Long Site (18ST372)

The Long Site (18ST372) is an Early-Middle Woodland artifact scatter and historic refuse scatter at the Webster Field Annex of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary's County. The site is located within an agricultural field with St. Inigoes Creek situated a short distance to the north. Fort Point and an unnamed stream and pond are to the west.

The site was first identified during a 1981 St. Mary's City archaeological field school, run in conjunction with the Southern Maryland Regional Preservation Center (now a part of the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum). The survey was carried out over 19 agricultural fields at Webster Field. The fields were surveyed through a controlled surface collection and, in a few cases, subsurface testing.

The 1981 field school identified the Long Site based on controlled surface collection, and defined it as the full extent of a farm field, encompassing 2.9 acres. The site was found to have a prehistoric component dating to the Early and Middle Woodland periods and was thought to be a short-term resource procurement site and encampment. Field records indicate that the survey recovered 134 prehistoric artifacts, including a sherd of Accokeek cordmarked, a Jack's Reef Pentagonal point, and an un-typed projectile point/knife. The remaining prehistoric artifacts were debitage (58) and fire-cracked rock (73).

The site also was found to have a historic component, with 65 artifacts recovered spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. Recovered artifacts include American blue and gray salt glazed stoneware, red-bodied coarse earthenware, bottle glass and brick fragments. The historic assemblage was thought to be indicative of either the presence of outbuildings or the result of field dumping.

The site was investigated again in 2010 as part of National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) compliance studies related to new construction at the installation. The Army National Guard, a tenant activity at the Webster Field Annex, was planning to construct a new hangar for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that might impact a portion of the Long Site.

In the 2010 Phase II investigation of 18ST372, the scope of the project was to define the boundaries of the site and to determine its nature, research potential, and state of integrity. Systematic subsurface testing via shovel testing was carried out to determine the structure of the site, what activities took place, and how they were organized spatially. Based on the distribution of artifacts revealed by shovel testing and the Phase I work, 8 formal test units were then excavated.

Shovel tests were initially placed at 15-meter intervals on four transects oriented the length of the field. "Transect A" was positioned along the western margin of the field, near a drainage ditch, and was only excavated in its southern extent because of standing water and wetlands further north. The four transects were spaced 7.5 meters apart, and the grid was staggered. Thick vegetation made it very difficult to accurately position shovel tests and maintain proper spacing along the transects, leading to imperfections in the grid. Close-interval shovel tests with 7.5 meter spacing were excavated around positive finds. Test units were excavated to examine artifact densities more closely, to search for features, and to allow a more detailed examination of site stratigraphy. In all, 115 shovel tests were excavated during the Phase II project.

Each shovel test measured approximately 35 cm in diameter and extended a minimum of 10 cm into subsoil. All soil from the shovel tests was screened through hardware cloth. Artifacts post-dating 1950 were noted and discarded in the field. Brick was sampled, with most of the material discarded in the field. Shovel tests were recorded on standardized field forms with soils data and field maps were generated showing testing locations. Digital photographs were taken to document the investigation areas.

Test units were excavated in areas where the Phase I survey had identified artifact concentrations and where Phase II shovel testing yielded artifact concentrations. Test units measured 1 X 1 m and were excavated into subsoil. The plowzone was screened in its entirety and excavated as a single level. Below the plowzone, excavation levels followed natural stratigraphy with arbitrary 10 cm levels for vertical control. Subsoil was sampled with the excavation of one 10 cm thick level across the entirety of the unit, followed by a 50 X 50 cm window a further 10 cm into the subsoil. Each stratum or level was recorded on standardized field forms, and scaled stratigraphic profiles and plan views were drawn. Test unit locations were recorded on field maps as well.

The stratigraphy of the site was found to consist of a thin humus above a plowzone. Underneath the plowzone is subsoil. No features were identified at the site. Artifacts were typically recovered from the humus and plowzone strata, although one piece of quartz debitage was recovered from below the plowzone in a shovel test.

The investigation yielded only traces of prehistoric and historic activity, all concentrated in the central and northern portions of the site. A total of 11 historic artifacts was recovered from the site, including a fragment of creamware (1762-1820), a fragment of hand-painted pearlware (1775-1820), a machine-cut nail, and 8 pieces of window glass. The historic assemblage of the site is interpreted as a refuse scatter spanning the 18th through the 20th centuries. The prehistoric assemblage from the Phase II investigation totaled 5 artifacts, consisting of 1 piece of prehistoric pottery (likely Late Woodland Moyaone ware), 3 pieces of debitage, and 1 piece of fire-cracked rock. The site assemblage suggests that short-term resource procurement was the primary site activity, with perhaps wetland resources, such as Tuckahoe (Peltandra Virginica), or tree mast procured and cooked on site. Given that Early Woodland and Middle Woodland diagnostic artifacts were recovered during the Phase II investigation, it appears that the procurement activities at the site spanned the Woodland period, from circa 1200 BC to AD 1600.

The Long Site (18ST372) has very low information potential with low artifact counts and no identified features. The site has two components, a prehistoric occupation associated with short-term resource procurement, and historic artifacts, which are a refuse scatter in a plowed field. Both resource types are commonplace in the region, and this site is not an outstanding example of those resource types. The Phase II investigation showed that the site has poor integrity, with artifacts from the occupations found principally in a plowzone. The site is not considered a significant resource.

(Edited slightly from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)