let me tell you, we have some exciting artifacts! Some of the lower strata and post holes have produced North Devon ceramics and sherds from a Westerwald mug, suggesting quite an early component to this site.

One of the more interesting buttons we have come across is this large oyster shell button with a metal loop for a backing. Usually oyster shell buttons are small with two or four holes through them, or were actually insets in metal buttons.

As for yesterday's mystery artifact, Elsie had some interesting ideas. She suggested that it could be a part of a spinning wheel called a maiden, which helps to hold the bobbin in place. The placement of the holes and threading on our find certainly resemble those on a maiden, but upon closer examination this artifact is far too small to fit more than a tiny spinning wheel! I know children had (and still have) toys that mimicked the tools and machines used by adults, aiding in the process of learning through imitation, but I have never heard of a children's spinning wheel. That is not to say that such a thing did not exist, though Elsie is right to suggest that we would expect ot find more pieces of such a machine. She also pointed out the possibility that the artifact is some type of simple hand tool, though this still leaves us puzzling over its function.

As always thanks for the input. It always helps to have several extra brains to think up possibilities that I overlooked!

Kelley

Another mystery

2010-07-06T13:44:00.008-04:00

Hey folks!

I hope you have all been sitting inside with a nice cold drink to pass by this scorcher of a day! For today's blog I am posting another artifact that is a mystery, even to us. So, since you all have been so helpful before, pull out some books, open up Google, and exercise your noggin to send some of your ideas this way!

We think this artifact, found in Stratum 9 of Unit 90, is some sort of bone tool that could have had something to do with sewing (keeping consistent with the numerous other artifacts related to sewing that we have found so far). Towards one end there is a hole that goes straight through the object, and the other end has carved threading, which suggests to me that it was used as some sort of holding pin (please see the image to the right for a close-up). Any ideas?

Stay cool today, and hopefully the weather will be agreeable enough for us to get back to our excavations at Burch House. We will be sure to let you know our schedule. Also, as promised, here is an image of one of the thimbles we have found this summer.

Kelley

How do you beat the heat??!!

2010-07-05T14:18:00.002-04:00

By staying inside!! Which is exactly what the PTAP crew will be doing for most of the week. With the possibility of a record setting heat wave this week, we will only be out on Thursday at the Burch House. Saturday's lab will also be canceled.

Time is flying by this summer already and with Kelley and I off to graduate school in the fall, Jim is whipping us hard to get some report writing done! Haha...just kidding. But we do have some writing to do. The Preserve America report is coming along nicely as are some papers the three of us are writing.

As a reminder, this time last year we had the interns from Ohio working down in Port Tobacco with us and the year before that we were in the midst of the annual field session!

This year we've had two interns working with us for several weeks. Amanda finished up her internship last week and Phil should be closing his out by the end of this week.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and stay cool this week!

- Peter

Lead Seal with Merchant's Mark

2010-07-02T15:21:00.002-04:00

At the Burch House we found a lead cloth seal with an interesting merchant’s mark.

Lead seals were widely used in Europe during the 13^th through 19^th centuries. In the 1400’s cloth manufacturers in England were required to identify their cloth with a lead seal containing their maker’s mark. Lead cloth seals were also used to indicate payment of taxes or that the cloth had passed quality control.

The cloth seal has two discs with a connecting strip. The seal was crimped onto the finished cloth.

The marks on lead seals could indicate the person responsible for quality control, or the packer, or the dyer. The style of some of the marks were that referred to as a “merchant's mark”. Merchant’s marks were built around an upright stem. There could be a cross or streamers or a “four” at the top. Often at the bottom there was an inverted V or a V over an inverted V or a W or the initial of the person’s given name. Sometimes two initials or the initial of the surname was included across the middle of the upright stem. As late as 1794 the United East India Company was using metal seals with this style of merchant mark.

The lead cloth seal at the Burch House has a merchant's mark on the side where the rivet has been crimped, and the other disc is blank. The merchant's mark has a “four” at the top. Below this is an anchor where the anchor incorporates the upright stem. Instead of a person’s initials, there appear to be the initials of a business. The merchant indicated on this seal could be D&K or O&K. Marks were not registered, and I have not been able to find out more about it.

I learned a lot about lead seals from Lead Cloth Seals and Related Items in the British Museum by Geoff Egan. And my interest in merchant marks was piqued by English Merchants’ Marks by F.A. Girling. There’s a lot more to merchant's marks than I indicated above.

Carol

Lab day scheduled for tomorrow in front of the courthouse, 9 AM until 2 or 3 PM. JGG

An Office of One

2010-07-01T10:16:00.003-04:00

Oh the joys and sorrows of working in the office by oneself. If you have not heard, which I doubt you have, yours truly here went and busted up his ankle by stepping into a hidden hole in the ground yesterday while walking out of a project site to eat lunch. Apparently if you step in a hole, your foot goes one way while the rest of your body goes another! Huh?! Who knew?!

So while the rest of the crew is out working in the field on this glorious day of wonderful weather, I am in the office doing paperwork. No fieldwork for me for a couple days.

We have shown you guys some of the really cool artifacts we have been uncovering around Burch House hopefully with more to come. The crew has been busy with the usual tasks of washing, cataloging, mending and drawing artifacts. The B.C. Milburn crock is almost back together...just need to draw a profile of it before we can put it back together completely. Once that is done we'll post a picture for all to see.

Anne has been working hard on keeping all our profiles up to date and in order. The stratigraphy is coming along nicely and as we excavate other units it has become second nature to visualize what it will look like as we dig deeper. And it has been very consistent in all the units so far...that is until last Tuesday!

While excavating a unit close to the chimney Anne and I came upon a very light sandy soil with VERY heavy gravel in it. It only went through the NE corner of the unit (closest to the chimney) and is not very wide but is deep. At first we thought it was construction fill from when the addition was put on. After excavating the feature we thought it might be part of a drainage system of sorts. Too soon to tell and it may have to wait for another time to know more.

We will be out in Port Tobacco tomorrow working again at the Burch House. I'll be the one limping around so come on out and play!

- Peter

Connecticut Copper Cent, Part II

2010-06-28T12:57:00.009-04:00

Hi folks!

I know we previously posted a blog about Connecticut Copper Cents, but this time we found one that is complete! The coin is well worn, but the letters on the observe are visible "AUCTORI CONNECTICUT" around an almost completely rubbed away statesman. On the reverse of the coin is Brittania as the personifcation of American Liberty with only part of the words "INDI ET LIB" visible around the edge. The coin dates to some time between the end of the revolutionary war and the signing of the US Constitution in 1790, and from what I can read this coin may date to 1787, but the date is too worn to be sure.

Unfortunately this coin is also too well worn to determine exactly which one of the 350 possible designs it is! Most of these differences involved changes to the obverse side of the coin, with some of the stranger looking portraits earning nicknames like "Hercules Head" and "Laughing Head." Not only did the shape of the statesman's head change, but on some coins it faces to the right, while on this one it faces to the left. Take a look here to see some of the varieties in more detail, such as one of the 1787 versions shown below (thanks to the website for the information and images!) .

I say we get back out in the field and find one of these coins with a legible date! We plan to be down in Port Tobacco tomorrow-I hope to see you there!

Kelley

You Butter Believe It

2010-06-25T11:37:00.008-04:00

The Burch House excavations are keeping us plenty busy in the lab these days. Good thing too, it's way too hot to be working outside!

Along with washing and cataloging artifacts we are also doing some mending and drawings of several of our larger more intact pieces. Today though I'm going to share with you one that IS intact.

A butter knife! Yay!

Well, it is a little exciting because not only is it intact but it has a maker's mark on it that can be identified.

This knife was made by the 1847 Rogers Brothers Company. No, 1847 is not the date of manufacture as is widely believed. It is the date that the Rogers Brothers believed they perfected the process of "electroplating" The technique of electroplating a thin coat of silver over a base metal became feasible in the 1840s. The base metal selected for flat tableware was usually nickel silver, a misnomer which actually contained no silver but was an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper. The Rogers Brothers - Asa, Simeon, and William - had established a shop in Hartford, Connecticut in the 1840s. The brothers were known for the high quality of their wares and when they had perfected the electroplating process in 1847 they marked their product with their name.

