Archaeology in Annapolis

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/10990

Browse

Start date: 2000Subject: search.filters.subject.Anne Arundel County

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Phase Ill Investigations for the Banneker-Douglass Museum Expansion, The Courthouse Site (18AP63), 86-90 Franklin Street, , Annapolis, Maryland, 2001
    (2002) Larsen, Eric L.; Leone, Mark P.; Beadenkopf, Kris; Lev-Tov, Justin; Madsen, Andrew
    Phase III archaeological excavations for the Banneker-Douglass Museum Expansion Project were conducted over a six-week period in July and August of 2001. Archaeology in Annapolis undertook the project at the request of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. The open lot on the north side of the Museum is part of the larger Courthouse Site (18AP63), a multi component site in the historic district of Annapolis. Previous archaeology for the Banneker-Douglass Project determined this area to be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D (archaeological significance). A new addition to the Banneker-Douglass Museum will impact all remaining cultural contexts. As no other alternatives are available, archaeology was planned to mitigate these losses. Known to have once held four separate dwellings built during the mid 19th century, the property was occupied until the structures were tom down in the 1970s. During the late 19th century, the area grew to become part of Annapolis' African-American community. Previous archaeology found intact cultural remains from this period including two different households' privies, a sheet midden, and other structural features. Current excavations pursued the retrieval and analyses of these contexts to increase the understanding of site formation processes and to provide additional information and insights into Annapolis' African-American community- its households, material culture, and adaptations. The development and everyday workings of African-American communities during the period of Jim Crow segregation have not been well documented. Examination of the built environment provides new insight into how and when this community developed. Ceramic, glass, and faunal analyses provide material comparable to other post Civil War African-American sites in Annapolis. This comparison allows the acknowledgment of the inevitable differences present within the African-American community-while also pursuing the nature of a common identity built around race and place.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Preliminary Report on Phase I/II Archaeological Testing at 12 Fleet Street, 40 Fleet Street (18AP110), 30 Cornhill Street (18AP114), and 41 Cornhill Street (18AP115), Anne Arundel County, Annapolis, Maryland, 2008-2010
    (2015) Knauf, Jocelyn; Leone, Mark P.; Tang, Amanda; Uehlein, Justin
    In June 2008, June 2009, and June 2010, undergraduate and graduate students under the supervision of staff from the Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), Archaeology in Annapolis Project, conducted archaeological testing in privately owned backyards at 40 Fleet Street (18AP110), 12 Fleet Street, 30 Cornhill Street (18AP114), and 41 Cornhill Street (18AP115). These sites are all located in the historic district of Annapolis, Maryland, in Anne Arundel County. This project was an intellectual extension of previous testing that was conducted along the public right-of-ways at 26 Market Space (18AP109) and on Fleet Street (18AP111) and Cornhill Street (18AP112) during the spring of 2008. A total of eleven test units were excavated in the backyards on Fleet and Cornhill Streets during the summers of 2008, 2009, and 2010. The Fleet and Cornhill Street project area falls within the Council for Maryland Archaeology’s Maryland Archaeological Research Units, Coastal Plain Province, Research Unit 7, Gunpowder-Middle-Back-Patapsco-Magothy-Severn-South-Rhode-West Drainages. The project area is bounded on the east side by the Annapolis Historic District Market Space and on the west side by State Circle. The previously excavated streetscape units helped to address many of the research questions related to the development of Fleet and Cornhill Streets, and the ways in which the streetscape changed between the seventeenth and the twenty-first centuries. The backyard units provided the opportunity to further address research questions related to the archaeology of a working class neighborhood, providing the opportunity to compare different work and living spaces within the neighborhood. The test units excavated during the course of the project provided evidence of the use of backyard spaces during the historical development of the neighborhood. Historic features uncovered during the excavations included a late 19th and early 20th century privy at 40 Fleet Street, a 19th century cistern at 30 Cornhill Street, and evidence that the early 20th century owners of 41 Cornhill Street may have had indoor plumbing privately installed in their home. Excavated levels and features also revealed evidence of changing usage of backyard spaces through features associated with outbuildings that are no longer extant, as well as artifacts related to domestic and work related activities. This site report is an addendum to the 2008 site report, which details the archaeological findings from the test units that were placed along the streetscape of Fleet and Cornhill Streets, and the Market Space. The test excavations at 40 Fleet Street (18AP110), 12 Fleet Street, 30 Cornhill Street (18AP114) and 41 Cornhill Street (18AP115) indicate that the archaeological resources in the back yard spaces of Fleet and Cornhill Street generally have a high degree of archaeological integrity and are historically significant. The units excavated at the sites of 40 Fleet Street, 30 Cornhill Street, and 41 Cornhill Street provide supporting evidence that these sites meet National Register Criterion D for potential inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, although 41 Cornhill Street showed more disturbance than the other sites. These sites have revealed important information about the historical development of Fleet and Cornhill Streets, and the historic district of Annapolis, over the past two hundred and fifty years, and future work at the sites should be monitored.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Report on Archaeological Investigations in the Eastport Neighborhood of the City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 2001-2004
    (2015-05) Palus, Matthew M.; Napoli, Janna M.; Leone, Mark P.
