Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Announcing *New Webpage*
In April of this year, we announced our new “Wood and Charcoal Identification in Southern Maryland” webpage and this month we are proud to announce another addition to the JPPM website, “Maryland Archeobotany”. This new webpage has a searchable online database of paleobotanical data from 90 archaeological sites spanning 12,000 years of Maryland’s history. This unique resource and its user-friendly format will be very helpful for interpreting plant remains on archaeology sites and will be an important tool for researchers interested in environmental changes in the Chesapeake Bay region.

Carbonized maize cob.

Visit www.jefpat.org/archeobotany/Home.aspx to search the database, read about the collection of archeobotanical material, and learn interesting archeobotanical facts!

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Monday, November 30th, 2009
Spaceman Sighting?
Nah……That’s just conservator Cait Shaffer preparing to treat the cannon carriage part from Fort Jefferson – Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida that we first introduced to you back in February.  Cait recently finished the desalination treatment of the cannon carriage and is preparing to air-abrade (some liken it to sand- blasting) the iron surface of the artifact, using walnut shell as the abrasive powder, in order to clean the surface of dirt and concretions as well as to remove any corrosion products.  After this mechanical cleaning, the artifact will be treated with tannic acid in order to inhibit any further corrosion.

Wheeling the cannon carriage outside the lab and under a tent in preparation for air-abrading.		Protective gear on? Prepare to abrade!

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Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Smith’s St. Leonard Site Update – Field Conservation
Occasionally, an artifact “in situ” (that has not been moved from where it was originally deposited) is so fragile that special methods for removing the object must be used. Such was the case at the Smith’s slave quarter when an iron object was discovered that was so degraded that staff could not identify it. Conservator Nichole Doub was called on to perform a “lift”. First, the archaeologists excavated around the object so that it was sitting on a slightly raised block of soil. Then Nichole applied a soft support consisting of strips of linen that had been soaked thoroughly with Paraloid B-44. The soft support conforms to the shape of the artifact and, as it dries, it hardens to form a cradle to hold the fragile pieces of the object in place. Once the support was dry, the soil underneath the object was loosened and Nichole braced the encased object with something rigid (voila the dustpan), and flipped it over.         

Applying the soft support	Loosening the soil underneath the object	Object lifted and ready to be transported to the Lab

Lucky for us, Nichole has done this many times before. When working in a tomb in Egypt, she used this procedure to lift painted plaster pieces that had fallen off the tomb walls. The plaster fragments were then taken back to the conservation lab and reassembled to reconstruct the larger image.

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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Charleston Palisade Pilings
This past summer, archaeology took place in South Carolina to investigate the colonial fortifications surrounding the city of Charleston and, recently, several artifacts from the excavations came to the MAC Lab to be treated. Two 7 foot pilings and a smaller piling (approx 2 ½ feet), recovered from structures that once extended across the length of Charleston’s waterfront, were transported to the lab and conservator Caitlin Shaffer is beginning to treat them. In 1702 and 1703, the larger pilings were placed in a palisade that was being built five feet in front of a brick wall that surrounded the waterfront. The pilings were back-filled with oyster shell and mud so that they formed a strong barrier to protect the brick wall against tides and storms. The smaller piling is one from a bed of pilings that the brick wall was built upon. We are excited to have the privilege of preserving a bit of Charleston’s history, especially the bit that saw the infamous Blackbeard plundering ships outside Charleston’s harbor in 1718!

   Pilings in treatment.                        Smaller piling recovered from underneath the brick wall.         

One of the larger pilings that was part of the palisade placed in front of the brick wall.

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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Smith’s St. Leonard Site Update – What’s New in the Midden
Many interesting things have been discovered by JPPM archaeologists while excavating a midden in the slave quarter at the 18th –century Smith’s St. Leonard tobacco plantation site. A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a chafing dish lid (and the matching chafing dish that had been recovered 7 years ago) and we thought we’d show you some more fun finds from the same area.

