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The 2007 class.
Scenery along the Sassafras.
Sites in Queen Anne's County, situated along sandy ridges.
Probability areas on a soil map—high probability shown in red.
Welcome
Each year we run 6-week field school here at Washington College, teaching students all of the skills they need to become competent field archaeologists. This year we have 15 students joining us, 14 from Washington College and one from Case Western.
The course is taught by Darrin Lowery and John Seidel, with assistance from our lab director, Liz Seidel, and two Washington College grads, Teresa Fewlass (currently a PhD candidate at the College of William & Mary) and Brynn Torelli (MA candidate, University of Nevada Las Vegas). Assisting us in the field are anthropology majors with previous field experience, Astra Haldeman and Elizabeth Clay, so we have a staff of 7 joining the 15 students.
This year's work is spread out through Kent County, but is targeted at "ground truthing," or testing, a predictive model we have developed for archaeological site locations on the Upper Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Based on a variety of ecological and environmental factors, the model tries to predict the areas that were most likely to have been attractive to Native Americans, and thus most likely to hold archaeological sites. If the model works, it will be of enormous interest to archaeologists and useful to planners who want to avoid sensitive areas when planning new roads or other development.
To test the model we're surveying plowed fields along the Sassafras River and on Eastern Neck, south of Rock Hall—the idea is that concentrations of artifacts are indicators of sites. We'll compare our survey results with the model to see whether or not the model actually compares to reality. This is our third summer of testing, and so far, so good! We'll also assess some of the sites we found in previous years with test excavations.
We've asked the students to report on each week's activities, and we'll try to keep this updated on a regular basis. Occasionally you'll also see some interjections on the part of staff. We hope you'll find our explorations into Maryland's past of interest!
Best wishes,
John L. Seidel
Field School Director
Director, Center for Environment & Society
Darrin Lowery
Associate Field School Director
Week 1, May 21-25
Palisaded Indian village, drawn by John White, ca. 1585.
Artifacts in the making Darrin works on a chunk of obsidian. This volcanic glass is especially prized by stone-workers for its fine grain and the sharp blades it produces.
Darrin Lowery roughly shaping a pre-form of obsidian using a wood billet.
Reported by Mark Dalski and Parker Mitchell
Welcome to the 2007 summer Archeology Field Study! As of now we have completed our first week of classes and have begun our quest for archeological excellence. From lectures in the historic Custom House, to "chain gang" marches through the Sassafras cornfields, it's been quite a week.
On our first day of classes, we relaxed a bit with a half-day of class and an introduction to the field school. Although the day was short, we sat in on lectures from Professor Seidel and from Darrin Lowery. Both lectures allowed for a more specific understanding of what we will be looking for over the course of the semester and why. They allowed the class to fully realize what our summer semester was to consist of, and what we were to accomplish through the course of it. The course's purpose is to give us a more complete understanding of the field of archeology and to conduct field studies of areas in our region, possibly leading to valuable discoveries.
Our second day of class began with a brief evaluation of a bag of rocks - or at least that is what we saw when we received them! We soon learned from Darrin that the "rocks" were an assortment of materials that Indians living in this area would have used to make tools. Some of the articles were actually finished products themselves. We then went outside to get our first demonstration of the labor-intensive process of making a stone projectile point, using prehistoric methods. Darrin began with a piece of obsidian and, with another stone (a hammer stone), flaked pieces off of the main body until a projectile point was achieved. With blood on Darrin's hands, he was eager to head out in search of Bambi. To finish out the day, we loaded the vans and went out to the field.
We began walking and within the first five minutes Parker had found a "projectile point." As he began to boast about what a fine archeologist he would make due to his unparalleled vision and keen sense of awareness, others began to discover projectile points as well. Although Parker's moment of glory was cut short, it gave him and others the motivation to continue the quest—it was a great way to start off!
Throughout the rest of the week, we continued our surveys of different fields along the Sassafras River, noting the probable locations of Indian inhabitance. Lining up and marching across the fields with everlasting enthusiasm, we discovered quartz, quartzite, chert, jasper, and other materials, all of which were either discarded in the making of a projectile point, or are projectile points themselves. As our work progressed, we began to understand that some areas are more saturated with artifacts and material culture than others, and thus may be considered "sites" in which Indians once lived and worked.
