Schultz Farm #1 (18HO203)

Schultz Farm #1 (18HO203) is a multi-component short-term resource procurement site and transitory campsite dating from the Early to Middle Holocene (10,000 to 3,000 yrs BP) in Howard County, Maryland.

The site was first identified during a 1992 Phase IB survey undertaken by the Maryland State Highway Administration for the (then) proposed extension of MD Route 100. A total of 90 shovel tests were excavated at 20 m intervals on the Schultz Farm property. Of the 49 shovel tests that fell within the boundaries of the area proposed for wetlands mitigation, 33 shovel tests produced prehistoric artifacts. The site boundaries were found to extend outside of the areas of potential effect for the project.

The 339 prehistoric artifacts collected from the site during Phase I work consisted primarily of quartz debitage. One biface was identified as a Piscataway point.

During Phase II 32 test units were excavated within the site. Excavation units were combined into larger blocks due to the extreme depth of the cultural deposits. For safety reasons, a maximum depth of 1.50 m was placed on the excavation. A shovel test was excavated in the base of each unit to test for buried cultural strata. Soils were screened through hardware cloth. Soil, charcoal and wood samples were collected from sub-plowzone strata.

Three concentrations of lithic material were identified during the Phase IB survey; on the floodplain, the terrace, and on the slope between the two. Test units and blocks were placed in each of these areas.

A total of 2,669 prehistoric artifacts were recovered from the floodplain, the vast majority of these being debitage. Three radiocarbon dates from this area give uncalibrated dates of 10,430±80 years BP, 10,160±80 years BP (both from a recovered log), and of 6,920±60 years BP (from a peat layer). There is a possibility that the log was redeposited from elsewhere, or that the peat sample was contaminated during flotation. The terrace produced an assemblage of 125 artifacts, while the slope produced 280. Though 15 liters of cultural fill was selected for flotation processing, no ethnobotanical profile was prepared, as no species-level identifications were provided for much of the botanical material. Counts (of seeds, etc.) are not provided in the full site report.

Historic artifacts and a possible domestic structure were also encountered at the site, but are not discussed in detail in the full site report. They are not considered archaeologically significant.

Site 18HO203 represents a short-term resource extraction site and possible campsite with one intact component dating from the Early Holocene and a second intact component dating from sometime between the Early Holocene and the late prehistoric/early historic period. Site 18HO203 was determined not to have significant research potential and was subsequently flooded and altered by construction of a wetlands mitigation facility at the site.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)