TREETOPS TERRACE
18MO463

Introduction

The Treetops Terrace site (18MO463) is located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda Campus, in Montgomery County, Maryland. The site consists of concentrations of both prehistoric and historic artifacts representative of Early and Middle Woodland period short-term camps, and a house occupied from the 19th to the early 20th century.

Archaeological Investigations

The site yielded a great number of quartz preforms, bifaces in early, middle, and late stages of tool production, and two largely intact projectile points (Calvert and Jack’s Reef), with associated cores and debitage. The site is located on one of the higher hilltops in the area, where veins of quartz erode from the ground. The prehistoric component of the site is interpreted as a lithic procurement and tool production area repeatedly occupied throughout the Early and Middle Woodland periods.

Limited diagnostic artifacts were found during Phase I testing by Elizabeth Comer in 1996. Phase II evaluation (also by Comer) included excavation of 14 test units, none of which contained features or additional diagnostic prehistoric artifacts.

Historic artifacts included whiteware, pearlware, creamware, domestic stoneware, cut and wire nails, tinted bottle glass, and buttons. Structures appear in this location on the 1865 Martenet & Bond Map ("F.L. Moore"), the 1878 G. M. Hopkins Atlas ("Briton"), and on the 1923 USGS 15' Rockville topographic quadrangle. The 1923 quadrangle shows the main house on top of the hill (the standing "Treetops House") and another structure on the south side of the hill, in the area of the site, as mapped. The artifacts may come from this structure, which may be an outbuilding of some kind.

Archeobotanical Studies

Soil samples were collected from Features 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, and 10 (related to the historic occupations) during Phase II evaluation at the Treetops Terrace site. A total of 25 liters of soil was collected in 15 samples for water flotation. Analysis was completed by Justine McKnight. Processing yielded a scant 1.21 grams (an average density of 0.04 grams per liter) of charcoal from 33 pieces of wood charcoal (pine) and amorphous carbon. No food plant remains were recovered.

Non-carbonized seed remains were abundant, with a variety of weedy species identified (copperleaf, pigweed, goosefoot, goosegrass, spurge, carpetweed, oxalis, knotweed, purselane, raspberry, elderberry, and chickweed). Non-carbonized wood fibers were also noted in 13% of the analyzed flotation samples. These non-carbonized plant remains are likely modern intrusions to the archaeological record at Treetop Terrace.

References