Lower Deep Run West (18HO33)

Site 18HO33, Stearns Site #5 or the Lower Deep Run West Site, is a multi-component lithic procurement site dating from the Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods. The site is situated on an ancient upland terrace adjacent to the floodplain of Deep Run.

The site’s existence has been known since at least the 1890s when T.D. Jones (a local collector) visited the site. In the mid-1940s, Richard E. Stearns visited the site and collected a fragment of a bannerstone as well as a groundstone gorget, but it wasn’t until 1973 that the site was finally recorded with the state. A few years later, in 1976, the site was visited during the course of an archaeological reconnaissance of the BWI Airport noise corridors. At that time, it was reported that the site had been destroyed by construction of a house and a small used car lot. This appears no to have been the case.

In the fall of 2006, Site 18HO33 was rediscovered during the course of a Phase I survey related to the widening of MD 295. During the investigations, a total of 20 shovel test pits (STPs) were placed within the site area. Twelve of the 20 shovel tests contained cultural materials: four produced historic materials and 8 produced prehistoric materials. The historic artifacts were determined to be refuse from a mid-20th century residence situated to the east of the site. However, the STPs that produced prehistoric materials outlined an approximately 45 m2 remnant of 18HO33. The prehistoric cultural material consisted of 34 pieces of lithic debitage. While no features or prehistoric ceramics were recorded, extensive disturbance was noted in the form of grading and filling for the road improvements.

The decision was made to proceed with an evaluation of Site 18HO33 due to the planned impacts that would happen as a result of the widening of MD 295. The Phase II investigations were undertaken in late summer of 2007 on behalf of the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). The 2007 work entailed the excavation of 45 additional shovel test pits placed at 5 meter intervals across the site area. Ten test units were then placed across the site based on the results of the Phase I and II shovel testing. All test units were 1 X 1 m in size. Five units were placed in the northwestern portion of the site. Two were placed in the southwest. One was placed in the center and two were placed in the eastern site area.

During Phase II excavations at 18HO33, no high or localized horizontal or vertical concentrations of cultural materials were noted and no cultural features or deposits were identified. A total of 1,017 cultural materials were recovered, the vast majority of which were prehistoric in age. Three diagnostic points were recovered; 1 Levanna point, and 2 Savannah River points. Based on the presence these points, the period of significance for 18HO33 has been identified as a long period of time spanning the era from the Late Archaic (3000-1000 BC) through the Late Woodland (AD100-1600). The assemblage is indicative of a multi-component lithic procurement site.

Only 108 historic artifacts were recovered during the excavations. Nearly all of these materials are from plowzone contexts and are indicative of material discarded alongside the road or in the field.

Testing within the site did not produce more than a few diagnostics or finished tools. No concentrations of artifacts were identified that might reflect activity areas, and no cultural features indicative of site layout and settlement patterns were identified.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)