Removing a pig jaw		Bottle base and iron sickle blade

Excavating a clay tobacco pipe		Iron spur

These objects are slated for conservation at the MAC Lab and we look forward to showing them to you (all preserved and spiffy) in the future!

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Thursday, October 8th, 2009
A Tale of Curation Cooperation
Recently, the MAC Lab’s State curator, Becky Morehouse, came across a very interesting silver button in the Maryland state collections. She brought the button to the attention of the Lab’s curator of Federal collections, Sara Rivers Cofield, who is very interested in “small finds” (miscellaneous objects that are not found on excavations in large quantities). Sara, in the meantime, had arranged for herself and Laura Galke, a curator from George Washington’s boyhood home of “Ferry Farm” in Virginia, to travel to Colonial Williamsburg to study the small finds in Williamsburg’s collections. The visit turned out even better than planned when Williamsburg curators pulled out their own set of the same kind of buttons as the silver button from the MAC Lab. Sara was able to provide information about the buttons from her research while the Williamsburg curators were able to help Sara and Laura by generously offering their time and knowledge of their collections. Way to go ladies!

**Check out the Small Finds section of our Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland webpage:http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/Small%20Finds/index-Small%20Finds.htm.

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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Smith’s St. Leonard Site Update – Chafing Dish Redux
Years ago, archaeologists found the base of an 18th century brass chafing dish at the Smith’s St. Leonard site. This chafing
dish was the subject of the July 2009 Curator's Choice (http://www.jefpat.org/Curators%20Choice%20Archive/ 2009%20Curators%20Choice/Jul09-CuratorsChoice-SmithSt.LeonardChafingDish.htm). At the time the Curator’s Choice was written, no other parts of the chafing dish had been found. That changed last week! Archaeologists uncovered the chafing dish lid during their work in the central area of the slave quarter where a midden (fancy word for “trash heap”) has been discovered. The midden has also been the source of oyster shell, bone, several complete tobacco pipe bowls, a piece of ornate wine glass, a pig’s jaw, a stirrup, an iron hook, part of a spur, and a piece of a tankard that is still in the ground. We may have to start “What’s New in the Midden” updates! Three interesting facts about the chafing dish; 1). The parts were recovered 7 years apart. 2). The lid was found about 100 feet away from the base. 3). We screwed the lid into the base and it still fits!

Chafing dish lid being excavated last week.

    
                               The partial lid.                           Interior view of underside of lid                
                                                             showing attachment bolt.

Inside of base of chafing dish recovered in 2002 showing hole where lid’s attachment bolt fits.	Similar 18th century chafing dish (Winterthur Museum Collection)

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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
War of 1812 Cannon
When Havre de Grace, Maryland was attacked by the British in 1813, a local militiaman by the name of John O’Neill single-handedly manned a battery at Concord Point that consisted of one nine-pounder and two six-pounder cannon in order to defend the town. A memorial to O’Neill that was placed on the site of the battery consists of a plaque and an iron cannon that was found in the Chesapeake Bay near Havre de Grace. The cannon used in the memorial dates to circa 1812 and is possibly one of the original cannons that O’Neill used. Just recently, the cannon was removed from the memorial and brought to the MAC Lab where conservators are stabilizing the deterioration caused by exposure to the elements. After the cannon is treated and protected from further damage it will be returned to the memorial at Concord Point.

For a great article on this artifact, go to http://www.jefpat.org/Curators%20Choice.htm

                 
                    Concord Point Lighthouse and Memorial                      Removing the cannon                              

Loading cannon for transport to MAC Lab

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Friday, September 11, 2009
Smith’s St. Leonard Site Update
Staff archaeologists are still hard at work continuing the excavation of the slave quarter at the Smith’s St. Leonard site where our Public Archaeology program took place this past summer. Recently, an iron bit was discovered at the base of the plowzone where other horse furniture has been found, such as a stirrup and various harness ornaments. This “curb bit” has a jointed mouthpiece and is often, but not always, a riding bit as opposed to a bit used for cart or plow animals. Do these discoveries indicate that there was a stable here? Or perhaps a slave living at the quarter specialized in horse furniture repair? As of yet, we don’t know. The borders of what appears to be a very large structure where these artifacts were found haven’t been determined yet, so stay tuned and we will keep digging!