The butter knife shown above is the "Crown" pattern made in 1885. Below is a better image of what the pattern looks like. More and more of what we have been finding is helping us date the upper deposits to the time of Washington Burch.

Stay tuned next week when we might have a whole table setting to display!!

- Peter

Archaeological Internship

2010-06-24T14:15:00.007-04:00

Hi All!

My name is Amanda Codd and I am a Public History major at Stevenson University. I have just finished an exciting 3 week internship with Jim and his crew. During this time, I learned artifact identification, excavation methods, and artifact recovery.

One of my favorite activities was water screening. I enjoyed it because it was a change of routine from the dry screening method. Also, it was fun to sift through the wet, muddy water looking for artifacts, and then cleaning them right there.

Today was interesting because I learned how to mend artifacts, and why mending is important to the world of archaeology. Mending artifacts relates back to Public History, because by having most or all of an object, it is easier for the general public to visualize how people lived and what they used in their daily lives. A small piece of ceramic can be boring by itself, but when glued together with other similar pieces, that small piece of ceramic becomes a bowl or a china cup that someone used on a day to day basis. To the right is part of a transfer-printed pearlware bowl I mended today (it used to be three pieces!).

I'm happy I had this opportunity to work with Jim and his staff! It was a wonderful learning experience not only for school but also for practical or real life purposes.

Feel free to click on the images for a close-up!

Thanks again!
Amanda

Whoa Doggy

2010-06-23T14:02:00.003-04:00

This little items was quite intriguing when it first came out of the ground. The inscription, 1874 BITCH, cleared things up. It is a dog tag. There may have been a law passed around that year that required dogs to be registered and tagged for taxation purposes Similar tags found by Steve all had the year 1874 and said either DOG or BITCH. More research will give us details.

A quick reminder: We will not be in the field or washing artifacts at Port Tobacco for the remainder of this week. We will post when we plan to be out there again.

Also, GAC sends wishes for a speedy recovery to Jane and her injured knee. Hope you feel better soon and can rejoin us at Burch House.

Anne

Crockery Update

2010-06-19T10:01:00.005-04:00

Technical difficulties yesterday prevented me from blogging on the crock we found. Big thanks to Kelley for getting it done!

The archaeologist who helped out is Barbara Magid of the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. Another big thanks to her for the information about Benedict C. Milburn and the Wilkes Street Pottery. I'm quite sure there are many other connections between Port Tobacco and Alexandria and I hope we can explore these in the future.

As for the piece shown yesterday, there is one more piece of information to add. Underneath the maker's mark is a sideways no. 1 (click on yesterday's image for a better look). It's a measurement mark standing for 1 gallon.

- Peter

What a load of crock!

2010-06-18T15:38:00.012-04:00

Hi all,
Perhaps you remember the blog from last week with a photo of me excavating a stoneware crock? Well, we have the piece all cleaned up and ready to be presented! I hope the suspense wasn't to much for you all.

The name on this piece of American Gray Stoneware is "B.C. MILBURN," and below the name is the abbreviation "ALEXA." Click on the image to get a close-up of the words. Well, Pete did a bit of sleuthing and got in touch with an archaeologist down in Alexandria to see if he could gather some information on this Milburn character, and sure enough, he did!

Benedict C. Milburn started out in St. Mary's County, but traveled to Alexandria (abbreviated ALEXA on this vessel) to apprentice with a potter, as did his predecessor at Wilkes Street, John Swann. It is possible that the two worked together as early as 1822, with Milburn taking over operations in 1833, and finally purchasing the business in 1841. The mark on this crock, with Alexandria abbreviated, was the mark Milburn used from 1847 until he died in 1867, giving us a nice narrow date range! Many of Milburn's works were decorated with brushed cobalt in a slip-trailing technique, creating elaborate patterns. The designs vary from intricate works to more general designs, such as the blue vine on our crock. This type of decoration on stoneware faded following the Civil War, likely due to the cost of materials and labor.

Milburn's stoneware traveled far and wide in the mid-Atlantic and has been found in southern Pennsylvania and West Virgina. Port Tobacco, Maryland may be significantly closer to Alexandria, but we still are happy that this crock found its way here! It shows that in the mid-1800s there was a Port Tobacco-Alexandria connection, not to mention it is nice to find such a large piece! Over the next week we hope to work on mending this vessel, as there is a good chance we have most if not all of it. We will be sure to keep you posted.

Remember to come to Port Tobacco tomorrow for some washing, 9-3, if you have the time and interest!

Have a great weekend!

Kelley

Buttons, Beads, Thimbles, and...???

2010-06-17T10:03:00.018-04:00

Hi folks!

This lovely Thursday finds the PTAP crew diligently working in the lab, washing and cataloging the seemingly infinite supply of artifacts from our excavations at Burch House. For today's blog I thought I would put up a couple of pictures of some of our interesting small finds.

The category of small finds would not be complete without the inclusion of buttons! Those of you out in the field have probably noticed that we have been coming across a lot of buttons while screening, as well as beads, thimbles, clothing pins, buckles, and clasps. It seems to me that there was a lot of crafty stuff going on...perhaps Mrs. Burch made a bit of money working as a seamstress?

To the left are two different examples of bone buttons we have been finding. The one on the far left is a bone disc with a single hole. It clearly is a button...but I am not sure how a button with a single hole was affixed to clothing. Any ideas? This type of button is typical of the 18th and 19th century. This broad range of dates is not super helpful for dating-generally it is quite difficult to date individual buttons, an exception being those from military uniforms which often have particular designs. The second button is also bone, but has an area on the back where a metal loop was attached in order to sew the button to a coat.

As for the beads, it seems highly unlikely that they were trade beads given their design and the context in which they were found. Many of them were from more recently deposited soils, and were not in strata containing aboriginal material. I actually have been quite surprised by how few aboriginal artifacts we have been finding around the Burch House, given the number of flakes and fire-cracked rock found during other excavations at Port Tobacco. Many of the beads we have found are small round glass beads, often being black or blue in color, as is the one to the right.

The thimbles we have found are all similar. They are made from a copper alloy unlike older thimbles which were often made of brass, are undecorated, and are average in size (meaning they look very similar to modern thimbles!) I will try to get a picture of one of them up tomorrow or next week.

Of course, we have no definite evidence that someone living in Burch House was a seamstress, I am merely speculating such based on the artifacts. On that note, I leave you with a an artifact so mysterious, not even we can figure it out! My bet is that it is some sort of finger guard that would be used during quilting or sewing-what do you all think? Click on the images to the left and right for a close-up!

Not to worry, we are saving plenty of artifacts for our volunteers to wash on Saturday!

Kelley

Talking with Oysters

2010-06-16T12:58:00.006-04:00

Back in March, we excavated buckets and buckets of oyster shell, many large and intact, from around the Swann House foundation. We brought a single bucket back to the lab in order to measure and catalog the shells. By doing this we can extrapolate information about all of the oyster. We first measure the dimensions of the shell to get height/length ratio (on left). This ratio can tell us about the environment the shell grew in. Short, squat oysters have a low ratio and formed on hard packed sand. Tall oysters have a high ratio and grew packed together in soft mud. Then we look for evidence of parasites, such as bore holes from sponges and Polychaete Worms (on right). The type of parasite activity reveals the salinity of the water the shell was in. Finally, we note attachments to the shells, like other oysters or barnacles. All of this information together will help us learn where the oysters around the Swann House came from and what their aquatic environment was like. The shells can also tell us the oysters' age and how intensely the bivalve population was being harvested.
We used Dr. Brett Kent's book, Making Dead Oysters Talk, as a guide and for the images.
Click on the image for a closer look.

Anne

Buttons Away!