    This report details the archaeological excavations in Eastport, Maryland at eight different properties during the summers of 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. These include 119 Chester Avenue (18AP93), 110 Chesapeake Avenue (18AP94), 102 Chesapeake Avenue (18AP100), 201 Chesapeake Avenue (18AP101), 512 Second Street (18AP102), 127 Chester Avenue (18AP103), 520 Third Street (18AP105), and 108 Eastern Avenue (18AP106). The Eastport community developed over the later 19th and early 20th centuries on the peninsula immediately to the south of the City of Annapolis, on the eastern shore of the Severn River in Maryland. This peninsula, known as Horne Point, was the location of a series of farms until the second half of the nineteenth century. From the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, Eastport contained a glass company that was utilized by the City of Annapolis. Jurisdictionally, Eastport was an independent village under the Anne Arundel County government until it was annexed into the City of Annapolis in 1951. The county paid for Eastport to receive some services from Annapolis to compensate for its slowly developing infrastructure. The Annapolis Gas and Electric Light Company placed its first arc light on the Spa Creek Bridge in the 1890s, which would mark one of the first such infrastructural connections between the two communities. This connection multiplied during the early 20th century. The Eastport community has not been subjected to systematic archaeological excavations prior to this study. Archaeological research in the Eastport neighborhood has mainly focused on the community of craftspeople, watermen, boat-builders, oyster shuckers, crab pickers, merchants and grocers, builders and tradesmen, engineers and technicians, laborers and domestics that grew up on the peninsula throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. Traditionally Eastport is remembered as a community where working meant more than skin color. However, distinctions were realized between black and white residents, just as they were between old families and recent settlers, skilled and unskilled labor, home owners living in comfort and poor renters crowded into narrow frame dwellings. These dimensions of the community have become a part of its contemporary geography, and they figure strongly in the identity of its residents. The sites investigated from 2001-2004 suggest this diversity. The investigations from 2001 to 2004 aimed to increase these archaeological investigations in order to gain a more thorough understanding of this borough of Annapolis. The excavations took place as part of the University of Maryland Summer Field School in Urban Archaeology offered by Archaeology in Annapolis. The first and second seasons of archaeological excavations took place during the summers of 2001 and 2002, at sites 18AP93 and 18AP94. The third season of archaeological excavations took place during the summer of 2003, at sites 18AP100, 18AP101, 18AP102, and 18AP103. The fourth and final season of archaeological excavations took place during the summer of 2004, at sites 18AP105 and 18AP106. As part of these excavations, shovel test pits (STPs) and excavation units were placed across the front, side, and back yards of the properties. At 18AP93, a total of forty-six STPs were excavated, along with nine 5’ by 5’square excavation units. At site 18AP94, a total of thirty-two 4 STPs were excavated, along with six 5’ by 5’, one 2.5’ by 2.5’, one 4’ by 5’, and one 6’ by 5’ excavation units. At site 18AP100, a total of one 5’ by 5’ and one 6.8’ by 5’ units were excavated. At site 18AP101, a total of seven STPs were excavated, along with five 5’ by 5’ square excavation units. At site 18AP102, a total of fourteen STPs were excavated, along with three 5’ by 5’ square excavation units. At site 18AP103, a total of nine STPs were excavated, along with two 5’ by 5’ square excavation units. At site 18AP105, a total of twenty-three STPs were excavated, along with four 5’ by 5’ and one 4’ by 5’ excavation units. At site 18AP106, a total of forty-four STPs were excavated, along with three 5’ by 5’ square excavation units. Each unit was excavated to sterile soil. After excavations finished each season, all units were backfilled and closed. The excavations within Eastport show that the archaeology of Eastport is intact. The archaeology of house lots has been made to comment on domestic and work life in Eastport from the time of its settlement as a planned town just after the close of the American Civil War. The major contribution that comes from understanding the archaeology of Eastport derives from the work of Matthew Palus in understanding utility lines and their relationship to road building, paving, and the extension of gas, water, sewage, electric, and telephone lines into house lots. Continued excavations have the potential to reveal more information about the changes in the landscape of Eastport during the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, as well as information on the lives of the families who occupied these properties.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Archaeological Investigations at the Adams-Kilty House (18AP107) 131 Charles Street, City of Annapolis Anne Arundel County, Maryland 21401
