Town Pond (18TA7)
Site History
The Town Pond site (18TA7) is the multicomponent site consisting of a Late Woodland short-term resource procurement and an 18th-century trash pit. The site is located on Town Creek near the town of Oxford in Talbot County, Maryland.
Archaeological Investigations
This site was recorded by Chuck Fithian in 1971 as a colonial trash pit with a Late Woodland component. The trash pit, measuring about 25-30 feet in length, contains concentrations of oyster shell, bone, brick and 18th-century artifacts. Artifacts collected in 1971 included clay pipe fragments, wine bottle fragments, ceramics such as Buckley ware, North Midlands slipware, and Rhenish stoneware, coarse earthenware, two gunflints, and flakes of English flint, nails, and a broken knife. In addition, Late Woodland Indian artifacts have been found. Several triangular points, pestle, pottery, and many flakes of flints, jasper, and chert.
In 2001, URS Corporation conducted Phase I testing of the 245-acre property in advance of a housing development. Fieldwork consisted of a combination of controlled surface collection and STPs at 15m intervals with 5m radials. The pedestrian survey identified a surface scatter of shell and artifacts.
Based on the results from the pedestrian survey, fourteen shovel tests spaced 15 meters apart were excavated. The shovel tests were placed in two transects perpendicular to one another. Ten additional shovel tests were excavated at five-meter intervals around two shovel tests that cut into the trash pit to explore the extent of the dark surface stain. In total, 24 shovel tests were excavated to test site 18TA7. Artifacts recovered from the site are mostly 18th century ceramics, as well as container glass, iron nails, and brick fragments. Only two prehistoric artifacts were recovered from Phase I investigations at 18TA7: a black chert biface thinning flake and a piece of fire cracked rock.
Of particular interest are several sherds of locally produced crude redware dating to the 18th century. Several of these lead-glazed sherds show signs of over-firing indicating they may be kiln wasters. Artifacts of this nature are often associated with the location of a kiln but given the fact that none of the other ceramics from the area show signs of burning, this is a remote possibility at best.
The principal component at site 18TA7 is the 18th century historic component associated with the large refuse pit. This site may be related to the early settlement of Plimhimmon.
References
2001 Phase I Archeological Survey at Plimhimmon Farm, Talbot County, Maryland. (URS Corporation) MHT # TA 561971.