                           Bridle bit in situ                                              Treatment x-ray                             

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Thursday, September 3, 2009
Not Just Any Window Glass
Recently, MAC Lab collections staff came across some very interesting pieces of window glass while rehousing the collection of artifacts from Saunders Point, a plantation site south of Annapolis owned by the prominent Saunders family. In a pit feature (possibly a cellar hole) that was dated to approximately 1750, archaeologists found lots of goodies including bone, brick, ceramics, farm tools, a sword hilt, a pair of scissors, and three pieces of window glass etched with the name “Rachel Ridgely”. References to names being etched into window glass can be found in the historical record (while imprisoned in the Tower, Lady Jane Grey did some engraving herself) and there is evidence that jewelers even designed “writing rings” with raised diamonds to write on glass. Although there appears to be very little information about Ms. Ridgely, the collections staff is still researching and we’ll be sure to update you when we discover anything new!  

The three pieces of window glass    showing the entire name.

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Friday, August 28, 2009
Folk Magic at the MAC Lab
When do several ordinary objects have an extraordinary purpose? When an average wine bottle, some straight pins, and a third very common ingredient* are used to ward off “black magic”. Archaeologists excavating a possible slave quarter site in Dorchester County, Maryland recovered a wine bottle neck with a partial stopper from the area of the fireplace within the structure. The stopper had straight pins inserted into it. This collection of objects, and its location on the site, indicates the remains of a “witch bottle”. Witch bottles were used as protective charms and were part of a European tradition of folk magic. They were generally made from a bottle or jug, were filled with sharp objects, and were buried upside down.

*To see pictures and to find out the third (and most important) ingredient in a witch bottle, go to our NEW August Curator’s Choice at www.jefpat.org/Curators Choice Archive/Aug09-CuratorsChoice-WitchBottle.htm.

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Friday, August 21, 2009
Volunteer Spotlight
Our featured volunteer this week, Marco, is a photographer, prehistoric artifact aficionado, and all-around nice guy. Marco began volunteering at the MAC Lab about 4 years ago and has put in hundreds of volunteer hours since then. Marco is very skilled with a camera and has helped out with many projects over the years by photographing artifacts for us. If Marco is not busy in the collections workroom, he can be found knapping (shaping stone tools) in the courtyard by the Lab. We are very happy to have Marco’s continued expertise and enthusiasm at the Lab!

Always smiling

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Friday, August 14, 2009
Iron Iron Everywhere!
Back in March, we told you about the Jamestown Project at the MAC Lab with a “What’s New” update about a Civil War canteen that, along with many other artifacts from the Jamestown collections, had been damaged by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. Of the 34,000 artifacts contracted to the MAC Lab for treatment, only 3,000 are left to be returned to Jamestown, and 500 of those have been completed. The remaining objects have already been treated to remove a protective wax coating that was used in conservation in the 1950s and are being applied with tannic acid to inhibit any further deterioration. As this huge project draws to a close, with so many objects being worked on at the same time, the Jamestown artifacts are taking over the Lab!

Applying tannic acid		Objects drying between applications

Iron		Iron		Everywhere

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Thursday, August 6, 2009
Archaeology Campers Visit the MAC Lab
Recently, 14 campers from JPPM’s archaeology summer camp visited the MAC Lab for a week of fun activities. They toured the collections department and washed artifacts on Monday, participated in a “table top” excavation on Tuesday, on Wednesday they toured the conservation labs where staff x-rayed toys that the campers had brought from home, and on Thursday they learned about electrolytic reduction and “science with stink bombs”. And that doesn’t include the time they spent excavating in the field! We were very happy to reveal the “lab side” of archaeology to such a great bunch of kids.

