Antenna Field (18ST386)
This site is a c. 1660-1720 colonial domestic site, approximately 200' square,
in the western edge of the Antenna Field on the NESEA property at the Webster
Field Annex. The site was likely a small tenant farmer occupation. The poor
drainage and soil quality of the land would not have been preferred for
settlement, and the artifact assemblage, though small in size, contained no
artifacts to suggest a wealthy household. Architectural evidence recovered from
the field's surface indicated the structure was most likely a post-supported frame
building with at least one chimney partly constructed of brick. This type of
dwelling was typical in the 17th-century Chesapeake and housed Marylanders of
all social levels. This site is the earliest archeological evidence of colonial
occupation on the NESEA property, and the only 17th-century site yet identified.
During the fall of 1982, the Southern Maryland Regional Center conducted a Phase I
archaeological survey at Fort Point under the direction of Michael A. Smolek. At
this time a local collector (Alan T. Spence) brought an artifact collection,
including some recovered from the Antenna Field, to the attention of the
archaeologists. As a result, a very preliminary survey of the nearby Antenna
Field (named c. 1982 when three large antennas were placed there) was made.
A late 17th/early 18th-century probable tenant site (18ST386) was identified.
Diagnostic artifacts indicated a second half of the 17th-century occupation date.
This original 1982 survey of this field also recovered a scatter of prehistoric
artifacts, including one Holmes point and one Brewerton point.
In 1985, Julia A. King and Dennis Pogue of the Southern Maryland Regional Center
conducted additional investigations in advance of new drain lines planned through
the field. Testing consisted of systematic surface collection and 11 5x5'
excavation units, of which 5 were screened. The 1985 survey turned up 89 lithics,
1 mortar, and 7 small, unidentified shell-tempered pottery fragments. Nothing
was diagnostic to a specific time period, and no subsurface features were
identified.
In 1996, a systematic Phase I survey of the Webster Field Annex property was conducted
by Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum. The 1985 site boundaries were refined to be
525 feet north-south by 275 feet east-west, encompassing both the prehistoric
and historic components of the site. Sixty-nine positive STPs excavated at
25-foot intervals defined the revised site boundaries. In general, the artifacts
were similar to those found in 1985, and support the suggested 17th-century date
for the site. However, 18th-century pipe fragments, along with the English brown
and white salt-glazed stoneware sherds, may suggest that the inhabitants of the
nearby early 18th-century site at 18ST541 made some use of the 18ST386 area.
In May of 2013, The Louis Berger Group, Inc. conducted Phase II testing at the
site on behalf of the Navy. Ahead of the Phase II excavation, the artifacts
recovered during the 1996 shovel testing of the site were analyzed for spatial
distribution. The shovel test data and artifact information were brought into
GIS. The analyses showed a cluster of historic artifacts in the central part
of the landform, extending from the antenna tower site (now a fenced copse of
trees) to the west-southwest. Architectural artifacts clustered more tightly
around the antenna tower area. Prehistoric artifacts were distributed in small
clusters across the entire landform, with the highest density observed north of
the antenna tower. The spatial analysis was used to guide the 2013 Phase II
testing, which included 11 .9x.9-meter test units within the plotted Phase I
artifact concentrations. Subsequent test units were used to explore the
artifact-rich areas within the site and to identify potential archaeological
features.
Three historic features and one prehistoric feature were identified. The
historic features, which dated to the mid- to late-17th century and consisted
of two middens and a trash pit, were located in the western portion of the
site near a spring head and small stream. The prehistoric feature is enigmatic
and yielded 95 prehistoric artifacts, principally ceramics (n=90). Although
most of the potsherds were eroded and not able to be typed, the typed
ceramics from the feature are all Popes Creek ware, an early Middle Woodland
type.
In all, 165 prehistoric artifacts were recovered, including 106 ceramics. Of
these, all the typed specimens were Popes Creek net-impressed. The second
largest component of the assemblage is debitage, with 48 pieces recovered,
principally quartz and quartzite. Three tools were recovered, consisting of a
mano (grinding stone), an endsraper, and a retouched flake. A small amount
of fire-cracked rock (n=8) was also recovered. The prehistoric assemblage
indicates that some food preparation or processing occurred on-site, as
well as stone tool manufacturing. Prehistoric site activities may have
included pottery manufacturing; a possible open-fire kiln was identified
in Test Unit 4. The artifact data also indicate that tool manufacturing
occurred on site, with quartz, quartzite, and chert cobbles reduced from
early stages into intermediate or final stages of reduction. All told,
the prehistoric assemblage suggests that the site functioned at least as
a short-term encampment, perhaps seasonally occupied.
The historic artifact assemblage included more than 800 artifacts, of
which 30% were recovered from feature contexts and the remainder (n=578)
from non-feature contexts. The historic occupation likely dates from the
last half of the 17th century to c. 1720, and the site appears to have
been occupied by one or more tenant farmers. No structural features
were identified, but the house location was likely south-southwest of the
antenna pad. The tobacco pipe assemblage suggests that the main occupation
of the site was in the last half of the 17th century, from approximately
1660 through the 1680s. The overall pipe stem assemblage was found to have
a mean date of 1656. One interpretation would be that the site had a
fairly continuous occupation from the last half of the 17th century to
c. 1720. Another possibility is that the site was occupied as a tenant
farmstead between approximately 1660 and the 1680s, and that it was used
subsequently into the 18th century for dairying or other ancillary
agricultural use.
All three historic features appear to be kitchen trash deposits associated
with an unknown tenant farmer who leased the property from the Society of
Jesus during the mid- to late 17th century. The features contained household
artifacts and indicate that both wild and domesticated comestibles were used
by the residents of the site. Most of the ceramics recovered were
utilitarian lead-glazed wares often associated with food processing. Several
were non-diagnostic, but others were identified as Manganese Mottled,
North Devon, and Surry ware. In addition, two of the redwares recovered
from one feature were identified as potential Morgan Jones pottery, a ware
type produced locally in the Chesapeake region during the 1660s and
1670s. Only three pieces of fine tableware, Delftware, were recovered from
features. The prevalence of cheaper utilitarian ceramics in the kitchen
assemblage and the paucity of more expensive fashionable tableware are
reflective of the low social standing of the tenant farmer who resided at
site 18ST386.
Site summary revised from Medusa by Patricia Samford
((Modified from state site form by Patricia
Samford)