With our three and a half days out in the field we have already discovered 13 new sites, finding a large cache of both projectile points and the flakes from their production. It has been a fun-filled week, opening the door for many more discoveries over the next 5 weeks. It has been an enjoyable experience thus far, especially because Darrin (who is very knowledgeable) doesn't make us look too stupid when we come marching up to him with ear-to-ear smiles across our faces, holding what we believe are ancient treasures, only to have him to determine that they are indeed "dog stones" (our jargon for garbage).
Finer flaking with a hammer stone.
Pressure flaking on leather (despite this precaution, obsidian is sharp and the blood flowed!).
The finished product—all we need is a spear, and we're ready to hunt!
Eyes on the ground—hope the corn doesn't grow too fast!
Some of the fields go on and on...
But there are artifacts! Broken knife or pre-form (left) and a re-sharpened Susquehanna Broadspear (3200-3800 years before present).
More Susquehanna broadspears—Archaic sites are found in abundance along the Sassafras, but more recent Woodland Period sites are scarce.
Memorial Day Weekend
The Custom House porch—at the left, Karen Ferguson, Marian Robbins, Astra Haldeman, and Elizabeth Clay.
Center for Environment & Society Director John Seidel (left) explains an archaeological predictive model to Governor O'Malley (middle) and Frank Kratovil (photo by Trams Hollingsworth).
Although the field school had a three-day weekend after the first week, many students showed up to give tours of the archaeology lab to the public on Saturday, May 26. This was the annual Chestertown Tea Party, held to commemorate a dumping of tea that supposedly occurred in Chestertown in 1774, in sympathy with the Boston Tea Party. More than 700 people came through the lab, learning about our work, examining artifacts recovered during the field school and hearing about the history of the Custom House (c. 1745). The highlight of the day was a visit by Governor Martin O'Malley, who seemed particularly interested in our predictive modeling. After his visit, the student volunteers had a prime spot from which to view the ceremonial dumping of the tea, standing on the rear porch of the Custom House. JLS
Excavated fluted point in situ at Paw Paw Cove (photo by Darrin Lowery).
Dennis Stanford explains Solutrean and Clovis technology at the Smithsonian Institution.
Behind the scenes at the Smithsonian.
Week 2, May 29 - June 1
Reported by Marian Robbins and Karen Ferguson
In the second week of archaeology field school, the students split into two groups. One group continued working with Professor Darrin Lowery doing field surveys of the State Lands on the Sassafras River near Kennedyville, while the remainder of the students went to the site of Brynn Torelli's master's thesis to aid her in field surveying on a farm near Eastern Neck. Professor Lowery's group continued to find a plethora of prehistoric sites, exceeding even our expectations. The students found a variety of artifacts including projectile points, bifacial cores, pre-forms, and flakes from the creation of or re-sharpening of said items. These findings date to a median of approximately 3500 years of age. At the completion of Wednesday, May 30th, we had surveyed a total of 210 acres along the Sassafras and discovered 18 separate prehistoric sites. This number is far above par for this point in the course. On Eastern Neck, several historic and prehistoric sites were encountered.
On Friday, we had the great honor of getting a behind-the-scenes tour and presentation at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC by resident archaeologist Dr. Dennis Stanford. Dr. Stanford gave us a private presentation on his current work entitled "An AUKward Proposal," which discussed an alternate hypothesis concerning how the American continent came to be populated. Contrary to the well-known theory of early people crossing the Bering Strait, Stanford's research proposes that these first peoples came instead from what is now France and Spain, crossing the Atlantic by way of boat and traversing the ice sheets that existed at that time. These conclusions are based on the comparison of tools and projectile points made by the Clovis peoples, believed to be among America's first inhabitants, and those of the Solutrean peoples found in France and Spain.
The method of creating Clovis tools, and their resulting shape and fluting, does not match any of the technologies found in Asia. Instead, they are a perfect match for those found in Western Europe.