Learning what artifacts tell us		Treating spoons using electrolytic reduction

X-ray of toys:
Legos and bunny and bears…oh my!

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Friday, July 31, 2009
Tons o’ Tours
While the Public Archaeology staff was toiling away in the beautiful sunshine, the MAC Lab staff has also been busy giving tours to over 250 visitors so far this summer. We have been happy to show off our state-of-the-art research, treatment, and curation facility to high school and college students, homeschool groups, summer camps, public archaeology volunteers, visiting archaeologists, several reporters, and the general public. Even Governor Martin O’Malley dropped by the lab in June when he visited Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum and declared Calvert County “Capital for a Day”.

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Friday, July 24, 2009
Sad, But True
Public Archaeology is over…but only for this season! If you didn’t have the opportunity to join us in the field or in the MAC Lab this year, please mark your calendar for the 2010 Public Archaeology season (May, June, July) – there is always so much to do, see, and learn. The staff would like to offer a huge “Thank You” to all of the people who volunteered or visited. Whether you watched us, helped us, and/or laughed at us, this program is so successful every year because of YOU. The Public Archaeology staff will continue to work on the Smith’s St. Leonard site throughout the rest of the summer. For every 1 day spent excavating in the field, at least 3 days in the lab are necessary to wash, process, and research the artifacts. There is still much work to be done!

Washing		Labeling the Artifacts
Research		Conservation

But don’t go away! We’ll still have all kinds of great updates for you from the Smith’s St. Leonard site and from the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab.

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Thursday, July 17, 2009
Public Archaeology Season's Over!
With Public Archaeology drawing to a close, three very interesting artifacts were found near the slave quarter site at Smith’s St. Leonard, which may help us understand which sorts of activities were taking place there. Two whole and one partial woodworking tools were excavated out of the north end of the site. They are either gouges or auger bits and would have been used to carve out bits of wood from an object. The tools are about 9.5 to 10 inches long with one end come to a flat point-similar to a screw driver, while the other end is scoop-shaped. These tools, along with the many furniture tacks found in this area, suggest that there could have been a skilled carpenter working at the Smith’s plantation.

Three woodworking tools found at the Smith St. Leonard site.		Image depicting a woodworking tools similar to the three found at the Smith's St. Leonard site. Image from Ancient Carpenter's Tools, Henry C.Mercer.

These artifacts will be on their way to conservation shortly so we can figure out exactly what they are.

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009
OutdoorAdventure Camp Digging Public Archaeology!
Public Archaeology is getting more volunteers this summer than ever before! And last week we had an outdoor adventure camp from Bowie help us dig out in the field. There were about 12 pre-teen/teenage volunteers, along with several counselors. The campers were introduced to the site by Mr. Ed Chaney himself and were then brought to the screens to sift through the plowzone soil. Almost every volunteer was handed a shovel and gladly took turns digging in their group’s unit. The campers were new to archaeology but quickly became interested and asked great questions. Seth, one of the counselors, discovered an almost whole quartz projectile point… great find! The summer sun certainly energized these campers and we enjoyed their company and hard work!

Adventure campers digging and screening		Campers and Counselor Seth showing projectile point.

                                        
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Bead in Hand
Temperatures are heating up, and so are things out in the field. We are still encountering many features at the 18th century slave quarter site, and we’re anxious to uncover what they all mean! We’ve had lots of great volunteers and hope to see more of you as the season draws to a close. Our most exciting artifact from this past week is a glass bead known as a Cornaline d’Aleppo, named after a town in Syria. This beautifully crafted item has an opaque red exterior over a clear green center, and is approximately 1 cm long. It was discovered on the west side of the slave quarter area. Hardly any beads have been found at this site, so we were very excited when it turned up in the screen! These beads are thought to be of French or Venetian origin. One reference book says that these beads were traded at a rate of 6 beads for one beaver pelt, and were sometimes referred to as Hudson Bay Beads. Cornaline d’Aleppo beads were common from the late 17th century through the 18thcentury, which fits perfectly into the timeline of our site.

