An Exciting Weekend!

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

Surprise Gift from the MAC Lab

Last Tuesday Rebecca "Becky" Morehouse, Curator of State Collections at J. Patterson Park & Museum, spoke to the Charles County Archaeological Society. She brought with her a collections box packed with artifacts collected from Port Tobacco by Gerald Braley in the early 1970s.

I just signed the loan agreement and we will examine the collection over the next few weeks. Although there is no paperwork associated with the collection, I am confident that we will figure out the proveniences of some of the material. This is our first opportunity to make some sense of the digging that local avocational archaeologists engaged in during the 1960s and 1970s, work that has left precious little in the way of collections and even less in documentation.

Work by April, the Heidelberg Three, and our dedicate volunteers proceeds apace and all are welcome to visit or lend a hand. Remember, though: the ladies take Tuesdays off.

Meeting of CCAS

On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 7:30PM at the Port Tobacco Courthouse, Bruce Thompson will offer an illustrated presentation on his recent work at the Grieb site.

This is an incredibly rich 17th-century site on the Eastern Shore with one of the largest collections of British pottery that I have ever seen. I suspect that this was both a dwelling and a store and, as such, might offer a glimpse into what some of the Port Tobacco dwelling/stores have in store for us. Quantities of tin-glazed earthenware recovered from some of the unreported excavations at Port Tobacco in the 1970s are similar to the slipwares recovered from the Grieb site in both numbers and condition.

Before Bruce begins his presentation, I will talk a little about our upcoming fieldwork in and around Port Tobacco beginning in February.

All are welcome...there is no fee, just good fellowship.

Jim

Moore's Lodge

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be speaking at the annual dinner meeting of the Charles County Historical Society. (I'll be leaving soon...just have to pack up the projector and screen.) I also mentioned that, at the request of the Society, I would say a few words about Mike Sullivan and Julie King's successful search for the first county courthouse. In preparation for this evening, I read the report of their methods and results.

This is a fine report and I hope it will be made available to the general public on the Web if not in hard copy. The report is clear, concise, and well-illustrated. If provides as definitive an argument as can be made in archaeology for the identification of the site as that of the first courthouse, ordinary, and probable home of Thomas Hussey and his successors.

Tonight I will briefly summarize those findings before discussing the Port Tobacco work at greater length. For those interested in hearing the full Moore's Lodge story, Julie will speak about the project at the November meeting of the Charles County Archaeological Society. The meeting will be at the Port Tobacco Courthouse at 7:30 PM on the second Tuesday of November (the 11th). Al are welcome and I'll be sure to remind folks of the presentation a week beforehand.

Jim