Aug 30, 2013

St. Mary’s City is an archaeological jewel on Maryland’s Western Shore.

: Tim Riordan, right, Director of Archaeology at the Historical St. Mary’s City Museum, examines a piece of pre-historic Native Indian artifact unearthed by St. Mary’s College anthropology student Tong Mu, left, at the Calvert House dig site. The Historical St. Mary’s City and St. Mary’s College have conducted archaeology field school since 1971 to unearth and conserve historic artifacts from sites at and around the Calvert House, Maryland’s first statehouse. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Leyna Sapsai, of White Plains, Md., a sophomore History major at St. Mary’s College screens dirt for historical artifacts at the archaeological dig site at Calvert House. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Drill bits are used to measure the gauge of the interior hole of pieces of colonial clay pipes to help with dating. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Bags containing historical artifacts unearthed from archaeological dig sites in Historic St. Mary’s City are stored and waiting to be cleaned and conserved. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Bags of archaeological artifacts such as glass, ceramic, clay pipes and animal bones are labeled with the date and location of their discovery before cleaning begins. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Erin Crawford, a Junior anthropology student at Towson University, cleans historical artifacts unearthed from archaeological dig sites in Historical St. Mary’s City. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Erin Crawford, a junior anthropology student at Towson University, cleans a possible 300-year-old cow’s tooth unearthed from archaeological dig sites in Historical St. Mary’s City. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: A piece of colonial ceramic unearthed from a dig site in Historical St. Mary’s City is cleaned with water in the first step of its conservation. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: A piece of wire, tube cleaning snake, scissor and tooth brush are some of the tools used to clean archaeological artifacts unearthed from dig sites. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: The dirt blockage in a piece of colonial clay pipe is cleared with water and a piece of wire. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Heather Rardin, an archaeology laboratory assistant at the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum photographs a 17th century glass bead to document its conservation process. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Each piece of Colonial artifacts in the collection of the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum are labeled with it’s own location number identifying where it was found. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Silas D. Hurry, Curator of Collections and Archaeological Laboratory Director at the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum is surrounded by colonial artifacts unearthed in St. Mary’s City. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: An almost intact iron Hoe is one of the most exciting items found this July during Historical St. Mary’s City’s Historical Archaeology Field School. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Seventeenth century free blown wine bottle glasses unearthed from the St. John’s archaeological dig site, are first socked in deionized water during their conservation process. The piece of archaeological glass on left has a patina that was formed over time by chemical reaction with compounds in the soil where it was found. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Pieces of archaeological glass, unearthed from the St. John’s dig site, go through the vacuum consolidation process where air, in the form of bubbles, is removed by vacuum to allow a plastic polymer consolidant to fill the cracks in the glass in order to preserve its physical integrity.(Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Sorted and documented ceramic artifacts at the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: A North Devon gravel tempered butter pot (c. 1675-1700) in the collection of the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum. It was unearthed in the 1970s. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: Glass medicine bottles (c. 1700-1730) in the collection of the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: A free blown wine bottle identification mark, dated 1724, once belonging to William Deacon, the 18th century Royal custom collector in St. Mary’s City. The glass bottle was found near the Maryland Dove archaeological site and is now in the collection of the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

: The decorative maskette from the neck of a Rhenish stoneware jug (c. 1650-1700) from the collection at the Historical St. Mary’s City’s museum. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

Founded in 1634, St. Mary’s City was the fourth permanent English settlement in North America. It served as Maryland’s first capital for 61 years before the government was relocated to Annapolis.

With the seat of government gone, St. Mary’s City was abandoned for the most part and the 17th-century town withered away. The remaining inhabitants returned to their agricultural roots.

The remains of the former capital and governor’s house lay relatively undisturbed for the next 250 years under fields of tobacco, corn and wheat. Today the city is a rare resource for the study of early American society.

Historic St. Mary’s City was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1969 and a complex of living history museums were established. The museums’ archaeologists and researchers are tasked to excavate, preserve, research and interpret the archaeological treasures that are still being unearthed today. They have recorded over 300 archaeological sites while investigated about 30 percent of the city.

Every summer, for over 40 years, Historic St. Mary’s City and St. Mary’s College of Maryland have hosted a rigorous ten week Archaeology Field School that attracts students from all over the United States and other countries. And on the last weekend of every July, the Tidewater Archaeology Weekend allows visitors to work side-by-side with archaeologists and students at dig sites and offers special inside’s look tours of the museum’s collections and the archaeology laboratory.

2 Comments

Lolly Vann
Sep 10, 2013 @ 15:54:45

Beautiful Photos. Thanks for showing us the up close and personal lab work that goes on after the archeological shovels are stowed.

susan erichsen
Sep 04, 2013 @ 09:16:34

Wonderful pictures! Thanks for posting them and just a small note that Historic St. Mary’s City Museum is on the Western Shore of Maryland.

Unearthing early American life in St. Mary’s City

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