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2010 Field Session at Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum

Smith's St. Leonard Site (18CV91), Calvert County
14-24 May , 2010

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The 2010 Field Session was held at the Smith's St. Leonard Site (18CV91) in Calvert County from 14-24 May, 2010. The Smith's St. Leonard Sit was the homelot of a tobacco plantation occupied during the first half of the 18th Century. The area currently being investigated contains the plantation owner's house, his storehouse and a detached kitchen, a quarter for enslaved workers, and barns. Under the direction of Ed Chaney, the deputy director of the MAC Lab, the Smith’s St. Leonard Site has been the focus of JPPM’s Public Archaeology program since 2002. In addition to digging, screening and washing artifacts in the field, the MAC lab staff, including Ed Chaney, Becky Morehouse (curator of state collections), Patricia (Tricia) Samford (MAC lab director) and Kathy Concannon (MAC lab educator) prepared events that allowed participants to take full advantage of the many special opportunities presented by having the session at the MAC lab.

Photo 1: The field session started out with great weather and lots of open units for the crew to begin working in.	Photo 2:

Photo 3: The location was excellent with parking next to the site. No need to trudge up and down hills (Claggett '07 & '08) or through miles of mud (Winslow '03 & Hughes '06).	Photo 4:

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Photo 7: Ed Chaney, center, leads Charlie Hall, right, Maureen Kavanaugh and Dennis Curry through his orientation lecture before getting the troops off to work.	Photo 8: A field lab was set up on several days so that folks could get out of the sun and take a look at what was coming out of the units other than oyster shells and brick.

Photo 9: Beck Morehouse, standing, explains procedures for re-housing a collection for a group, Rebecca, Maxine and Robin, as they get ready to spend some time working in the MAC Range.	Photo 10: Charlie Hall goes over procedures for labeling and bagging a collection that was processed during the field session.

Photo 11: When rainy weather hit, the MAC Lab provided a great place to move the field lab chores indoors.	Photo 12: Sarah carefully cleans out the bowl of a pipe discovered the day before.

Photo 13: Calvin works on cleaning pipe stem.	Photo 14: Benton gets to use the skills that he had honed during his CAT qualification.

Photo 15: Ed showed a series of X-rays that had been produced in the lab and explained how they are used to help identify objects found in the field.	Photo 16: Susan and Lynne scrub artifacts while MAC staff supervise.

Photo 17: The first of three CAT Workshops, Basic Lab Procedures, get off to a great start.	Photo 18: Any MAC Lab tour must include the conservation lab and its extremely large freeze dryer.

Photo 19: Nicole explains electrolysis to a suitably attired Roy during the specialized cleaning workshop.	Photo 20: The results of a few seconds of cleaning a heavily tarnished spoon. Where can I get one of these electrolysis gadgets for my cleaning?

Photo 21: Rebecca uses a microscope to help in using mechanical cleaning measures on a potsherd.	Photo 22: Sarah using a dental waterpik to clean her materials during the cleaning workshop.

Photo 23: Some of the large items stored at the MAC lab become part of the tour.	Photo 24: Throughout the week, packs of second graders regularly pass through the lab on tours as well.

Photo 25: Lines form as Charlie starts to serve up the feast. The annual event was very popular with those who stayed through the week.	Photo 26: Becky talks about ASM's West River Adena collection. The collection was brought out for a display to those who attended the Spencer Geasey Memorial Lecture following the feast.

Photo 27: Rachel shows off the perfect end to the feast: S'Mores!!!	Photo 28: What happens when you mix a great field session, excellent camping, enthusiastic participants, a wonderful annual field session feast and a small amount of beer.

Photo 29: On our last full day in the field, Ed brought out some of the best artifacts of the session and presented a wrap up of the significant finds that appeared throughout the dig.	Photo 30: Ed talks about the discovery of additional post molds and their significance to the research being done here.

Photo 31: Artifacts, cleaned, bagged and ready for incorporation into analysis of the site.	Photo 32:

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Thanks - The Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc. and the Maryland Historic Trust would like to thank the staff of the Maryland Archeological Conservancy Lab and Jefferson-Patterson Park & Museum. Without their granting access to the site and permitting us to use their facilities, this Field Session would not have happened.