Archaeology in Annapolis
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/10990
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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, AndrewPhase 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.Item “THE REAL DISTANCE WAS GREAT ENOUGH”: REMAPPING A MULTIVALENT PLANTATION LANDSCAPE USING HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (HGIS)(2019) Skolnik, Benjamin Adam; Leone, Mark P.; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation uses the tools of historical Geographic Information Systems (hGIS) to locate and describe mid-nineteenth-century plantation landscapes in Talbot County, Maryland. The methodology described here combines historic maps, historic and modern aerial photography, LiDAR-derived elevation data, historic census data, and textual descriptions. It also uses them in conjunction with an ongoing archaeological research project at Wye House, the ancestral seat of the Lloyd family and site of enslavement of Frederick Douglass, near Easton, Maryland in order to further develop ways for archaeologists, historians, and other researchers to work with cartographic and spatial data in a digital framework. This methodology can be used across multiple scales to survey remotely individual sites or even entire counties for potential archaeological resources. Furthermore, it examines the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass, not only because he was a witness to these landscapes, but also because he can be read as a social theorist who addresses issues of race and racialized landscapes throughout his writings. Lastly, it uses these sources of data to consider Dell Upton’s spatial hypothesis regarding racialized plantation landscapes. Taken together, this study of mid-nineteenth-century Talbot County, Maryland represents one way to identify and recover lost sites of African American heritage that would otherwise remain lost.Item Reordering the Landscape: Science, Nature, and Spirituality at Wye House(2015) Pruitt, Elizabeth; Leone, Mark P; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation draws on literature and theoretical frameworks of gardening and social ordering that examine early Euro-American and African-American material culture as they came together on the plantation landscape at Wye House. Located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the plantation was home to the Welsh Lloyd family and hundreds of enslaved Africans and African-Americans. Using archaeological and archeobotanical remains of garden related buildings and slave dwellings, this project acknowledges the different possible interactions and understandings of nature at Wye House and how this gave shape to a dynamic, culturally-based, and entangled landscape of imposed and hidden meanings, colonization and resistance.Item Double "Double Consciousness": An Archaeology of African American Class and Identity in Annapolis, Maryland, 1850 to 1930(2015) Deeley, Kathryn Hubsch; Leone, Mark P; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the intersections of race and class within African American communities of the 19th and early 20th centuries in order to expand our understanding of the diversity within this group. By examining materials recovered from archaeological sites in Annapolis, Maryland, this dissertation uses choices in material culture to demonstrate that there were at least two classes present within the African American community in Annapolis between 1850 and 1930. These choices also show how different classes within this community applied the strategies advocated by prominent African American scholars, including Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, and Nannie Helen Burroughs, as ways to negotiate the racism they encountered in daily lives. One class, the "inclusionist" class, within the community embraced the idea of presenting themselves as industrious, moral, clean, and prosperous to their White neighbors, a strategy promoted by scholars such as Booker T. Washington and Nannie Helen Burroughs. However, another group within the community, the "autonomist" class, wanted to maintain a distinct African American identity that reflected the independent worth of their community with an emphasis on a uniquely African American aesthetic, as scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois suggested. The implementation of different strategies for racial uplift in daily life is both indicative of the presence of multiple classes and an indication that these different classes negotiated racism in different ways. This dissertation explores the strategies of inclusion and exclusion African American scholars advocated; how African Americans in Annapolis, Maryland implemented these strategies in daily life during the 19th and early 20th centuries; and how debates over implementing these strategies are still occurring today.Item `Fried chicken belongs to all of us': The Zooarchaeology of Enslaved Foodways on the Long Green, Wye House (18TA314), Talbot County, Maryland(2014) Tang, Amanda; Leone, Mark P; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project analyzes the zooarchaeological remains excavated from three slave quarters, located on the Long Green of the Wye House Plantation (18TA314). The zooarchaeological data used dates from about 1650 until 1865. The dissertation focuses on how the late 18th century - archaeologically c. 1770 - was a period of immense change at Wye House and this caused coinciding changes in food consumption. Faunal data is combined with historical and archaeological information to assess the validity of utilizing African-American food patterns. The dissertation interrogates the role of archaeologists in reifying racism and in the reproduction of inferior histories for African-Americans based on dominant narratives. The research incorporates the consideration of other social, political, historical, and economic variables to assess the development of local and regional cuisines. This dissertation evaluates why designations of Soul Food and African-American foodways emerged, how this cuisine compares to Southern Cooking, and the ideologies behind keeping the two cuisines separate.Item Phase II Archaeological Testing on Wye Greenhouse (18TA314), Talbot County, Maryland, 2008(2009) Blair, John E.; Cochran, Matthew David; Duensing, Stephanie N.; Leone, Mark P.From October 27, 2008 to November 24, 2008 staff from the Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), Archaeology in Annapolis Project, conducted archaeological testing on the Wye House Greenhouse (18TA314), Talbot County, Maryland. This Phase II investigation has been conducted at the request of the Greenhouse’s current owner, Mrs. Mary Tilghman, prior to planned Greenhouse foundation stabilization efforts. The project area for this Phase II archaeological investigation comprises the immediate exterior perimeter of the Wye Greenhouse foundation. Seven test units were excavated in the course of this project