2010-06-14T14:21:00.006-04:00

Washing artifacts this Saturday was very exciting. You'll be seeing some of the larger and more intact pieces in blogs to come. Today's item is a military button from the units near the Burch House. Steve Lohr recognized the stylized "A" and "3" on it as belonging to the 3rd Artillery in the War of 1812. This button was made by manufacturer Levenworth, Hayden, & Scovill between 1813 and 1814.

PS. We'll be digging at the Burch House only on Tuesday this week. We will have the regularly scheduled lab on Saturday.

Other Adventures

2010-06-13T14:33:00.004-04:00

Scott, Laurie, and I are just back from an expedition to Maryland's Eastern Shore where Scott's company, Grave Concerns, had been awarded a contract to document a cemetery as part of a general restoration effort. We had reason to be both disgusted and elated.

The photograph shows one of several concrete vaults that vandals had broken in to, apparently for the sole purpose of stealing skulls.

The upside is that we were there to assist a grass roots organization--the Friends and Family of Asbury & Green Chappel, Inc.--that is dedicated to the restoration of the cemetery. Over the past couple of years they have acquired the half-acre site west of St. Michaels, Maryland, cleared brush, raised funds, and researched this African American Methodist Episcopal Church site and burial ground. They are amazing.

We should have a report and detailed map prepared shortly for the organization.

Regarding April's posting Friday in which she noted at least three Port Tobacco alumni in or on their way to graduate school, I add the name of Tom Forhan who has finished the first year of the two-year master's program at the University of Maryland at College Park. He will be joined in the academy this fall by: Peter Quantock (University of Denver), Kelley Walter (College of William & Mary), and Valerie Hall (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Wouldn't mind going back to school myself.

Jim

The Adventures of Valerie, A Former Port Tobacco Volunteer

2010-06-11T09:20:00.003-04:00

Some of you may have met Valerie or seen her in some of our excavation photos. Well Valerie is digging at Jamestown this summer as a field school student. Below is a link to her dig blog. Valerie is off to graduate school in the fall. That makes at least 3 Port Tobacco archaeologists starting grad school for archaeology in 2010.

-April

Valerie's Jamestown Blog

Some Burch News

2010-06-09T13:06:00.005-04:00

Thought I'd update everyone on the excavations at the Burch House with some information.

We have been working on the west side of the house uncovering the addition that was put on sometime in the 19th century. Almost all of the foundation has been exposed including some brick paving around the foundation and in between the house and the addition.

There are a few interesting tidbits about the foundation and its construction and use. There aren't any really good photographs of the house with the addition. However, there is one (see below) where we can see the addition (circled in red) on the house. This picture shows a chimney (circled in green) on the addition as well. This would be on the west side of the house in the center of the wall. Ironically, this is also the only part of the foundation wall yet to be exposed or investigated. The northwest corner has been exposed and there is an area of "brick fall" that may or may not be associated with the chimney.We know that the addition was built sometime in the second half of the 19th century. We also know that pictures of the Burch House taken in the 1940's show no addition. One of our wonderful volunteers, Elsie, talked with local resident Jim Barbour who says he doesn't remember an addition going back to the 1930's. So, the addition likely stood for less than 100 years, probably less than 75 years.

A second interesting thing I had noticed is the different use of brick in "solider" courses. Soldier course basically means the bricks are laid on their sides to create a more sturdy course of brick. The two areas I noticed them were on the north and south walls, almost directly across from each other. So my question is, were they used as the doorway entrances to the addition? It would make sense that an area where the most foot traffic would occur would need a sturdier foundation. Of course, the soldier coursing could also have been done to "shore up" a foundation that was faulty or one that was in need of repair. I don't have the answer right now but hopefully by the time our investigations at the Burch House are complete we will have it, along with many other answers.
Yesterday we uncovered a larger portion of the south wall. We found the usual artifacts that have become so numerous in the upper strata of the units: American blue and gray stoneware, pearlwares, whitewares, wine bottles, tobacco pipes, etc. The really neat thing with these is that we found, not just a few...but many intact or mostly intact pieces! Huge pieces of gray stoneware crockery, an intact wine bottle (hand finished), almost complete transfer-printed whitewares, and most had maker-marks as well!! Needless to say, we were all very excited. If you've dug with us at Port Tobacco you know that we find lots of little shards of ceramics and glass, yet rarely do we find any large pieces let alone any intact vessels!

Here's a shot of Kelley cleaning around the large stoneware crock. And to leave you wanting more, here's a little tidbit about that vessel....it had a name engraved on it!!! Of course, you'll have to stay tuned to find out the name and what we learned about the individual!

Enjoy and hope we see you all again...tomorrow!

- Peter

Come Sail Away...

2010-06-07T15:01:00.003-04:00

Today’s blog will review a book about Port Tobacco I read last week:

Tobacco Styx Bridge by Enis St.John is a tragic murder mystery set in post-Civil War Chandlers’ Town. The point of view switches back and forth between Charles Abell, dean of the financially ailing Southern Maryland College in 1987, and his ancestors living at Elysium farm in the 1890’s.

The two parallel stories are based on actual events, but the author plainly states that this is fiction. Those who are part of the Port Tobacco community in one way or another will recognize names and places in the story. For those not familiar with the area the book gives a great a taste of what life was like in late 1800s southern Maryland. As an ignorant, city-dwelling northerner I enjoyed reading about the jousting Tournaments where local farmers and skilled ‘knights’ alike would compete to spear a series in shrinking rings on a sharpened staff. I’d never heard of such a thing in Maryland outside the Renaissance Fair, but Kelley assures me they still occur and is fact the state sport of Maryland.

More overarching themes include family legacy. Is the son responsible for the transgressions of the forefathers? What does one do with unsavory family history?

The historian in me wishes the division between facts and fiction was a bit clearer, but I will most likely just take what I’ve read to the library and look it up. Overall, Tobacco Styx Bridge was an entertaining book that lent some color to my minds-eye sketch of Port Tobacco.

Hope to see you all at Port Tobacco tomorrow!

Anne

Play that music!

2010-06-04T14:24:00.009-04:00

Hey folks,Today's artifact from our excavations at the Burch House is thought to be one of the oldest types of musical instruments in the world. The Mouth Harp, as it is commonly known, is a simple metal frame with a flexible reed in the center. This reed can be made from materials such as metal or bamboo, though our harp is missing this piece. This instrument is sometimes called a "Jew Harp," though this is misleading as the instrument has no particular connection to Judaism or Jewish people, and this particular name may stem from "Jaw Harp," as a player uses his or her jaw and mouth to adjust the volume of the notes created by the instrument. Other names for this nifty little instrument are mouth harp, juice harp, and Ozark harp.

It is likely that this instrument originated in Asia, where it is still played by many people. While a player adjusts his mouth to change the volume, he will pluck the reed, which rests against the tongue, with his finger to produce a note. Changing the sound the instrument produces has a great deal to do with altering the shape of one's mouth and throat, as well as one's breathing...the whole process sounds pretty tough to me!

Have a great weekend everyone! We will keep you posted on our next day of digging at the Burch House.
Kelley

Take your medicine!

2010-06-02T08:53:00.010-04:00

Hi all!

Our work at the Burch House over the past few sweltering days (a special thanks to our volunteers for braving the sun, bugs, and humidity!) has produced some exciting finds, but for today's blog I though I would revisit a bottle we find a couple weeks ago.

This embossed lettering on this aqua bottle reads "COMPOUND PECTORAL" on one of the large sides with "JW BULL'S" and "BALTIMORE" embossed on the two small sides. It was found in Stratum 2 of Unit 84.