Dr. Stanford's findings are revolutionary, implying that the earliest Americans' origins were in the Solutrean peoples and suggesting that the earliest Clovis sites should be found on the East coast of the United States. They would have traveled west at a later date, despite the fact that Clovis is often associated more with the American Southwest, where the first fluted points were found in he late 1800s. Stanford's hypothesis is supported by a site found by our very own Professor Lowery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Paw Paw Cove, on Tilghman Island, is one of the most prolific Clovis sites in all of North America.
Week 3, June 4-8
Reported by Maureen Sentman & Buffy Conrad
On the beach at Elliott Island: Ciera, Karen, Courtney (hiding behind Karen), Darrin, and Maureen.
Layers of oyster shell in a prehistoric midden, Elliott's Island.
Pipe bowl fragment from Eastern Neck, marked "WE" for William Evans (Bristol, 1660-1682).
The third week of Archeology field school afforded the students a wide array of experiences, various sceneries, and some splendid new finds! After the instructors and students enjoyed a pleasant road trip to Elliot's Island on Monday to walk the shores of the beautiful Nanticoke River shoreline, looking at sites and natural settings, the crew split up Tuesday, with a few students heading to the Sassafras River, about 15 miles north of Chestertown, to begin the first excavation of the 2007 field school, and all other students joining Brynn Torelli in field surveys on farms along Gray's Inn Creek on Eastern Neck.
Eastern Neck Surveys - Maureen Sentman
Hoping to find historic artifacts and features, the crew traversed only a few acres of a very muddy soybean field before quickly stumbling upon a concentration of pipe stem and bowl fragments, pottery, ceramics, glass, bits of glazed brick, slag, and cobble. Using one very well preserved pipe bowl fragment, the crew was able to identify a maker's mark and decipher a date for the artifact, dating it back to the1680s. This and other historic cultural materials suggested to the instructors and crew that this particular field and shoreline may have been part of a 17th century shipyard site...quite an intriguing possibility!
Likewise, aside from such historic matter, students also found prehistoric projectile points, made mostly from jasper and quartz, and other lithic material of interest. And, although not nearly as archaeologically significant but nevertheless exciting, students also had the joy of finding two coins during their time on CBF lands, one dating to 1808 and the other to 1890.
For Thursday and Friday of the third week, the Eastern Neck crew split up into two groups, one crew continuing field surveys with Brynn, and another heading out with Darrin Lowery on an adventurous trek through other Eastern Neck lands and along the Chesapeake Bay coastline on Thursday, where students were less successful with finding artifacts, acquiring only one prehistoric point, while also finding a concentration of historic brick, which was suspected to have once been site for an outbuilding.
However, leaving Eastern Neck and heading to the northern edge of Kent County along the Sassafras River on Friday, Darrin's crew found a large field on near the Sassafras River which, Darrin promised, would abound in its supply of prehistoric artifacts. Although the group gave him a bit of a hard time after doing a few laps through the corn field and accumulating few artifacts, almost everyone in the field soon found triangular projectile points and some equally as interesting pre-forms, flakes, and bi-faces. Such material suggested a possible Late Woodland site...which the group determined was a nice discovery with which to close out the week.
Sassafras River Excavations - Buffy Conrad
Brynn identifies an artifact for the class.
Cleaning artifacts in the lab: Anna, Marian, Karen, Maureen and Ciera.
When our crew was split into two groups on Tuesday, several of us headed up to a farm outside of Galena to begin excavation of a previously located site on the Sassafras River. Last year this site revealed tobacco pipe fragments marked "LE" and "L Evans," the marks of Bristol pipe-maker Llewellin Evans. This suggests that the site dates to the 1670s. The waist-high wheat offered a change of scenery from the endless rows of corn, while making it more difficult to spot artifacts. However, it wasn't long before we began finding pipestems and redware to indicate our site.
Dr. Seidel set up the theodolite to establish a datum point and a baseline was marked out at five meter intervals, off which a grid and our first square meter unit could be established. Teresa Fewlass led us the rest of the week as we took turns troweling the plowzone, or Locus 1, and screening the soil to continue to find evidence of historic occupation such as terra cotta pipe stems, ceramics, nails, and glass fragments. Once through the plowzone, Locus 2 turned out to be hard, dry, sterile subsoil. Although nothing was fond in this level, we eventually dug a test area to a depth of one meter below the last artifact found—that ensured that we weren't missing anything.
