Archaeologist Aryel Rigano and volunteer Matt Nickelson look for clues to Maryland’s ancient past in a Chaptico soybean field.
Chaptico, MD – Archaeologists are spending their days before the holidays digging in the dirt at Lower Notley Hall near Chaptico.
A year ago, St. Mary’s College Professor of Anthropology Dr. Julia A. King and her students conducted a survey of the property with 48 shovel test pits.
In addition to acres of oyster shell, which King described as the largest such midden she had ever seen, the searchers found a steatite bowl, a unique stone bead and a piece of copper chemists determined to be of native origin.
“That piece of copper probably came from the Great Lakes region,” said St. Mary’s College of Maryland Adjunct Professor Scott Strickland.
The research is an effort to find the Native American village of Cecomocomoco, detailed on Captain John Smith’s 1608 map of Virginia on the eastern shore of the Wicomico River.
Most such work is undertaken in spring or summer when the weather is warmer and accommodating to such activity. This year, however, the fields explored last summer were planted in soybeans. Workers were given permission to do further research once the crop was harvested, which due to heavy rains in October took a while to clear.
Now, just 12 days from Christmas, archaeologists, including Strickland, Aryel Rigano and volunteer Matt Nickelson, along with other volunteers, are conducting surveys for more artifacts.
Even with winter bearing down on them, they undauntedly press on regardless.
“Most of what we have found in this particular field is called Townsend pottery from Native Americans who lived in this area from 900 to 1700 A.D.,” Strickland explained.
There are two oyster middens on the property, he said. One encompasses 17 acres to the south of an old house on the Wicomico River, which dates to 1890. Another 10-acre oyster midden was located to the north of the house.
“In addition to Native American artifacts, we also found an 18th-century site in that [northernmost] field,” Strickland stated. “That house burned in 1880,” he added.
Strickland said he also found Indian pottery and native spear points.
“We find a lot of different types of stone,” he said. “The majority is quartz and quartzite, but we also find rhyolite, jasper, and chert from Western Maryland. The soapstone bowl we found last summer probably was from Western Maryland as well.”
He noted these types of stone are not indigenous to Southern Maryland but were likely brought in on trade routes that existed in precolonial history.
Archaeologists and volunteers are sinking 177 shovel test pits on the 17-acre southern study area and are expected to sink another 100 test pits in the 10-acre northern portion as long as the weather holds.
“In March, Tim Horsley—a geophysicist—is going to do a magnetometer survey of the property,” Strickland stated. “It’s a process that measures the electric magnetic field, which shows variations on certain types of features.
“Hopefully, we’ll find some features and then we’ll dig some 5-foot by 5-foot squares after he’s done,” he added. “We have the field until April.”
Hopefully, the weather will be a little warmer by then.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com