"JW BULL'S" refers to the Rev. Dr. John W Bull, the doctor responsible for coming up with the recipe for this compound. August Vogeler, who first manufactured drugs and chemicals in Baltimore starting in 1845, acquired Dr. Bull's recipes in 1873 and partnered with Adolph C. Meyer. By 1883 the company was known as A.C. Meyer and Co, and profited from sales of Dr. Bull's family medicines. As far as the contents of the compound go, it is likely that it was a mix of extracts and herbs intended to alleviate a cough, though without additional research it is impossible to know for sure. I suspect that it was cherry flavored (yuck!), given that this was the most common flavoring for cough medicines. This particular bottle likely dates to some time between 1880 and 1910, given that is is molded with a tooled finish, meaning that the mold seam stops short of the rim and a finishing tool was used to more particularly shape the rim (click on the image to the right for a close-up example). Thanks to the SHA bottle dating website for the picture as well as information on bottle types and finishes.

Hope to see you all out in the field! We will be out tomorrow as well as a couple of days next week, if the weather will allow it!
Kelley

We're going to need a locksmith!

2010-05-28T10:30:00.007-04:00

Hi folks!
As Jim mentioned on Monday we recovered a large padlock from our excavations around Burch House. It is possible that this is the padlock for the Port Tobacco jail, as Washington Burch was the jailer and may have ended up with it after the jail closed.

This is the sort of interesting item all of us like to pull out of the screen at Port Tobacco! It would be great if we could conserve it.

Have a great weekend!
Kelley

A Rocky Vacation

2010-05-26T15:04:00.005-04:00

Greetings all -

While today's blog doesn't have to do with an archaeological site directly, it does have to do with the future of archaeology...

(DU Campus)

I just returned from a three day visit to Denver Colorado where I will be attending graduate school in the fall to get my Masters in Anthropology at the University of Denver.

(Sturm Hall - my new home!)

I met with staff, professors and students during my visit. Everyone seems to be very focused and energetic about all aspects of Anthropology and Archaeology. I look forward to spending the next two years there gaining a better understanding of it all for myself.

(The Rocky Mountains)

They have several superb professors at DU focusing on things ranging from colonialism in Mozambique, WWII Japanese internment camps, ground-penetrating radar, and the archaeology of place and identity to name a few.

I leave at the end of August and will post updates on my progress when I can...as will Kelley down at William & Mary.

See you in the trenches soon I hope...including tomorrow, Thursday May 27th at the Burch House!!

- Peter

Saturday Lab

2010-05-24T20:24:00.001-04:00

The Saturday lab was very successful, the six volunters having washed all of the material excavated the previous week. We'll be digging again Tuesday and Thursday and washing in front of the courthouse Saturday.

In other news, Jane donated several brand new hand tools and expendable materials to the project. Thank you Jane. Also, during the Saturday lab, we cleaned a large padlock that likely was from the jail house...Washington Burch was the jailer for several years before the new jail opened in La Plata. Hopefully, I'll get an image up on tomorrow's blog.

Jim

Summer Happenings

2010-05-21T19:16:00.003-04:00

Over the next few weeks, the gang will close up excavations at the Swann House at Port Tobacco and focus on Burch House. Predictably, the deposits at Burch are complex and extensive. I hope to have a summary of finds at Swann House by the end of June...I'm a little less certain on how long it will take to figure out Burch House.

Two of my Stevenson University students will join the team in June. Each must complete an internship to fulfill requirements for a Public History major. More about them in a couple of weeks.

Today the GAC crew worked on a small project in Anne Arundel County...a badly damaged 19th-century house site. We had little hope to recover anything of interest at the outset, and a day of intensive testing has done little to alter that assessment. If anything changes, you'll read about it here.

Jim

2010-05-20T20:28:00.003-04:00

The crew worked at the Burch House today. We have successfully uncovered the foundation to the Burch House addition. It measures about 12 ft by 12 ft.

The foundation rests on top of fill and naturally formed deposits. The lowest layers have produced large quantities of bone and 18th-century artifacts that are wholly unconnected to the much later deposits created by Washington Burch and his family from the 1860s to circa 1900.

This Saturday, in front of the court house, we will have a public lab day during which we will wash the 18th-century material, as well as the later artifacts. All welcome, 9 AM to 3 PM, rain or shine. (We'll work indoors if it rains, but that seems unlikely, at least until the afternoon.)

Jim

Pocket Piece

2010-05-19T13:33:00.007-04:00

As you may or may not have guessed from our punny clues yesterday, we have a pocket watch. Pieces of the device were found in Unit 83, which is inside the foundation of the Swann House. It was probably part of the trash and debris that was pushed into the basement by earth-moving equipment. Only the lid and 3 pieces of inner gears were recovered, but the lid has an 'R' scratched into it with another indistinguishable letter next to it .

Pocket watches were invented around the 16th century. The earliest models were square and somewhat larger than later circular ones. In the 17th century clockmakers became artists with distinct designs and signed their watches. In the last half of the 18th century the use of three hands became the industry standard, making telling time considerably more accurate. In the 19th century the manufacture of pocket watches was industrialized. The winder knob at the 'top' of the watched was also introduced around this period. After World War I, and the advent of wristwatches, pocket watches fade from popularity.

~Anne

Watch Out....Gear we come!

2010-05-18T13:53:00.006-04:00

While Kelley is off on vacation, Anne and I have been busy washing and cataloging artifacts from both the Burch House and the Swann House. Volunteers at the 1st Market Day in Port Tobacco last weekend washed several large bags of artifacts for us to catalog so we have had plenty to do. And with upcoming dig days on Thursday and Saturday (weather depending of course), we will have much more to do.

There have been several interesting pieces from each excavation site that we will discuss this week. If you were out at the dig site last week you undoubtedly heard lot of "oohs" and "ahs" from the screeners.

Once we have them catalogued and photographed we will share our finds with you.

Here's a hint on one of them to whet your appetite...it's a personal item that can both be worn and wound. It can be both a status symbol and utilitarian.

Stay Tuned...

- Peter and Anne

2010-05-17T08:45:00.004-04:00

News Break: Because of continued rain, we will not be working at Burch House tomorrow. We will return Thursday.

This past Saturday the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco held a fundraiser called Market Days at which a number of vendors sold antiques, books, and food. The project ran an all day outdoor lab, washing the material recovered the previous week from one of our excavation units at the Burch House. I hope everyone who came out the Port Tobacco enjoyed themselves. A lot of washing was completed and we will be out there again for the next 4 Saturdays.

While at the event, local resident Kay Volman (Chimney House) mentioned that she had just installed a new water line through her back yard. The trench encountered a concentration of brick and metal. Could this be the elusive Atzerodt Carriage Shop? We hope to check it out next week.

We plan to be back at Port Tobacco digging on Thursday, weather permitting.

Jim

A Note from the Editor

2010-05-16T08:35:00.002-04:00

Dear Readers:
Beginning Monday, 17 May 2010, we will begin posting on this blog on a regular basis, Monday through Friday. While our readers can expect many of the postings to be about Port Tobacco, I have decided to broaden coverage to the many kinds of projects that the crew undertakes each week. Port Tobacco is not our full time job, and we often encounter things on other projects that I think will interest readers.

In the past, we have occasionally blogged on non-Port Tobacco projects. These departures will now be a regular feature.

Also, I expect to post occasional editorials in lieu of the latest research findings. Some of these may irk, some may inspire; I hope all will encourage our readers to carefully consider what archaeological and historical research and interpretation have to offer our society. These opinions will represent the views of management.

As always, we look forward to reading your comments, so don't be bashful. If you have difficulty negotiating the commenting process built into the blog, simply e-mail your comment to me (see below) and I will post it. As always, we expect civility and decorum and reserve the right to withhold publication of comments that I deem offensive or off topic.

Cordially,
Jim Gibb
JamesGGibb@verizon.net

More early ceramics

2010-05-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

Hi all!

Our last blog took a quick look at 18th-century Westerwald stoneware. This blog features another early ceramic found in one of our units next to the Burch House and that type is...North Devon!

North Devon is a brown lead-glazed earthenware dating to the mid-late 17th Century and early 18th Century. The paste is generally coarse, with a pinkish orange color over a gray core. The gray core is the result of reduced oxygen during firing. This ceramic comes in a few different varieties including gravel-tempered, gravel-free, and Scgraffito. Scgraffito may be the most distinguishable with an incised brown slip on a yellow background, as shown in the image to the above right.