Glass bead found at Smith St. Leonard site.

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Monday, June 15, 2009
Archaeologists for a Day
JPPM welcomed students from the Poolesville Magnet High School this week. The magnet high school’s Junior class volunteered at the Public Archaeology excavations, toured the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, and visited the reconstructed Indian Village during their two day visit to the Park and Museum. Teachers from the magnet school were looking for opportunities to get students out of the classroom to see what kinds of interesting professions exist in the world and we were happy to oblige! They met staff members with backgrounds in history, anthropology, science, and art, and spoke with archaeologists, conservators, curators, and educators. The kids were enthusiastic and inquisitive and we look forward to working with them again next year when they return for another visit!

        
Students excavating at the slave quarter.                          Touring the MAC Lab.           

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Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Something to "Stew" On
This year’s Public Archaeology program is going great guns, and last week was proof of that. We are getting lots of volunteers, and uncovering lots of features at the 18th-century slave quarter site, including more postholes, which makes us think there may be more than one quarter on the site. But perhaps the most interesting find of the week was the handle of a tin-glazed earthenware (or “delftware”) porringer. Porringers were small, shallow bowls with a flat, horizontal handle. They could be made from both metal and ceramic, and were commonly used for eating. Porringers got their name because they often contained porridge, a type of stew. Porridge was often drunk, rather than eaten with a spoon, and the small, single-handled porringers would fit perfectly in the hand for that purpose. The handles were often perforated, as ours is. The bowl itself probably had a painted design on it. Now we just need to find the rest of the porringer to see what that design is!

Porringer handle discovered last week.		Example of a tin-glazed porringer with a perforated handle. From British Delft At Williamsburg, by John C. Austin, 1994.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Public Archaeology Puzzle
The first week of the 2009 JPPM Public Archaeology Program has, like so many of the weeks in previous seasons, uncovered more mysteries than answers! We’ve been excavating the 18th-century Smith’s St. Leonard site, in an area where enslaved workers once lived. Evidence of their house (or houses) was found previously, but this season we have begun exposing a large, shallow, pit-like feature. It is at least 15 feet across, and probably bigger than that. We don’t yet know what produced this pit, but similar features, interpreted as wallows for penned animals, were found elsewhere at JPPM and at an 18th-century site in Prince Frederick. But it is going to take a lot more excavation before we figure out what we have found this year. Artifacts like bottle fragments and nails are visible at the top of the feature, so we are anxious to explore it. One artifact recovered last week was a small brass ornament, shaped roughly like an arrow. These ornaments were attached to leather straps, bags, etc., for both horses and people. They came in a variety of shapes. A similar one was found a number of years ago at the King’s Reach site, which was home of the Smith family before they moved to the Smith’s St. Leonard site in 1711. If you want to learn more about these leather ornaments, go to JPPM’s website at http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/Small Finds/leather escutcheons/Web Pages/LeatherOrnaments.htm.

Come back to this page next week to learn about our latest Public Archaeology Program finds. Or volunteer at the site and be a part of the discoveries! Go to http://www.jefpat.org/3arch-public.htm for more information.

Leather Ornament from Smith’s St. Leonard Site

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Friday, May 15, 2009
Public Archaeology Season Opens
Volunteers supervised by staff archaeologists started excavating the Smith’s St. Leonard site on JPPM property this week. The buried remains of an 18th-century plantation owned by Richard Smith, Jr. include a family residence, a slave quarter, a detached kitchen, and other buildings. This year’s volunteers will focus on the slave quarter and an unknown building located nearby. The season continues through July 4th with excavations taking place between 10am and 3pm on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, weather permitting. The program also welcomes the public into the lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays where they can clean and examine the artifacts they have found. If you would like to participate, call Ed Chaney at 410.586.8554 or, if you don’t want to talk to Ed, you can email him at echaney@mdp.state.md.us. We’ll be bringing you a lot more information about the site and the artifacts discovered there as the season continues.