We also staked out a grid by which more shovel test pits could be dug to look for concentrations of artifacts and to aid in locating the border of the site. All the while we were learning the finer points of field notes, filling out standardized forms, soil identification, field equipment, measurement techniques, and site photography. Our group worked hard in the hot sun, dirt, and wheat, and by the end of the week we had closed out our first excavation unit and learned many of the practical applications of archaeology.
Week 4, June 11-15
Reported by Robyn Levitan and Courtney Madden
Abby, Wade, and Maureen Trowling in Unit 2, Sassafras River.
Mark Shoveling Plowzone in Unit 1-4, Sassafras River.
Volunteer Tim Sears, Courtney, and Caroline Screening at Sassafras River.
With cooler temperatures, the fourth week of field school saw the continuation of excavations along the Sassafras River, as well as field surveys on Eastern Neck. Teresa Fewlass and the crew at the Sassafras opened a new excavation unit near the top of a slight hill to expose a different colored soil. This soil may help us identify an area of colonial activity. Field surveys with Brynn Torelli moved north of Rock Hall for the first time this summer and students made some interesting finds. We recorded two new sites, one historic and one prehistoric, along Swan Creek.
Sassafras River Excavations - Courtney Madden
After completing the mid-term exam, students received a lecture on stratigraphy from Dr. John Seidel. Stratigraphy is the accumulation of different layers of soil over time. During archaeological excavations, we dig each layer separately to help identify and date different periods of site use as well as features such as postholes or rubbish pits.
Later in the week, some students went to the 17th-century site on the Sassafras River to continue excavating units. Once on the site, we were split into two groups. Some of us worked on a unit while two of us dug shovel test pits (STP's). We brandished our posthole diggers, a bucket, a metric tape measure, and paperwork and headed out to the STP locations. We dug down through the plowed soil until we reached the top of the next layer of soil, an undisturbed subsoil which can be recognized by a change in the soil color. We screened the soil to find artifacts and many of the STP's yielded materials such as redware, bone (not human, I promise), pipe stem fragments, and prehistoric stone flakes.
Once all of the STP's were dug, we all continued to work on unit excavations. Some of us worked on extending the unit already in place while the rest laid in a new unit in an area with soil of a different color. While the concept of digging a hole seems quite elementary, excavation is actually rather complicated. There is an abundance of paperwork that needs to be completed, photographs to take, and a great deal of precision and care that needs to be taken when laying in the unit and digging it. We made some really neat discoveries this week while excavating. Along with more redware, bone, and flakes, we found corroded nails and some more substantial pipe stem fragments that can be dated to the 1600's.
We had a visitor out in the field this week. Volunteer Tim Sears came to check out what we are doing and help us excavate. It was great to have an extra pair of hands to help and to get the opportunity to share what we are finding with someone else. It was definitely a productive, interesting, and fun week in the field. I can't wait to see what next week has in store for us!
Eastern Neck Surveys - Robyn Levitan
Elizabeth recording GIS coordinates on Eastern Neck
On June 15 we learned more about flint knapping. Flint knapping is the process of removing flakes from stone to produce sharp stone tools, including projectile points. We learned about two major ways of using the rocks to produce points; one method involves holding the rock you want to flake in one hand and a hammerstone in the other. The other method uses a large rock, which is called an anvil, to brace the rock to be flaked. After the lecture we attempted to flint knap on our own and from personal experience I can say that the latter of these two methods is a bit safer for the hands. The amount of garbage, called debitage, left over from the flint knapping was impressive. There were circles of flakes near where members of the class had been sitting while attempting to create points. Flakes like these are often found in the fields we walk and represent evidence of earlier populations of Native Americans.
For the rest of the week, some of us went with Brynn to Eastern Neck to walk more fields. Those of us working on Eastern Neck have completed the task of searching for prehistoric and historic sites on another property, this time along Swan Creek. It has been our job this week to walk over 120 acres of farmland looking for artifacts such as pipe bowl and stem fragments, projectile points made of quartzite and chert, and fragments of historic ceramics. In one cornfield we found an area that contained a high concentration of pipe stem fragments and a few other historical artifacts. This area was unique in the field and represents the seventh site found on Eastern Neck!
