Brice Farm (18AN17)
Site History
The Brice Farm site (18AN17) is a multi-component site consisting of a Late Archaic camp, an Early, Middle, and Late Woodland shell midden and village, and a scatter of historic artifacts. The site is located on the Severn River near Manresa in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The site is named after Norman Brice, Jr., who owned the property and excavated extensively on the site.
No systematic survey of the site has been undertaken, so no site boundaries are currently known. The site is incompletely characterized as a "village" based on the presence of at least three vessels found prior to 1978. Radiocarbon dates from the site include those from the 1978 Peck excavations (1040 ± 60; 1385 ± 55) and the 2007 Ottery Group excavations (AD 10-210; AD 1270-1400) and indicate that the site was used during the late Early Woodland and throughout the Late Woodland. Additional diagnostic materials from the 2007 study indicate occupations of Late Archaic and Middle Woodland as well.
Archaeological Investigations
Multiple amateur and professional archaeologists have visited this site, including H.F. Sturdy, W. Mayre, Boucher, D. Arnold, Henry T. Wright, Donald Peck and Norman Brice. In 1958, Henry Wright recorded the site and collected artifacts, which became part of the Norman Brice collection. Between the 1950s and 1970s, Brice surface collected and excavated extensively at the site, carefully recording the location of his findings.
In 2007, the Ottery Group conducted excavations in the southeastern portion of the site prior to the construction of a dwelling. They excavated 83 shovel test pits, 4 test units, and 5 mechanically stripped trenches, revealind 13 subsurface features including a hearth scatter with 87 associated small posts (radiocarbon dated to AD 10-210), several small shell features, a large prehistoric pit (radiocarbon dated to AD 1270-1400).
The Brice Farm site is considered as a "type site" for Sullivan Cove ware (aka Sullivan ware). The most recent excavation recovered 35 prehistoric pottery sherds of which 3 were Sullivan Cove ware. Marcey Creek, Accokeek, Popes Creek, Mockley, Townsend, and Potomac Creek were also found. The existence of Sullivan Cove ware is occasionally debated as it is reported similar to a cordmarked variant of Townsend and occurs in the same temporal range and within the same geographical area.
References
2008 Archeological Investigations at the Waveland Farm Site (18AN17), Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. (The Ottery Group) MHT# AN 571.
1978 "Preliminary Test Excavations at the Waveland Farm Site (18AN17), Anne Arundel County, Maryland" Maryland Archeology 14(1-2):17-23.
2009 Survey and Assessment of Middle Woodland Period Sites in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. (Lost Towns Project).
1970 Field Notes on Maryland Archeology. MHT# MD 39.
Associated Artifacts
Sullivan Cove