to evaluate archaeological integrity and to evaluate the potential effects of planned stabilization efforts on archaeological resources. In addition to questions of archaeological integrity, research questions guiding this project focused on the architectural development of the Wye Greenhouse as well as its social use, both by members of the Lloyd family and the plantation’s enslaved African-American inhabitants. Background historical research and oral histories differ concerning the Greenhouse’s initial date of construction. Historical research suggests a construction date of the c. 1770s, while oral histories suggest an initial date of construction of c. 1740s. Archaeological testing has shown that the Greenhouse underwent two major developmental phases—with the main block of the Greenhouse having been constructed in the 1770s and the East and West Wings and hypocaust system added in the mid 1780s. In addition to providing evidence of the Greenhouse’s structural change, levels and features excavated in the course of this project have shed light on the social use of the Wye Greenhouse throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Artifact deposits analyzed in this report detail the Lloyd family’s use of the Greenhouse as both a social space and as a symbol of 18th century opulence. Artifact analyses also shed light on the use of the Greenhouse’s north shed as a slave quarter from the 1790s through the 1840s. Testing in the course of this project has concluded that there is a high degree of archaeological integrity within the project’s area of potential effect. In addition, testing has determined that intact archaeological resources have the distinct potential to add a considerable depth of historical knowledge concerning the Greenhouse’s structural change and social use throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Archaeological evidence detailed in this report should be read as supporting evidence for the Greenhouse’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.Item Phase II Archaeological Testing on the Interior of the Wye Greenhouse (18TA314), Talbot County, Maryland, 2009(2009) Blair, John E.; Duensing, Stephanie N.; Leone, Mark P.Item Phase II Archaeological Testing at the James Holliday House on East Street (18AP116), Annapolis, Maryland, 2010-2012(2013) Deeley, Kathryn H.; Leone, Mark P.Archaeological excavations at 99 East Street began in December 2009, with two shovel test pits dug to determine if the stratigraphy was intact at the site. Preliminary analyses concluded that the site was archaeologically intact, with materials found at least two feet below the surface and intact layers of deposition. In June 2010, more intensive excavations began as part of the University of Maryland Field School in Urban Archaeology, and continued until June 18. Two large, deep units (5’x5’ squares) were excavated in the backyard of 99 East Street and produced thousands of artifacts, including buttons, broken dishes, whole bottles, and a very large number of food bones, which were processed, cataloged and analyzed in the Archaeology in Annapolis Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park. In June 2011, three additional units were placed at the site, two 4’ x 5’ units in the backyard and a 5’ x 5’ unit in the basement of the house. These three units produced over ten thousand artifacts, including animal bones, glass bottles, broken dishes, dozens of buttons, marbles, a Spanish coin, and a corroded gun. These artifacts were processed, cataloged and analyzed in the Archaeology in Annapolis Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park. Finally, in the June 2012, three final units were placed at the site, one 5’ x 5’ unit in the basement, one 4’ x 4’ unit in the basement, and one 4’ x 4’ unit in the backyard. Over five thousand artifacts were recovered in these three units, including glass bottles, broken dishes, assorted buttons, marbles, slate pencils, straight pins, thimbles, animal bones, a redware tobacco pipe bowl, and a wooden lice comb. These artifacts were catalogued and are currently being analyzed in the Archaeology in Annapolis Laboratory. These many thousands of artifacts will identify how the Holliday family lived their daily life, showing what the Holliday family ate, how they were eating their food, and what they threw away or lost. Excavations at 99 East Street will continue for an additional summer season of excavation, which will help provide even more information about how the Holliday family saw themselves, the extent of their ties to the Naval Academy and how they negotiated their way around racism in Annapolis.Item Phase II Archaeological Testing of the Hothouse Structure (18TA314), Talbot County, Maryland(2013) Pruitt, Beth; Leone, Mark P.This report contains the results of the Phase II Archaeological Testing of the Wye House Hothouse Structure (18TA314). It is divided into the following sections: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Research Design and Methodology Chapter 3: Cultural Context and Historical Background Chapter 4: Previous Archaeological Investigations and Significant Architectural Structures Chapter 5: Archaeology and Interpretations Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations Chapter 1 of this report is an introduction to the Hothouse excavation in May 2012. Included within in this chapter are the dates of fieldwork, laboratory processing and analyses, as well as the identification of key project staff. Chapter 2 of this report details the project’s research design and methodology. Included within this chapter are the method employed during the research process of locating the structures, excavation, pollen sample recovery, and laboratory processing. In addition, this chapter lists the research questions that guided this fieldwork. Chapter 3 of this report details the cultural context and historical background of the Wye House Plantation, particularly surrounding the standing Greenhouse. Included within this chapter is a short history of the Wye House Plantation, scientific gardening, and a contextualization for understanding West African spirit practices. Chapter 4 of this report details reported archaeological excavations at the Wye House Plantation, particularly surrounding the standing Greenhouse. Chapter 5 of this report details the results of archaeological testing conducted at the Hothouse structure in May 2012. Included within this chapter is an account of stratigraphic layers, features, and significant artifacts encountered within individual test units. Also included within this chapter are interpretations of layers, features, and artifacts. Chapter 6 of this report details the conclusions based on the data recovered from these excavations and recommendations for further investigations.Item Archaeological Investigations at Wye Hall Plantation, Wye Island, Queen Anne's County, Maryland(2003-03) Harmon, James M.; Hill, Anna; Beadenkoph, Kristofer; Neuwirth, Jessica; Leone, Mark P.; Russo, Jean