Rosenstock Site (18FR18)

The Rosenstock site (18FR18) is a Late Woodland period village characteristic of the Montgomery Focus, a late prehistoric cultural manifestation in the middle Potomac River drainage in Maryland and Virginia. The site occupies approximately 1.5 acres on a high bluff overlooking the Monacacy River.

The site was first noted by artifact collectors in 1907, and the site was officially recorded in 1970. The property has not been plowed since 1913 and is currently wooded. Throughout the 20th century the site was extensively collected by amateur archaeologists.

Four seasons of Archeological Society of Maryland (ASM) field schools at Rosenstock I were conducted in 1979 and from 1990 through 1992. Approximately 360 square meters were excavated, representing about seven percent of the total site area.

The site is roughly circular, described by an arching line of trash-filled pits. No palisade has been documented, despite efforts to locate such a feature. Known features include two semi-subterranean “keyhole” structures which may be the remains of sweat-lodges, burials, and household features including hearths, sheet midden, and refuse-filled pits.

Recovered artifacts include abundant ceramics (almost exclusively Shepard Cord-Marked ware) bearing a variety of decorative motifs; clay tobacco pipes; projectile points (including predominantly Levanna triangular points along with LeCroy, Savannah River, Lehigh/Kroens-Crispin, Hellgrammite, Selby Bay, and Jack’s Reef types); and miscellaneous artifacts including a small steatite mask, chunkey stone fragments, gorget and celt fragements, bone and shell beads, a worked sharks tooth, bone fishhook, and worked soapstone. An array of faunal materials was also well-documented at the site.

The ASM investigations included a rigorous program of radiocarbon dating of wood charcoal in an effort to document the cultural chronology of the Rosenstock site. Thirteen radiocarbon dates span a range from AD 1000 to nearly AD 1600. This suite of dates extends beyond the timeframe previously established for Montgomery Complex occupations (AD1000 to 1300), and yet occupational evidence at Rosenstock I suggests a single-component village occupation characterizes the site (see Curry and Kavanaugh 2004). An additional direct AMS date on cultivated bean from Feature 17 is also available (McKnight 2009).

(Edited from Maryland Archeobotany)