Billingsley Site (18PR9)

The Billingsley Site (18PR9) is multi-component site consisting of Early, Middle, & Late Archaic and Early, Middle, & Late Woodland village and base camps. The site is situated on a terraced landform above the west bank of the Patuxent River, just north of its confluence with the Western Branch on property owned by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The site may the location of multiple villages visited by Captain John Smith in 1607 and one of the last sites occupied by the Patuxent Indians. Possible village names are Wighkamameck and Coppagan. In a 1951 article published in The Maryland Naturalist (21, 1-2), Richard Stearns states "a seven hundred acre tract was laid out for Major John Billingsley at the junction of the Western Branch and the Patuxent River. This land was the last known to have been occupied by the Patuxent Indians before they abandoned their ancient settlements on the River forever. In the year 1674 an attempt was made by the Province to purchase this land for the use of the Indians. The votes were cast in favor of the purchase by both the upper and lower houses of the Maryland Assembly but it is not known that the transaction was ever completed."

The site, first identified in 1905 by avocational archaeologist Talbot D. Jones, has been the subject of much attention from both avocational and professional archaeologists since that time. Somewhat confusingly, the site has gone by several different names (Billingslea, Iron Pot Landing, and Meloy), usually assigned by avocational archaeologists collecting artifacts from the site. These collectors and archaeologists include Richard E. Stearns, Howard McCord, Bob Ogle, Dennis Webb, Dietrick, Slattery, and Manson. Even as early as the beginning of the 20th century, avocational archaeologists stated that the frequent collecting at the site had begun to severely impact the quantities of artifacts visible on the ground surface.

The site was initially placed on the state site register in 1963 and the current MHT-assigned site boundaries encompass nearly 150 acres, including agricultural fields, manicured lawn, scrub, woodlands, and wetlands. There are springs at the southern end of the site and marshy ground to the west, south and east. The Patuxent River is fresh water at this location, lying just to the north of the Jug Bay wetlands.

More recent studies by professional archaeologists have included artifact analysis of collections from the site by Laurie Cameron Steponaitis, showing that the site contained the following components: Early Archaic II, Early Archaic III, Early Archaic IV, Middle Archaic II, Late Archaic I, Late Archaic II, Late Archaic III, Late Archaic IV, Late Archaic V, Marcey Creek, Accokeek, Smallwood, Selby Bay, Little Round Bay, and Sullivan Cove.

In the mid-1990s, William Barse conducted a controlled surface collection on the lower terrace area where the site was originally recorded. The collection was made in 50-foot grid squares and showed that fire-cracked rock was clustered in discrete locales on the terrace. Probing in these areas revealed dense concentrations of rock below the plowzone, suggesting the likely location of intact hearth features. Additionally, a relatively large number of prehistoric ceramics representing Early, Middle, and Late Woodland components were recovered from the controlled surface collection.

In October of 2018, the Maryland Historical Trust Office of Archeology conducted a magnetic susceptibility survey of approximately 5.1 acres at the Billingsley Site in fields to the south of the standing Billingsley manor house. The objective of the survey was to refine spatial data associated with the site and better define areas of known 20th-century artifact collecting activity. Magnetic susceptibility of surface soils was measured at a 5-meter interval throughout the 5.1 acre survey area. The survey team was able to successfully identify a roughly 1.3-acre area of enhanced magnetic susceptibility, likely representing numerous hearths and other features created by past human activity at what was likely the core of a prehistoric village or base camp.

In May of 2019, the ASM Field Session was held at the site, focusing on areas of magnetic anomalies discovered during the remote sensing. A series of 14 shovel test pits were placed across the site during the field session, in order to better understand the site stratigraphy. Twelve test units were excavated, focusing on areas of geophysical anomalies. Eight features were identified through the excavation of these test units; five features were from the pre-contact period, two were non-cultural bioturbations and one was not excavated. Several of these features were hearths and others were pits of indeterminate function.

In 2021, an additional field session was held at the site. Fourteen 2 x 2 meter squares were opened in four blocks at the site. Two features, an oyster roasting pit carbon dated to the Late Woodland/Contact period, and a refuse pit carbon dated to the Late Archaic, were partially excavated.

((Modified from state site form by Patricia Samford)