Our large rim piece from Port Tobacco is North Devon gravel-free and some of the smaller sherds are gravel-tempered. The gray core is not particularly visible on the large gravel-free rim(see above for front and back views), though it is quite clear on a side profile of the gravel-tempered sherds (image below). It should be noted that the term "gravel-tempered" is a bit of a misnomer, as while I was cataloging these sherds Jim pointed out that North Devon ceramics were actually tempered with sand, not gravel.

In this region North Devon wares date to the late 17th Century. I have to admit, with a wonky two-toned paste and a yellowish/greenish to brown lead glaze I do not find North Devon to be the most attractive ceramic, but it sure is fascinating to find! These wares usually came in the form of milk pans or butter pots, though other wares for food preparation and consumption are also common. North Devon scgraffito wares were gradually replaced with white tablewares such as tin-glazed earthenware, and the more utilitarian gravel-free and gravel-tempered were phased out as Buckley-type wares became more common.

As always, please click on the images for a better, clearer view--especially to get a look at the two-toned paste. Also, thanks to Jefferson Patterson Park for the information and Scgraffito image.

Tomorrow we return to our excavations at the Burch House in Port Tobacco. Hope to see some of you there!

Kelley

Return of the blog!

2010-05-03T09:01:00.011-04:00

Hi folks!

I am happy to report that we are returning to the blog more regularly as we continue our work at the Burch and Swann houses in Port Tobacco. It has been wonderful to have volunteers helping out each day we have been working, and their screening sure has produced some great finds!

One of these finds is a piece of 18th-century Rhenish stoneware. Now, I know we have blogged about Westerwald many times, but this is the first time we have found a sherd with an identifiable "GR." These letters stand for "George Rex," King George I, II, or III, and were stamped on vessels exported to the colonies from England. Since our blogging has surely helped you all become experts on Westerwald instead of repeating dates, names, and styles I will try to clear up some confusion regarding the terms "Rhenish" versus "Westerwald."

Rhenish broadly refers to an early salt-glazed stoneware that is either categorized as brown or blue and gray. Both types were exported to the colonies, though the blue and gray variety dominated the market from the late 17th into the 18th Century. Rhenish blue and gray stoneware was first made in Raeren, Germany in the mid-16th Century, but by the end of the century the majority of its production had been moved to Westerwald, also in Germany. These wares were called Westerwald, and happen to be the most common type of Rhenish found in the Chesapeake region.

So now, instead of just showing you this photo from Jefferson Patterson Park as an example...

I can present to you Port Tobacco's very own partial "GR!"

We plan on being back out in the field tomorrow from 9 to 3--look for us over near the Swann House foundation. I hope to see some of you folks there!

Kelley

Bring your gloves and trowels!

2010-04-29T12:28:00.002-04:00

Hey folks!

We will be back out in the field tomorrow excavating around Burch House and we would love to have some volunteers. Fieldwork begins at about 9:00. Hope to see you there!

Kelley

Fieldwork

2010-04-12T12:35:00.002-04:00

We're Back!!

The PTAP crew will be out on Tuesday, April 13th and Thursday, April 15th for some limited testing around the Burch House.

We will be exposing the brick pavement of the addition on the south side of the Burch House and also do some unit excavations there and around the back of the house ahead of the bathroom addition.

As always, volunteers are welcome!

Work starts at 9am as usual.

See you there!!

- Peter

Hello...and goodbye

2010-02-15T14:16:00.006-05:00

Hi folks!

Sorry it has been so long since we last posted an update--the snow kept us out of the office for a few days and we have been concentrating on completing other projects.

As for last week's mystery artifact it was indeed a stopper--so credit goes to both Victoria and Valerie! It is unlikely that is is a decanter or wine stopper, however, as it is too small in diameter. It is more likely that this was used for some sort of small vial--perhaps one holding perfume?

We are not posting an artifact this week, and instead wanted to give you folks an update on our progress (or lack thereof) in Port Tobacco. Currently, we are deciphering provenience cards and profiles from the excavations done by April and her students in order to finish writing up the technical report for the Preserve America grant. I wish I had some new updates on the material, but April did a fine job of posting many of the interesting finds while we were still out in the field. Also, let's face it, technical reports are necessary and crucial for documenting our work, but they are not terribly exciting. So, while I could put up some pivot tables of historic ceramics and plowzone measurements I will be kind enough to spare you all from the numbers.

Aside from this report there is little work to be done on Port Tobacco at the moment. As such, we are winding down our work there and will be posting infrequently. We hope to return in the spring to finally excavate down to the bottom of the trash deposits in the Swann house foundation and look into investigating another Union encampment, but these tasks are still in the planning process and I cannot make any promises regarding when we will be back in the field or how long we will be there for. Check back occasionally for postings, but the crew here will be directing our energies towards other projects. Thanks so much to everyone for your support with the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project over the past year! We really could not have accomplished so much without our lovely volunteers.

Over and out!

Kelley

Sotterley Oyster Pie

2010-02-03T13:24:00.004-05:00

Last month I gave a talk at the Charles County Archaeological Society's meeting about James Swann and his oyster house. Afterwards, the discussion stayed focused on oysters and everyone's love and/or hate of the little creatures.

Recipes started to be discussed and Jane Keller starting telling us about an oyster pie recipe she had come across.

Here is the recipe from The Great American Seafood Cookbook and where it came from:

Sotterley Oyster Pie
"This is a traditional Maryland recipe, researched and recreated by William Taylor, a Maryland caterer and historian. Mr. Taylor relives the history of Maryland through its cuisine, catering lavish banquets usind traditional recipes, often in histoic homes such as Sotterley Mansion, for which this pie is named. Oyster pie is wonderful - it sounds unusual and it is...

Pie Pastry

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup chillde unsalted butter
1/2 to 3/4 cup ice water

Bechamel Sauce

2 to 2 1/4 cups milk
1 bay leaf
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Liquor reserved from oysters
salt and freshly ground white pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
generous pinch of ground mace

Filling

2 dozen small oysters, drained
3 hard boiled large eggs, peeled and thinly sliced
1 can (14 1/2 oz) white or golden hominy
salt and freshly ground white pepper
Mace

Instructions:

Pastry: Combine flour and salt in large bowl and shave fine slices of butter onto the flour and toss with fork to mix. Sprinkle in 1/2 cup (125 ml) of the ice water while tossing with fork until pastry is moist enough to form into a ball. Add more water if necessary. Wrap in waxed paper and chill for at least 1 hour. Roll out two thirds of the pastry, cut to 12 inch circle and line bottom of 10 inch tart pan (type with removable bottom). Roll remaining pastry into 11 inch circle for top of pie and place on baking sheet. Chill crusts for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 deg F. Cover bottom crust and top crust with foil and weigh down with baking weights or dried beans (keeps flat). Bake both crusts for 8 minutes then remove foil and weights and contine baking for 8-12 additional minutes uncovered, 'til golden brown, then cool.

Sauce: In small suacepan, scald 2 cups (475 ml) of milk with the bay leave over med heat. Let steep (off heat) for 5 minutes then discard bay leaf. Melt butter in heavy-bottomed pan over med heat being careful not to brown. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes. Pour in the warm milk and continue cooking, whisking constantly until thickened. Whisk in the oyster liquor and additional milk if necessary to make a thick but pourable sauce. Season with salt, white pepper, cayenne, and mace to taste. Remove sauce from heat and add oysters, stirring gently to mix in. Cover bottom crust (still in tart pan) with egg slices. Sprinkle hominy over the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the hot oyster sauce spreading evenly to edge of pastry. Dust with additional mace. Gently set the top crust in place and set the pie on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees (200 C.) F. until pie is hot through, (12 to 15 minutes). Be careful not to brown the pastry or over-cook the oysters. Remove from oven and remove the sides of tart pan. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Peter

The real LeCroy

2010-02-01T14:31:00.007-05:00

Scott is indeed correct! Last week's mystery point was a rhyolite LeCroy point from Elizabeth Hills in St. Mary's county, though I have to admit Scott seems suspiciously knowledgeable about the site...almost as if he worked on it... Anyway, Lecroy projectile points are typically associated with Early to Middle Archaic sites, and have been found along most of the Eastern coast and into the Midwest.

