The Rosenstock Pot and the Development of Agriculture in Maryland

This week’s blog post features a spectacular pre-Columbian pottery vessel known at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab as the Rosenstock Pot. I have chosen this vessel to frame an essay about the development of agriculture by Maryland’s indigenous population and the consequences of agriculture on native life during a time archaeologists call the Late Woodland period (AD900 to AD1650).

The Rosenstock Site (18FR18) is a Late Woodland period village on the Monocacy River in Frederick County. Excavations there by the Archeological Society of Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust revealed remains of trash-filled pits, hearths, human burials and two buildings believed to have functioned as sweat lodges. Radiocarbon dating of charred plant remains from hearth features showed the site was occupied from AD1335 to around AD1400 (Curry and Kavanagh 2004).

April is Maryland Archeology Month—No Fooling!

2013 Maryland Archeology Month booklet that highlights the diagnostic website and archaeology activities for 2013.

For many years, April has been designated as Maryland’s Archeology Month. During this month, the public can enjoy the number of free events that focus on the state’s rich archaeological heritage. Here at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, we celebrate the opening of our annual public season, as well as Archeology Month, with an event called Discovering Archaeology Day.

This year, the free event will be held on April 20 from 10 AM to 5 PM. Visitors can enjoy a variety of hands-on activities sponsored by archaeological organizations around the state, visit an ongoing excavation at an eighteenth-century plantation site and take tours of the MAC Lab.

The Birds and the Bees

Everybody does it – don’t deny it!   Each one of us has a bit of the old collector urge in them.  I collect nineteenth- and twentieth-century yellow ware and, if pressed to admit it, those colorful advertising magnets that businesses give away. 

Practical Magic at Smith’s St. Leonard?

Excavation of the storehouse cellar unit at Smith’s St. Leonard is almost complete. This week’s surprise find was a broken French Louis XIV 5 sol coin. The silver coin was found in a posthole which extends another 3 feet beneath the floor of the cellar. Though broken in half and worn, enough markings are present to identify the coin, which had a very brief manufacture period of 1702-1704.

Update from Smith St. Leonard Site

Alex Glass contemplates mapping the cellar floor brick.

The field crew has been taking advantage of this unseasonably nice weather to continue exploring the presumed storehouse cellar at the Smith St. Leonard site. The test unit now reaches almost six feet below the ground surface and the hoped-for brick floor (see blog entry from November 19th) has finally emerged. The projecting area of brick at the lower right of the photograph is either part of a bulkhead entrance into the cellar or part of a brick hearth. Diagnostic artifacts remain elusive, so we are still unsure when the cellar was filled.

Remote Sensing Success at the Smith’s St. Leonard Site

Earlier in 2012, JPPM hired geophysicist Tim Horsley to conduct three different types of remote sensing—ground penetrating radar, magnetometer, and soil resistivity—across the Smith’s St. Leonard site. These types of geophysical surveys can help reveal the locations of subsurface disturbances such as wells, privies, and building cellars prior to putting a shovel into the ground, and are a valuable tool for helping plan excavation. Tim observed numerous subsurface anomalies, including a large, deep anomaly in the area where an eighteenth-century storehouse may have been located.

Volunteer Christa Conant assists Tim Horsley with soil resistivity testing at the Smith’s St. Leonard site.

The red outlined box at the lower right depicts the projected location of the cellar.

Alex, Ed and Annette worked throughout the summer and fall to remove the overlying plowed soil from areas where Tim’s testing had found anomalies. In every location that Tim predicted a subsurface feature, the digging showed the accuracy of his testing. As October drew to an end, the decision was made to test the possible storehouse cellar. Tim predicted that this 20 by 20 ft. feature would contain large quantities of brick at a depth of about four feet.

Field technician Alex Glass has the unenviable task of balancing on brick rubble as she digs!

And sure enough, after several days of careful troweling, Alex and Annette came upon a layer of brick rubble, about three feet under the ground surface! Way to go, Tim! The rubble has been removed and preliminary testing suggests that the cellar fill extends at least another foot or so deeper, possibly bottoming out on a brick floor. Unfortunately, the cellar soil has not been particularly artifact-rich, so we don’t yet have a good date on the filling of the cellar. In addition to wine bottle glass, oyster shell, and a few fragmented white clay tobacco pipes, the crew did find this nice brass buckle. Curator Sara Rivers Cofield believes it could have been part of a horse harness. We hope that continued work in the cellar will yield further clues about the function of the building and its construction and destruction dates.

Ornately shaped brass buckle from the cellar fill.

Another Mystery Solved! The King George Wine Glass

A few months ago at the Smith’s St. Leonard site, volunteers and crew discovered a small colorless glass fragment. Finding glass at an archaeological site is not that unusual since it preserves fairly well in the ground. So what makes this little fragment so blog worthy you ask? This piece is very thick, with a square shape and curved figures molded on the sides. We were a little stumped when the piece was initially found. What type of vessel was it from? Is the molding a design or letters? Is it even contemporary to the site (1711-1754)? Left scratching our heads, the artifact was put back into its bags and we continued with fieldwork.

CTY Returns to JPPM

Second through fourth grade students from the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth returned to JPPM this year and we were happy to treat them to all that the Park has to offer. They learned native skills at our Indian Village, experienced archaeology at the Smith’s St. Leonard site, and experimented with artifact treatment techniques in the MAC Lab. Checking out a room with 8 million artifacts just added to the fun. The staff enjoyed working hands-on with these bright kids and hope they all had a great time discovering JPPM!

Learning about electrolytic reduction with conservators

Look at this way cool projectile point!

Public Archaeology at JPPM Starts May 8th

Join us for JPPM’s free Public Archaeology program this summer! You can excavate, learn to identify artifacts and soil features, and chat with Park archaeologists about 18th-century life in the Chesapeake. This season, we will return to the Smith’s St Leonard site, an 18th-century tobacco plantation that includes a family residence, slave quarter, stable, detached kitchen and more! The program will run May 8th through June 30th. Excavations at the site will take place between 10am and 3pm on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (weather permitting). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can join the crew in the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory to learn more about the artifacts found in the field. If you would like to participate, please call Ed Chaney at 410.586.8554 or email echaney@mdp.state.md.us.

Try your hand with a shovel

Screen for artifacts

Maybe you’ll find a bottle seal like this one!

Discovering Archaeology Day April 14th!

Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum invites you to celebrate Discovering Archaeology Day 2012 on April 14th from 10am – 5pm. There will be lots of activities for you to enjoy. We’ll be offering guided tours of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory and demonstrations in the Indian Village. Be sure to visit JPPM’s 18th-century tobacco plantation site where you can see the ongoing excavation and talk to museum archaeologists. If you own something that you think is historical, but you’re not really sure, bring it with you and we’ll identify it for you. You will also have the opportunity to meet professional archaeologists from around the region, ask them questions, and enjoy their exhibits and displays. There’s something for everyone at JPPM and Discovering Archaeology Day!

Excavation and site recording at JPPM’s Smith’s St. Leonard Site

Activities at the Park and Museum’s Indian Village

Tours of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab