Cottage Site (18CV270)
Site History
The Cottage site (18CV270) is an Early Archaic and Late Woodland artifact scatter and late 17th-century post-in-ground house site located on Mackall Cove, a tributary of St. Leonard Creek, on the grounds of Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in Calvert County.
Archaeological Investigations
A portion of the site was to have been impacted by construction of a parking lot associated with the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences Estuarine Laboratory (now the Morgan State PEARL Lab). Archaeological investigations and project redesign minimized the impact to 18CV270.
In 1986, a Phase I controlled surface collection of the plowed field was undertaken by Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum archaeologists (Pogue 1987). This survey showed two separate, but overlapping components, dating to the Late Woodland and the 17th century. The following year, a shovel test pit survey of unplowed areas was undertaken (McGuire 1988). A total of 55 shovel test pits were excavated, as well as three two-meter squares within the proposed parking lot area. The distribution of historic artifacts suggested a post-in-the ground structure and an outbuilding with an associated borrow pit or cellar.
In 1998, Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum archaeologists undertook additional investigations that included controlled surface collection of ~1200 3 × 3m units, 300 STPs, 10-15 1.5 &mtimes; 1.5m units and backhoe trenching in an area of low artifact density (proposed road bed, stormwater management system, parking lot, and lab facility).
References
1988 Summary of Cottage Field 1987 Shovel Test Survey. CV62.
1987 "Academy Field" Preconstruction Archaeological Survey. Review of Phase I Work to Date and Proposal for Additional site Testing. CV65.