For this week's mystery artifact we are diving back into historic artifacts. The one pictured below was found this past fall when we were working in the area around the Swann House foundation. This one should not be too tough, so feel free to guess!

Kelley

No takers on bones? Bring on the points!

2010-01-25T13:30:00.006-05:00

Alright, I will admit that identifying bones sounds like an impossible task at times, but surely a couple of you recognized last week's mystery bones as belonging to none other than a wild turkey! After all, these are the bits that you see sitting on the platter following most holiday meals! What other sort of creature could have such a long drumstick? Ah well, we hope that you will take notice of the bones as you gnaw on your next turkey leg, and perhaps recognize them out in the field. As a general rule bird bones are easier to identify because they are much lighter weight-wise, with many of the bones being hollow. Those hollow bones sure make it a lot easier for a bird to fly, though it also means that birds are much more fragile (though keep in mind that turkeys are a bit more robust than your average sparrow!)

This week I thought I would give you all a chance to work on your projectile point identification skills. I have provided all of you with some tools in previous blog posts, and hope you will put them to use one this week's mystery artifact.
While this point was found in St. Mary's county, not Port Tobacco, it should still provide you with an excellent chance to sharpen your skills! Also, do not worry if you have trouble pinning down one particular name for this point (some of the categories can be vague)--I welcome any efforts to describe the point's characteristics. I hope to hear from you!

Kelley

Progress on the trail

2010-01-22T12:52:00.008-05:00

As Jim previously mentioned, we are in the process of creating at least three signs to be part of an interpretive trail winding through Port Tobacco and neighboring historical sites. A lot of progress has been made on the design of the signs since Jim last posted an image. We now have three completed signs that are ready to be made and placed in front of the courthouse. For an updated image of one of the introductory sign click on the image below (sorry for the small size, but hopefully this helps to give you an idea of the layout and topics we discuss).

As an additional part of this project Pete, Anne, and I have been working to pull together information on each of the important people, places, or objects mentioned or pictured on each sign. This information will be incorporated into a website that will accompany the interpretive trail. This website will not only make the information on the signs accessible for those unable to see them in person, but will also provide additional information on each subject mentioned on the signs. By clicking on a link embedded in a general write-up of the main text that appears on the sign, a person will be able to read more specific information about a topic. For instance, there will be additional pages for people like George Atzerodt and John Wilkes Booth, as well as places like the Smoot and St. Charles Hotels, that will be reached through the main text from the sign discussing the connection of Port Tobacco to the Lincoln assassination. Also, if there are any particularly helpful books or websites related to one of the topics they will be listed at the bottom of each page. As such, I have spent the day working on writing up some of these topics and gathering images to accompany the text. The real magic will happen when Jim starts to pull all of these documents together and incorporating them into a website...which will also make everything I just explained much easier to understand! We will keep you posted on our progress!

Kelley

High Adventure

2010-01-19T20:14:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know...our blogs have been irregular lately. The GAC crew has been investigating a plantation site in a nearby county, testing new techniques...not just for investigating sites, but for getting our equipment to them. We have had to use back packs to haul in digging and surveying equipment over hill and dale, through a heavily forested tract.

These techniques should prove useful for our work in the Port Tobacco area. This coming year the PTAP and the Charles County Archaeological Society hope to expand research beyond the town. We'll have to pack equipment into some of the sites. Volunteer technicians and mules welcome.

Jim

Guess these bones!

2010-01-18T13:16:00.010-05:00

Indeed Valerie and our other blogger were right about last week's mystery artifacts! We have identified these as gunflints, though the one pictured on the left is actually made from quartz, not quartzite.

The flint on the right is English flint (French gunflints tend to be a lighter more honey-brown color), while some earlier gunflints, known as gunspalls, were generally made from chert or obsidian.

Both edges of these gunflints have been worn from repeated striking. For a bit more information about gunflints, take a look at some of our previous blogs.

For this week's challenge I invite you to take a look at the bones pictured below and identify the species to which they belong. If you are up for it, feel free to identify the specific bones as well! I figured a hint on this one would be too easy, but do not expect it to be some sort of exotic creature--this is a local fellow.

Good luck!
Kelley

Grains of Sand

2010-01-15T20:20:00.004-05:00

For archaeologists, soils brim with information. During our initial training, we learn how to glean some of that data and make sense of it. But lots of archaeologists lots of the time throw away useful information with each shovel full of soil that falls through the screen.

Grains of sand, for example, can be classified and the sediment of which they are a part can be interrogated. Where did the sediment come from? How was it modified? How did that sediment play a role in the human use--or avoidance--of a particular landform.

A very useful and remarkably inexpensive tool rarely seen on archaeological sites is the sand grain size and shape chart. This handy little tool folds up to the size of a wallet--and, unfortunately, as thin as many wallets-- and conveniently fits into the jacket pocket of a Munsell soil color book.

The chart illustrates sand grains of different sizes, allowing the field worker to describe the material as fine, medium, or coarse. Examine sediments under magnification of, say, X10 (ten diameters, or ten times the actual size), and compare the grain shapes to the Roundness chart. Large, angular grains probably haven't been transported very far, while small, spheroid grains may have been carried great distances. Large (coarse) grains probably were deposited in a high energy, high velocity environment (wind or water) while finer sediments settle out in lower energy environments.

As a case in point, there are many relict sand dunes in northern Anne Arundel County and on Maryland's Eastern Shore that formed several thousand years ago during a stretch of dry weather. The sand grains that dominate these deposits tend to be coarse and well rounded, a product of wind erosion in an increasingly arid environment. When those winds encountered any obstruction--an existing dune, a clump of trees--the obstruction sufficiently sapped energy from the wind to allow the heavier particles to precipitate, forming an elongate sandy rise that continued to accumulate additional material. These typically appear on aerial photographs and topographic maps as crescent-shaped rises aligned northeast to southwest. They were favored occupation sites for many Archaic period peoples, probably because they typically were associated with wetlands with rich resources.

Grain size and shape in the various deposits encountered at Port Tobacco also can reveal information about how they formed and, by extension, how the various landforms in and around Port Tobacco were created and modified over the millennia.

Jim

Color me 10YR5/8

2010-01-13T09:00:00.001-05:00

At any archaeological site it is absolutely crucial to analyze the soils as well as the artifacts. Investigating the soils can reveal how different strata formed and how processes such as erosion shaped the landscape. This is especially important at Port Tobacco, where the movement of soils and the silting up of the river had a major impact on the town. In the field we record the depths of different soils and note their color values. Now, without some sort of color standard we would end up taking a look at excavation notes and finding all sorts of color descriptions...with names like "brownish red" or "mouse brown." While these sorts of descriptions may be somewhat accurate, they are quite subjective. How do I know that what I consider to be light brown is the same thing you consider to be light brown? What if I have two different shades of light brown? Since everyone sees colors differently, it would be near impossible to create a clear set of soil descriptions for an archaeological site...but no need to fret! This is where the handy-dandy Munsell book becomes our reference (a tool of sorts) of choice.

This brilliant blue book contains 322 color chips on 9 different charts, identified based on hue (a color's relation to red, yellow, green, blue, and purple), value (lightness or darkness of a color), and chroma (the purity of a color). Created in the early 20th century by an artist and professor named Albert Munsell, it was adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture in the 1930s as the golden standard for conducting soil research.

When reading a page in a Munsell book, the vertical numbers denote the value of a color, while the horizontal numbers specify the chroma. The hue is designated by what page you are on. For example, the Munsell notation of a particular soil is 10YR5/8. The color name of this notation is yellowish brown. The YR is the abbreviation for yellow-red, and the 10 refers to where on this particular letter range (yellow-red) the color is. The 5 represents the value, and the 8 is the chroma.

