Mondays
are the best day of the week. On Mondays I spend time exploring the archaeology
of Charles County, Maryland. The day is spent with a group of volunteers and,
depending on the weather, we are either out in the field working on a site or
in the lab processing the artifacts. Over the past 8 years we’ve explored a
print shop and an oyster house in Port Tobacco, and we’ve worked with Tim
Horsley to do a geophysical survey of Port Tobacco. We’re involved in an
on-going survey of a plantation landscape in Bel Alton, looking not just at the
“Big House” but also at the places inhabited and used by the enslaved
individuals living at Rich Hill. Our most recent project is the exploration of
the landscape of an almost 700-acre park near Benedict. We’ve documented Native
American sites, tenant houses, and at least two 18th-century home
sites. A few years ago we did a survey of a 19th-century home on the
Potomac River.
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Port Tobacco Courthouse This is a 1976 reproduction of the 1819 Courthouse the burned to the ground in 1892 |
We’ve also worked with the congregations of Mount
Hope Baptist Church in Nanjemoy and Alexandria Chapel United Methodist Church
near Marbury to find and mark unmarked graves in their church cemeteries. We’ve
helped to document the history of some of the families associated with these
historic African American Cemeteries. Looking back over all we’ve done together
I decided to share some of the stories we’ve uncovered here in the pages of
this blog. Some of the stories will be about sites we’ve worked on in the past,
some will be about the projects in which we’re currently involved. The emphasis
will be on the people, both past and present, as together we participate in
this journey of finding Charles County.
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Abigail, UMBC Ancient Studies Major in the Alexander Chapel Cemetery after we placed the crosses |
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank a few folks –
there’s the Monday Volunteer Group, most of whom are members of the Charles
County Archaeological Society of Maryland (CCASM). My students at UMBC also
join us when we have weekend public archaeology days. And then of course
there’s family members and friends that aren’t affiliated with either group
that come to visit us in the field and end up holding a screen in their hands!
My professional colleagues have also found themselves helping me, especially
Jim Gibb, who did the initial survey work in Port Tobacco some years ago. Jim
has a blog that details his work over the course of several years. CCASM also
has a blog that details the projects they’re working on, the events they
participate in, and the artifact of the day.
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UMBC Students and Family Members with Ned, a CCASM volunteer Excavating at Rich Hill |
This blog will be different, a bit more introspective about the work we’re doing. I plan to weave information from the field work, historical documents, and when possible oral histories to tell stories about Charles County. I invite you to join all of us as we gather the information that allows me to tell you the lost and buried stories of Charles County.
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