St. Mary's City (18ST1-136)
Site History
This multicomponent site (18ST1-136A) represents a Late Archaic and Late Woodland artifact scatter, and a third quarter of the 17th-century post-in-ground house site. The site is located along Point Lookout Road (MD 5) near the town center of Historic St. Mary’s City in St. Mary's County, Maryland.
Archaeological Investigations
Archaeological testing was conducted by Historic St. Mary's City archaeologists in 1994 during the SHA Phase I Streetscape survey. Twenty shovel test pits, spaced at 20 and 10' intervals, were placed on the west side of Point Lookout Road. Two 5x5' test units placed within concentration.
A variety of 17th-century, colonial, and prehistoric artifacts were recovered from the shovel tests, including wrought nails, brick fragments, daub, Red Sandy ware, a white clay pipe fragment, colonial bottle glass, 17th-century glass trade beads, quartz and quartzite flakes, and a Townsend ware sherd.
A 5 × 5 foot test unit was then placed within the concentration area. While there were few domestic artifacts, colonial architectural remains were better represented, and included wrought nails, brick fragments, and daub. Due to the concentration of architectural materials here, another 5 × 5 foot unit was placed five feet to the south of the first but yielded only plow scars. Additional artifacts were found included Rhenish brown stoneware, a fragment of earthenware with a black glaze, tin-glazed earthenware sherds, colonial bottle glass, and wrought nails. An abundance of prehistoric artifacts was also present in these units, attesting to a multicomponent occupation in this location.
Eighty-five colonial artifacts were recovered from shovel testing and test unit excavation combined. Collectively they point to a 17th-century occupation, including a dwelling with a wattle-and-daub chimney. A small piece of a micaceous sandstone was recovered, which is identical to that used in the floor of the 1667 Great Brick Chapel. The two blue beads were of a type most commonly found in pre-1660 contexts on St. Mary's City sites. These beads, the Red Sandy ware, round bottle glass (post-1650), and the Chapel stone (post-1667) all suggest an occupation sometime in the period between c. 1650 and 1675.
References
1996 Phase I archeological survey for the Md. Rt. 5 streetscape project, St. Mary's City, Md. (SHA Archeological Report No. 159.) MHT # ST 142.