In the field a soil should be matched to the most similar color chip, and its texture and any inclusions should be noted. The best way to compare colors is to either hold a bit of the soil behind each cut-out hole by a color chip, or simply by holding it next to the chip.

While there will still be a little bit of variation in how people see the colors of soils, the Munsell book established a universal system for describing colors that gets us much closer to an accurate soil description of a stratum. The book is also handy for estimating proportion of mottled soils and looking at a soil's granular structure. Munsell books are not only used for soils, but are a standard for describing hair and skin colors in forensic pathology, as well as describing colors of beer in breweries! Someone has to make sure that amber ale is actually amber!

So, when on a site learn to love the Munsell book. Identifying soil colors quickly and accurately requires practice, practice, and more practice!

Kelley

Heidelberg Invades Florida

2010-01-12T15:43:00.004-05:00

The indomitable April Beisaw led a large group of Heidelberg University students to the Society for Historical Archaeology conference at Amelia Island, Florida, last week. They drove for nearly 18 hours through snow and ice to get there.

Not nearly enough instructors bring their students to professional conferences. The setting provides students the opportunity to meet prominent people and young up-and-comers like themselves in a collegial environment. Kudos to Dr. April and Heidelberg University.

Port Tobacco participants may recognize a couple of the ladies: that's Magen in the red coat at the far left; Theresa in the purple sweater third from right, front; and Amanda standing next to the inestimable April. The tall fellow in the back is Dr. David Bush who for many years has involved students in all facets of archaeological research at the Johnson's Island prisoner of war camp, a Union facility on a small island in Lake Erie.

I expect we will see many of these same faces at future academic conferences.

Jim

Get the Point?

2010-01-10T17:42:00.008-05:00

Last week's Mystery Artifact was identified by newcomer ComradeM. She correctly guessed that B was a machine-cut nail and C was a wire nail. A was in fact a hand-wrought nail. The telltale sign is the shovel-shaped tip.

Hand-wrought nails are the oldest type. They have been around for thousands of years. Beside a shovel-tip, they can be identified by the fact that they taper in two dimensions.

Cut-nails are made from sheets of metal by a machine. They came into wide spread use in the 1830s. Cut nails have two parallel sides and two tapering sides. They taper in only one dimension because they are cut from a steel plate of relatively uniform thickness. Some cut nails are hand-headed.

Wire nails appeared in the 1880s and supplanted machine-cut nails by 1910, although cut nails are still used for masonry work. Wire nail manufacture is entirely mechanized. This is the most common type of nail in use today.

This weeks artifacts:

Here's a hint: these are not prehistoric or Native American artifacts.

Anne

A Note from Florida

2010-01-10T07:38:00.003-05:00

Bonnie and I return home today from the annual conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology. April and the Heidelberg Eight (students from the university that she brought to the conference) should be nearly home by now, setting forth on the long drive yesterday evening.

I think we got some interesting feedback on the two papers...feedback that will help us evaluate what we are doing at Port Tobacco.

I thank the GAC crew for soldiering on while I was gone and for their series of blogs about the equipment that we use to recover not only artifacts, but information, from archaeological deposits.

In reference to Anne's blog yesterday about metal detecting, I thought I would mention that we are beginning to experiment with the instrument to identify the locations of buildings on badly eroded sites where little else might remain other than nails and other hardware. I expect we will have some fairly interesting results to report in a few months based on work on a number of sites in Prince George's County.

I look forward to getting back into the trenches.

Jim

Ferreting Out the Ferrous

2010-01-09T15:46:00.004-05:00

Ah, metal detecting, a favorite pastime for beach combers and airport security guards. We use a portable metal detector to find metal artifacts during project area surveys. Each “mag hit” is flagged, numbered, and mapped. Artifacts recovered are labeled with the corresponding location.

The sensitivity of a metal detector can be adjusted to find objects of a certain material or at a certain depth. A tone sounds when metal is detected. The pitch of the tone indicates what kind of metal it is. With practice, a metal 'detective' can learn to discern the differing tones and bypass modern trash. While the accuracy isn’t 100%, it is an additional tool in our arsenal to help us learn all we can about a site.

Screen it!

2010-01-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

Once you have shoveled and troweled, what are you going to do with all that soil? Why, screen it of course! An archaeological investigation is not possible without the use of a screen for sifting away soil to find artifacts. Screens can vary in two main ways: set-up, and size of the mesh.

How the size of the mesh can change is self-explanatory...either the mesh is made up of smaller holes or larger ones, depending on the site and what materials the excavator is looking to investigate. We use a quarter-inch mesh, which is perfect for catching little bits of glass and ceramic, while letting the really, really tiny pieces pass through the screen. Of course, this mesh can also be made of different grades of material, though the stronger mesh is best for extending the life of a screen. There is more variety in the types of screen available, some of which are the free-standing screen, the tri-pod screen, the hand-held screen, the nested screen, and the H-frame. It is possible that you know these screen by different names, but these are the most basic for describing them.

Free-standing or Lavish screens are most people's favorite, except when it comes to being mobile. If you have worked with us down at Port Tobacco, you have had the privilege of using one of the lovely Lavish screens made by Dan Coates. While these are very comfortable to use with multiple people, are lighter than many free-standing screens, and can screen large quantities of soil faster, it is still a bit difficult for one person to lug one across longer distances, and is too bulky for shovel testing (especially when testing in a densely wooded area). Nevertheless, this is definitely one of the easiest screens to use, requiring little effort on the part of the screener.

Tri-pod screens (image to the left) have also been used down at Port Tobacco, and are exactly what they sound like--a screen in a wooden frame suspended by a rope from three rods that form a tri-pod. These require a little more effort than the Lavish screens since you are in charge of shaking the soil rather than having the assistance of wheels and a track, but these screens are conveniently collapsible able for travel. Hand-held screens (image to the right) are just the wooden frame with the wire mesh, and, due to their smaller size, are perfect for sites that need to be hiked into...however, you do have to support the screen while shaking it, and with a heavier clay soil I imagine this can get quite tiring. These screens also are unable to screen large quantities of soil quickly due to their smaller size.

Nested screen (at left) are generally used for finding very small materials. The screens vary in sizes (measured in millimeters) and rest on top of one another. When shaken, the largest material remains on the top screen while everything smaller than the size of the mesh falls through to a second screen which has smaller holes, once again allowing smaller materials to pass through while stopping anything larger than that particular mesh size. Three or four sizes can be stacked on one another, and are tedious to use but excellent for recovering tiny artifacts such as fish scales or very small beads like the one in yesterday's blog.

It is likely that many of you have also used an H-frame screen (image to the right), our screen of choice when out excavating shovel-test pits. This screen rests on two legs and is held up by two handles the screener holds and used to shake the screen. These are perfect for a site that requires mobility, as a person can carry one or two without much difficulty. These screens also fold flat, making it quite easy to fit several of them into Jim's truck.

A tarp can also be used in conjunction with these screens to aid in backfilling, though they are best for filling in shovel-test pits.

So, when searching for artifacts in soil, choose your weapon and just screen it!

Kelley

Through the Looking Glass

2010-01-07T13:16:00.006-05:00

When artifacts come in from the field, we use various tools to process and analyze them. Microscopes are useful for looking at fragmented or very small artifacts, such as seed beads, inclusions in ceramics, and lithics. We can also look at the composition of soils and stones. Here at the lab we have a binocular scope (top) and a digital microscope (left). The binocular scope has two eyepieces, or oculars, through which the object on the slide is viewed. It can magnify objects to 4x, 10x, 40x, and 100x.

The digital scope is hooked up to a computer and the object is viewed on the screen. The magnification options are 10x, 60x, and 200x. It can take digital photos of the artifacts as well. This purple glass bead (below) has a diameter of 3 millimeters. This picture was taken with the digital microscope at 10x.

Microscopes are certainly not unique to archaeology, but they are essential for thorough lab work.

Click on any of the images for a larger view.