Week 5, June 18-22
Reported by Abby Chrismer & Caroline Clemens
Marian admires the patent tongs displayed at the Rock Hall Museum.
Mr. Bill Betts, curator of Tolchester Revisited and Chair of the Museums of Rock Hall board, explains the history of Tolchester before students Maureen, Marian, Anna, and Courtney enter the museum.
Iron Hill Jasper Quarry.
Ciera walks through the prehistoric exhibit at the Pennsylvania State Museum.
Campers at Summer Days Math & Science Camp for Girls cleaning artifacts in the lab.
A camper from Summer Days Math & Science Camp for Girls attacks Murray the mastodon using an atl-atl.
During the fifth week of field school, students spent their time in the field, in the classroom, and on the road. The week was filled with field trips to museums and sites that complemented the information covered in lecture and our projects in the field. When students were not excavating or surveying along the Sassafras River, they could be found at Iron Hill Jasper Quarry in Newark, Delaware, Tolchester Revisted, the Waterman's Museum, and the Rock Hall Museum (all three in Rock Hall, Maryland), the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, or the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis. We also had a number of visitors this week, including the Summer Days Math & Science Camp for Girls in grades 6-9, a one week program offered by Echo Hill Outdoor School.
The Washington College Public Archaeology Lab has participated in the camp for the past nine years, and Elizabeth Seidel, director of the lab, had worked with the organization for four years prior at an archaeological site on the Western Shore. During the girls' visit this week, students Robyn Levitan and Emily Aiken joined the campers and counselors at the Custom House Tuesday morning, assisting Darrin Lowery and Teresa Fewlass in their activities with the girls. These included a presentation on flint knapping, hunting techniques with the atl-atl (spear thrower), the cleaning and processing of artifacts, and an explanation of our predictive model and surveying projects.
In the field and on the road
Our fifth week started on Monday morning, as we headed to Newark, Delaware to visit Iron Hill, which is a well-known jasper quarry we have discussed in lecture. Although it was hot and humid, we walked around the forest with Darrin Lowery and he showed the class where we could find large amounts of jasper, a material used in local projectile point manufacture. The on-site lecture and the quarry were really interesting. The jasper (a red chert) really stood out throughout the landscape, making the forest unique.
On Tuesday, June 19, Astra took the majority of us to visit the three museums of Rock Hall. The first one we went to was Tolchester Revisited. This small museum had a lot of history about old "downtown" Tolchester. Even though there are not many remainders of the amusement area now, all the pictures and displays really painted a mental picture of how nice the park once was. Bill Betts, who is the curator of Tolchester Revisited and Chairman of the Board of the Museums of Rock Hall, joined us in our tour of the Museum. Mr. Betts expressed a lot of passion for the area, which was evident not only in the arrangement of the Museum itself, but also in his basic knowledge of Old Tolchester. After Tolchester Revisited we moved on to explore the Rock Hall Museum and Waterman's Museum.
Due to the humidity and heat and rain once again, by the middle of the week we decided to visit the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg. After a long car ride, we finally arrived and walked around the city during our lunch hour. When we met up at the museum, we went directly upstairs to the Anthropology and Archaeology Exhibit, which was really well designed. Every showcase had great diagrams of physical objects, including artifacts and other materials. The showcases that illustrated the different eras of time were not only specific and educational, but also really interesting to see. For the rest of the day, we wandered through the different exhibits, such as the mammal and geology exhibits.
On Thursday, Teresa and Darrin took the class out to the Sassafras Site to continue our excavations. The majority of the students had not yet had a chance to dig so there was instruction in various topics including paperwork, different digging techniques, and reasoning, as the more experienced students continued the excavations. Throughout the day we focused on digging different units below the plow-zone and into the subsoil. Some photographers from Washington College joined us that afternoon and got some candid shots of our daily activities in the field.
By the end of the week, on Friday, most students continued to excavate along the Sassafras River. Brynn also took a small group of people to the State Archives in Annapolis to conduct research. On the Sassafras that same day, Darrin took a group to walk more fields towards the south end of the farm. The fields had been surveyed the previous year, but the exercise illustrated how much more can rise to the surface as the fields are tilled each year. In the fields we found a couple different types of projectile points as well as some flakes and other kinds of small material artifacts.