Warfield (18PR33)

The Warfield site (18PR33) is a Late Archaic and Woodland period base camp situated in the floodplain of the Patuxent River near Bowie in Prince George’s County. It probably served primarily as an interior hunting camp and possibly as a seasonal fishing station.

The Warfield site was known to avocational archaeologists since at least the 1930s. It was first examined by professional archaeologists in 1980, when the Maryland Geological Survey conducted a Phase I survey for a road realignment project. Three test units and several shovel test pits were excavated there, producing two diagnostic artifacts. The property owner’s private collection had many more Late Archaic and Woodland period artifacts, so Phase II investigations were carried out in 1982.

A total of 290 shovel test pits and 20 test units were excavated during the Phase II work. This revealed that the site was larger than the project limits, and had several overlapping loci of occupation: an Archaic component dispersed across the entire site, an Early Woodland component on the floodplain and northwest portion of the site, and a Middle/Late Woodland component that clustered in the northwest quadrant. Test units in the southwestern portion of the site exhibited a somewhat disturbed stratigraphy. For example, mending portions of a Bare Island point were recovered 30 cm apart in elevation in one unit. A disturbed Middle Woodland hearth was also encountered in this portion of the site. Artifact-bearing soils at the north and west ends of the site tended to be shallower, with various combinations of buried topsoil, plowzone, slope wash, and modern fill. The northeast quadrant was less disturbed, with a buried A horizon below thick floodplain deposits.

Thirty-two diagnostic projectile points, a majority dating to the Late Archaic, were recovered during the Phase II excavations. A number of other tools, including a bannerstone, and large quantities of debitage were also found. A total of 296 ceramic sherds, ranging from Early Woodland period Marcey Creek to Late Woodland Potomac Creek, were recovered. One unidentified Late Woodland type, similar to Riggins Ware, was described at the site.

Because several portions of the site had good stratigraphic integrity, including deeply-buried sealed contexts in the floodplain, 18PR33 was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The site is now preserved in the median and surrounding areas of Maryland Route 3.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)