Site History

Southern Maryland is well known to be the homeland of the Piscataway Indians. During historic times, the main body of Piscataways was established at several documented forts (most notably, Piscataway and Zekiah) until April or May 1697 when, reacting to colonial pressures and accusations, they left Maryland for the mountains of Virginia. Maryland Governor Francis Nicholson almost immediately began entreating the Piscataways to return to Southern Maryland (where they afforded a buffer of protection for the colonists from northern Indians, such as the Seneca). While the main Piscataway settlement never returned to Southern Maryland, they did return to the Maryland frontier early in 1699, settling on Conoy (now Heater’s) Island in Frederick County. Here they built a fort 50 or 60 yards square, with 18 cabins inside the fort and 9 outside. It was estimated in April 1699 that about 100 individuals lived on the island, although this number was greatly reduced by a smallpox epidemic that hit the island in late 1704 (57 men, women, and children were said to have died). Although the Piscataways sought permission from William Penn to settle in Pennsylvania as early as 1701, it does not appear that they began their move to Pennsylvania until October 1705; however, much of the village remained on Heater’s Island until at least 1712, and possibly as late as 1718, when the Piscataways were documented at Conoy Town in Pennsylvania. As such, the Heater’s Island site represents the last major Piscataway occupation in Maryland.

Archaeology

The Heater’s Island site was investigated in 1970 as part of a University of Maryland–College Park summer field school under the overall direction of Robert Schuyler and the field direction of J. Ivor Gross. Preliminary testing carried out in March 1970 consisted of seven 5-foot by 5-foot test units scattered over the site. The excavations undertaken later that summer were comprised of 113 5-foot by 5-foot units; these were concentrated in two large block excavation areas, with the remainder of the units scattered across the site. Excavation units were designated by the coordinate of their northeast corner and, because the grid’s 0,0 point was situated amid the excavations, all cardinal directions are employed in the square designation system. In addition, all seven test pits, two latrine pits, and all excavation units were assigned a laboratory number used to catalog the artifacts recovered. All excavated soils (except from the latrine pits) were screened through ¼-inch mesh. A substantial portion of the artifacts are cataloged as general surface finds and resulted from random collection. Excavation depths varied between 9 and 18 inches below surface (averaging 12-13 inches), encompassing a plowzone, a mottled transition zone, and subsoil. The subsoil contained Contact and pre-Contact period features and evidence of pre-Contact occupations on the island; the latter were not completely excavated and the vertical extent of these cultural levels is unknown.

Features uncovered at the site include a possible bastion of the fort, several refuse pits, and one pre-fort human burial (there are earlier Late and Early Woodland occupations on the island). Aside perhaps from several dozen brass or copper triangular points, most artifacts appear to be of European origin. These include ceramics (including Manganese Mottled, Staffordshire, Rhenish, and Border wares), glass beads (Cornaline d’ Aleppo beads predominate), tobacco-related artifacts (white clay pipestems and bowls, one pewter pipestem, smoker’s companion), gun-related artifacts (metal gun parts, gunflints, lead shot), nails, iron knives, and miscellaneous metal items.

Summary by Dennis C. Curry

References

The Heater’s Island archaeological collection is owned by the Maryland Historical Trust and curated at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.