Anne

Image sources: www.bio.davidson.edu and www.eatametre.org

To trowel or not to trowel...

2010-01-05T09:07:00.009-05:00

A trowel is to an archaeologist as a pen is to a writer--an absolutely necessary tool for work. I am certain that many of our loyal readers are familiar with the trowel, whether having used it to remove soil in a unit, its principal use, or to sort through materials in a screen. A trowel is used for excavating different strata in a unit, and is especially helpful for defining the edges of a feature (especially when there is a color difference visible in the soils) or gently removing one stratum to reveal another. In your archaeology travels you have likely happened upon two different types of trowels.

The first type has a pointed blade (see image to the right), and in the masonry world would be known as a bricklayer's trowel. These trowels are generally used for spreading or shaping materials such as mortar or plaster. For concrete construction, a rectangular finishing or margin trowel (see the image below) is usually used for smoothing or texturing the concrete. Both of these trowels are flat on the bottom, which is necessary in archaeology to avoid accidentally digging into a different stratum. There are many other types of trowels both big and small, but the two most commonly adopted by archaeologists are the pointed type and squared off type. Why two different types of trowels? Well, pointed trowels are generally used on prehistoric sites while the square trowels are better suited for historic sites. So, if you are a historical archaeologist you had better be carrying a square trowel in your back pocket...that is just the way things are.

Just kidding folks! Neither type of trowel is better for one type of a site over another. Rather, it depends on the soil and materials being excavated. As such, it is not unheard of to use a pointed trowel at a historic site or vice versa...actually, it is not even taboo or strange, despite what you may hear out in the field. I personally prefer a pointed trowel as it is what I first learned to use, though that is not to say I cannot pick up a square trowel is the situation warrants it! I find a square trowel especially handy when cleaning up a wall or corner of a unit.

Also, next time you are out in the field not only note the types of trowels and their uses, but remember to sharpen the edge of your trowel for a much easier and cleaner job!

Kelley

Tools of the Trade

2010-01-05T08:43:00.006-05:00

As we have been taking a break from Port Tobacco to attend to other projects, the blog this week will not be highlighting any particular artifacts or information directly related to the site. We will be delving into Port Tobacco material again as we begin working on the report for the sites included in the Preserve America grant (the Swann house, the area April and her students worked on over the summer, and the Union encampment site. Be sure to keep an eye on the blog for posts on our progress and any interesting finds. Until then, I present you with...Tools of the Trade, a segment on the tools we use in the field of archaeology! Surely you have seen or used these tools down at Port Tobacco, as well as at other archaeological sites you have worked on. Today I bring you the shovel and the spade!

While a trowel may be the first tool that comes to mind when considering the fine detail work in the field, most sites require the use of a trusty shovel long before you begin to trowel. A shovel is a crucial companion when digging shovel test pits, and also comes in handy when moving large amounts of dirt out of a test unit.

In the field, it is important to make sure you call a shovel a shovel and a spade a spade. When we refer to a shovel, we are referring to that common tool with a pointed end and a slightly curved blade (see the image to the left). These are excellent for excavating shovel test pits, removing large quantities of soil from a unit, working in gravelly soils, and splitting those obnoxious roots that cut across a unit. A spade differs from a shovel in that it is flat, enabling you to create a unit with a nice straight wall. A spade (see the image to the right) may not be the best for lifting and moving soil, but they are excellent when working in a test unit as their flat edge prevents you from digging unevenly, which can mix different strata. Of course, both shovels and spades come in different lengths and sizes, which is important when considering what type of work you are going to be doing.

So, next time you are out in the field you should know whether you need to reach for a shovel or a spade (that is, if you did not know already!)

Kelley

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T13:25:00.006-05:00

There were no comments or guesses on last week's Guess the Artifact. I'm sure faithful followers were just consumed, like we were, with the holiday chaos and resulting urge to sleep for a very long time.

Now its a brand New Year and we can return to normalcy.

Last week's Mystery Artifact was...Fire-Cracked Rock!
Don't let the lowly name fool you; FCR is an important indicator on Prehistoric sites. In the Mid-Atlantic region, FCR is usually quartz or quartzite. The photo in last weeks blog was quartzite FCR. These lithics are created when the stones used in a fire pit or hearth were split and/or reddened by the heat. FCR breaks are angular and often have several faces.

And now for this week's Mystery Artifact(s):

(www.mountvernon.org)

Obviously these are nails, but there are three different types of nails. Can you guess which nail is which type?

Annual Conference

2010-01-02T09:23:00.001-05:00

Next week both April and I will participate in the annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. We will be giving papers on Port Tobacco.

The GAC crew will be working through the week and will post daily blogs. Until then, enjoy your holiday weekend.

Happy New Year! Or, is it?

2010-01-01T08:30:00.003-05:00

During the Colonial period, British Americans celebrated January 1 as the first day of the new year. In what can only be assumed to have been an attempt to confuse future scholars, they also celebrated March 25 as the first of the new year.

This holdover from the Julian calendar marked the Feast of the Annunciation, the day on which Mary was told of the impending birth of Jesus. Also called the Incarnation of Jesus and Lady Day, March 25 may have been observed more as the administrative beginning of the new year. In Colonial Maryland all landholders were required to pay their semiannual quit rents to Lord Baltimore on the feast days of the Annunciation and Michaelmas (September 29). Acts of the General Assembly and other legal documents were dated, for example, March 24, 1660/1 on one day and those on the next day would be dated March 25, 1661. The first year indicated the Old Style (sometimes expressed as March 24, 1660 OS) and the second year represented the New Style. Britain, including British America, maintained this system until 1752.

Although Brits at the time probably took all of this in stride, this awkward system can confuse the modern scholar. If a document is dated February 11, 1660, without any other qualifiers, was it written in 1660 or 1661?

The 21st century is not without its calendrical confusions. Archaeologists might refer to 1660 as AD 1660 (Anno Domini, the conventional form), 1660 CE (Common Era, an attempt to minimize Western European-Christian myopia), or a radiocarbon equivalent expressed in years before the present (yBP). Add to that the various systems employed by cultures around the world (the Jewish and Chinese systems are most familiar to Westerners, but there are many more), and it is a wonder we all know what we are talking about when referring to past events. Meanings, however, generally can be inferred from context and calendrical systems are so rich in historical and cultural meaning that it is a great shame when any system is lost.

Perhaps every day is the beginning of a new year for some culture and should be treated as such by all of us.

Jim

Bottom's Up!

2009-12-31T09:53:00.010-05:00

In the spirit of New Year's Eve, I thought I would highlight a ceramic type that most commonly took the form of a tankard, since I am sure many folks will be out tonight welcoming in the New Year with friends, fireworks, and a tasty beverage! Manganese Mottled is a type of earthenware with a buff to gray paste and a distinct lead glaze, with some variation in color (as is the case with many ceramic types). This ware was produced in England from the late 17th century into the mid-18th century. The glaze is best for identifying this type, as although it ranges from a yellowish-brown to yellow or red, the glaze pools in slightly grooved or banded areas, resulting in darker specks. These darker specks can streak horizontal or vertical, and their mottling with the lighter glaze is what gave this ceramic the second half of its name (please click the images for a better view of this characteristic). As for the "Manganese" part, it was thought that Manganese was used to color the glaze, and, despite more recent investigations have shown that Manganese may not have been used, the name has stuck. We have found numerous sherds of this ware at Port Tobacco, but I have opted to use the images from the Jefferson Patterson website as the mottling is much more visible on the larger sherds they have photographed.

So, as you raise your glass to toast the new year tonight imagine that the folks down in Port Tobacco in 1710 or so doing the same...except with a Manganese Mottled tankard!

Thanks to Jefferson Patterson for the info and the images.

I wish you all a safe and fun night.
Kelley

Postscript from Jim:
Yes, no doubt the early colonists did raise a glass or two, or three, to celebrate the new year, but they did so on the evening of March 24 and on March 25, the first day of the year on the old calendar. More on that tomorrow.