    (2006) Jones, Alexandra; Chisholm, Amelia G.; Leone, Mark P.
    The Adams-Kilty House (18AP107) was built in the late 18th century and historical documents revealed that the property has undergone a great deal of change to its landscape and architecture over the course of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Renovations continue on the house and even were taking place during the archaeological excavations. The basement level was where African Americans lived and worked. This area was the focus of the archaeological investigations. The deposits in the home were disturbed by renovations which had been conducted in earlier times, mainly the installation of utility pipes. There were bundles of artifacts associated with West African spirit practices (nails, shards of glass, and an insulator) found in two locations within the basement, which were disturbed by a utility pipe eruption. No further investigations are recommended for this site.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Archaeological Investigations at the James Brice House (18AP38): A National Historic Site, 42 East Street, City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
    (2000) Harmon, James M.; Neuwirth, Jessica L.
    Beginning in the summer of 1998, Archaeology In Annapolis performed a multi-phased archaeological investigation in and around the James Brice House, a National Historic Landmark with associated archaeological deposits (18AP38), located at 42 East Street in the historic District of the city of Annapolis, Maryland. The work was done under a series of contracts to the International Masonry Institute, owners of the structure. Funding for the project was provided by the IMI and the Maryland Historical Trust. A total of twenty-eight units were excavated during the initial portion of the project, and another four were excavated in support of a secondary project designed to rehabilitate the retaining wall located at the southern edge of the South Yard. In addition, several trenches excavated during construction at the site were profiled, and the lowering of the grade in the South Yard was monitored by Archaeology in Annapolis staff. Testing in the South Yard revealed evidence of a number of filling and landform modification episodes dating from the periods following construction of the Brice House up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Further evidence of twentieth century modification to the yard space was revealed in the form of a number of utility trenches and related features. Features related to no-longer extant stairs including brick piers and postholes were discovered in a number of areas. Finally, an oyster shell drainage feature and associated evidence of African-American religious practices were recovered from a trench and excavation unit at the western edge of the yard space. Excavation in the interior of the West Wing revealed the presence of three major stratigraphic units with a large number of associated structural and depositional features. The first of these depositional units consisted of twentieth century deposits associated with modification of the interior of the Wing, and the majority of this material had been recently disturbed. The second stratigraphic unit consisted of material associated with the construction of the Brice House between 1767 and 1773. The final stratigraphic unit in the West Wing consisted of structural features and a floor deposit dating to the early 18th century. This material is potentially related to a store owned by Captain John Brice and his son John Brice II. Excavations in the East Wing and Hyphen also revealed a number of stratigraphic units related to the initial construction and subsequent modification of the Brice House structure. In addition, a large deposit of late nineteenth and early twentieth century material associated with the religious practices of African-American occupants of the house was discovered beneath remnants of a brick floor in the interior of the East Wing.