Ed trying to look important while supervising the volunteers actually doing work.	Volunteers screening for artifacts

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Friday, May 8, 2009
Egyptians in Baltimore?
Not exactly. This Egyptian-motif metal pendant, or charm, was excavated in 1980 during archaeological investigations at the Federal Reserve Bank building site in Baltimore. It was found in a brick-lined privy which was filled with wet, black muck (who wants to be an archaeologist?). The muck was water screened (water was poured over the excavated dirt in a screen) in order to recover any small objects. Because construction and archaeology were taking place at the same time (AAH!), there were serious obstacles to acquiring all the information needed to properly date many of the features on the site. The privy feature that contained the pendant/charm could possibly be dated to the late 19th century, or it could be dated to the early 20th century when the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb created quite an Egyptian fashion craze.

Egyptian Pendant or Charm

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Announcing *New Webpage*
JPPM’s new webpage “Wood and Charcoal Identification in Southern Maryland” can explain everything you would EVER want to know (and probably some things you really wouldn’t) about identifying hardwoods and softwoods, as well as recognizing characteristics of archaeological remains from chestnut, cottonwood, birch, and many other species of trees. The ability to identify wood species helps archaeologists to interpret historical wood artifacts, while analysis of charcoal found on archaeological sites can teach us about climate change and the environmental impact by humans on the landscape.

Go to www.jefpat.org/Wood&CharcoalIdentification/Introduction.htm to check out the new information (and groovy microscopic pictures).

     American Black Walnut wood sample                           American Black Walnut charcoal sample   

**Also** we are completely redesigning JPPM’s webpage to be NEW, IMPROVED, and BETTER THAN EVER. Check back in December 2009 and see what we’ve done!

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Friday, April 10, 2009
Scuppers
The conservation department has begun treatment on three scuppers from the CSS Alabama, a Civil War Confederate raider that sank off Cherbourg, France in 1864. Scuppers are drains that allow water falling on the ship’s deck to flow overboard or into the bilges. So far, conservators have cleaned them using a scalpel, picks, and a glass bristle brush to remove marine deposits and some areas of corrosion. The scuppers are made of lead, so safety precautions were taken – masks, coats, elbow length gloves (see below). Since the Alabama was found in 1984, artifact recovery efforts from underwater archaeological investigations have been ongoing, so hopefully we’ll see even more of the ship’s artifacts at the MAC Lab in the future.

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Thursday, April 2, 2009
That’s a Lot of Pottery
The collections staff started sorting through an immense amount of Native American pottery sherds this week from the Obrecht site in Anne Arundel County. All of the sherds, along with projectile points, bone, and oyster shell, are being rehoused (organized and repacked). When asked how many pieces there were to be sorted, the collections staff replied, “a LOT” (accompanied by a very dirty look). The artifacts are from archaeological investigations of a Late Woodland period base camp and village site completed by the University of Maryland and the Archeological Society of Maryland in 1974. Much of the pottery has cord impressed and/or incised decoration.

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Friday, March 27, 2009
Volunteer Spotlight
Our featured volunteer this week, Carol, began helping at the Lab in 2003 and has been here ever since. Carol’s first project was to catalogue over 1500 Native American projectile points (oh yeah, she remembers that one). Since then, she has researched historical ceramics, sorted and rehoused collections, created educational drawers and boxes (including a particularly cool one that shows the development of Native American vessel technology over time), conserved 17th-century bottle glass, and completed many, many other projects. We appreciate her enthusiasm and all of the hours she has spent in the Lab. Thanks, Carol!

Hard at work in the research lab

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Goodbye Canoe
In the Spring of 2008, MAC Lab conservators began treating a dugout canoe that had been discovered on a beach in New Jersey. After it was found, the cedar canoe had been tossed in a dumpster (being mistaken for a discarded Boy Scout project). Later, a wood sample taken from it was carbon dated to the year 210 A.D. (whoops!). Conservators freeze-dried the canoe and repaired some minor damage, and now its treatment is completed. Soon, the canoe will be sent on its way back to New Jersey to be exhibited in a museum. Maybe the display case will look like a dumpster? Nah.

Dugout canoe in treatment.

Check out the charcoal visible on the    interior surface of the canoe in this after-    treatment photo.

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Thursday, March 5, 2009
Civil War Canteen
Since 2004, conservators at the Lab have been treating artifacts from Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the New World. The archaeological collections in Jamestown were flooded by Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and the National Park Service contracted with the MAC Lab, on Jamestown’s behalf, to treat 34,000 (!) of the water-damaged artifacts. This iron canteen is one of 3,000 artifacts that remain to be treated here as part of the Jamestown Project. The location on the Jamestown property where the canteen was found had been occupied by both armies of the Civil War at different times between 1861 and 1865.

Before Treatment Photo of Jamestown Project Canteen

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Friday, February 27, 2009
Cute Finds
While rehousing (organizing and repacking) collections from Baltimore this week, curators came across these children’s belongings that were excavated in 1980 in preparation for the construction of the new Federal Reserve Bank office building. The artifacts, excavated by Mid-Atlantic Archaeological Research, Inc., were found in a feature that dates to the mid 19th century. The teacup is particularly interesting to the collections staff because they first came across a similar cup last summer in a collection from Queen Anne’s County and never expected to find another like it, and then - voila!

Child’s metal ring, thimble and toy teacup.		Small ceramic figurine of a sheep.

Toy cup from Baltimore (left).    Toy cup from Queen Anne’s county (right).

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Friday, February 20, 2009
Dogshore
An 18th -century oak dogshore (a temporary support for a ship just before launching) was recently extracted from one of the lab freezers where it has been freeze-drying, as the last phase of its treatment, since 2002. Because of the size and shape of this artifact, it would not fit into the lab’s vacuum freeze-drier (even though it is the largest archaeological freeze-drier on the east coast!), and so it had to be freeze-dried the “old-fashioned” way. The dogshore comes to us from the Steward Shipyard, which was located in Anne Arundel County. The shipyard, one of colonial Maryland’s most important shipbuilding sites, was excavated by the Archeological Society of Maryland during their 1993 field session.

Dogshore being weighed and measured.

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Friday, February 13, 2009
“British Views” Plate and a Little Baseball History
One of the ongoing projects at the Lab is the expansion of our Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland webpage (www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/Index.htm). Our director, Patricia Samford, is currently updating the webpage to include19th-century ceramics like this plate depicting an English country estate in Yorkshire. The plate comes from a site in Baltimore on the property that became Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles. The house previously on the site was built as a single-family dwelling in the early 19th century and later became the location of Babe Ruth’s family home and tavern between 1906 and 1912. Look for more updates on interesting ceramics as Tricia continues her project!

   How many conservators does it take  
   to lift a cannon carriage fragment?    

                               Three. And a crane!!

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Conservation Treatment Reveals Details
In the conservation department last week, manual cleaning with a scalpel under a microscope revealed interesting decoration on a small medal recovered from Johnsontown, an archaeological site located in Charles County. The 1.6 cm by 1.2 cm artifact is a colonial period St. Benedict Medal and is thought to be used for, among other things, exorcism rituals(!). Everybody here was VERY excited - pretty sure there wasn’t anyone who hadn’t seen it (and consequent pictures of it) within an hour of the details being discovered.

     Detail of St. Benedict                Inscription surrounding the     
                                               image of St. Benedict    

*Look for this unusual artifact to be the subject of an upcoming Curator’s Choice!

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Thursday, January 22, 2009
*New* Archaeology Updates
Starting NEXT WEEK, the staff of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory (MAC Lab) will post periodic updates on interesting projects, artifacts, treatments, visitors… any and all things great and small that we find (and that we find out) at the MAC Lab!

Teaser Alert!

Could this artifact be the subject of the next update?

Check back and see!