Market Master's house backlot, Day Six: "Looking Back at Five Excavations in Bladensburg"

This post is from Mike Roller, from the University of Maryland:

In the last two years I have taken part in five excavations in Bladensburg. Each site has been distinctly different, with its own revelations, quirks and mysteries. Speaking from an excavation conditions standpoint, we all agree that this site has been a pleasure to dig. The pleasant weather, the sandy smooth soils, the shady backyard and the accommodating land owners have all contributed to this. This time we have employed a strategy of grouping our units closely this time, in order to open a larger space clustered in the back of the Market Master’s house. This has allowed us to discuss our findings and compare our soils as we dig. It has really helped us to create a more cohesive picture of the historic landscape of this area. That doesn’t mean there aren’t many mysteries to solve….

Retrospectively, however, there are a few things from this site that have been consistent with many of the sites we have excavated here in Bladensburg.

-The material culture of conflict in the form of Civil War or War of 1812 bullets, uniform buttons and gunflints. As yet we have not tabulated how many of these we have collected throughout Bladensburg or what they can tell us about the town during these conflicts, but future research may reveal new facts. This site has been no exception, with a musketball, gunflints and military buttons.

-Evidence of prehistoric lives have been found at almost all the sites we have excavated in Bladensburg suggesting long and extensive Native American occupation in this location dating back as early as six thousand years ago. As discussed in previous blogposts, the ecological richness of this area, at the junction of two streams with a rich floodplain and numerous natural springs, would have made the Bladensburg area very attractive to prehistoric inhabitants.

-Late-nineteenth and twentieth century efforts to modernize or otherwise modify old features to meet modern needs. In this section we could include the extensive efforts by the early twentieth century occupants of the Bostwick house to modernize and fashionably remodel the architecture and landscape around the house. This included removing older structures such as outbuildings and, probably, slave and servant’s quarters. At the Magruder house and Indian Queen Tavern we saw drainage systems put in an effort to keep the Anacostia floodwaters at bay. At the Indian Queen we saw a historic well reconstructed as a system for draining the house. Here in the backyard of the Market Master’s House we have seen some evidence of twentieth century construction, including the possibility of a similar effort. (more on this in a future blogpost?)

One question we can begin to ask now is: “What have we not seen in Bladensburg that we might have expected?”. We have not seen much evidence of what we know was probably a big business in Bladensburg, the trade in enslaved peoples from Africa. Neither have we seen much evidence of the lives of those that lived in Bladensburg in forced servitude. Additionally, we do not have a good sense of how the laboring classes in Bladensburg might have lived. Though four brick or stone eighteenth century structures have survived Bladensburg’s 250+ year history, we know that the majority of structures in Bladensburg were modest wood frame dwellings. Who lived in these houses and how did there lives differ from the lives of those that lived in the wealthier portions of the town? Archaeology and additional research and analysis conducted in the future may have the answers to some of these questions...

Market Master's House, Day Five. Porcelain Doll Parts!

This post is from Nichole Sorenson-Mutchie from the Maryland State Highways:

Three units have are now complete (TU 9, 10 and 11) and new units (TU 13, 14, and 15) have been opened based on shovel test results. Within the first few levels, each of these units found various doll parts. Mike reminded me that I did a blog post about dolls last year from the Magruder House, so I decided the tradition must continue!
The cluster of peach colored pieces in the upper left of the picture represents two different unglazed bisque porcelain heads. One piece shows a portion of a large eyebrow and eyelashes. Given the size of the painted eyebrow, the doll head must have been quite large, like the example pictured below. Bisque porcelain dolls were introduced in the 1860s.

The doll on the nearly complete doll on the right is also an unglazed bisque doll. The body was found in the first level of TU 14 and the head found in the following level. This doll is known as a “penny doll”, “Frozen Charlotte”, or “bathing dolls”. These were produced from the late 1800s to about 1930. The body is all bisque whereas the doll described above would have had a fabric torso with porcelain limbs. Below is another example of a bathing doll.

The last doll has me a bit stumped. The porcelain is glazed, unlike the other dolls. The attached arms, size, and porcelain torso makes it look like a penny doll, but it shouldn’t be glazed. Early “China dolls” with white glazed heads had fabric bodies so our example doesn’t fit. What these dolls do tell us is that children played in this area during the 19th and early 20th century. These children may not have had a big impact on the history of the site, but these few doll pieces are clues to their presence amongst the nails, animal bone, and bottle glass.

Market Master's House, Season Two, Day Four, A Day of Transitions

Quiet around here after the excitement of yesterday. A brief post from Molly Russell today:

Hi from the Market Master’s House! It has been a fairly slow day here – well, at least it has for one unit. Unit 9, the one I have been gracing with my presence, has featured a whole lot of digging and not much artifact-ing. We’ll be finishing it up today and opening up a new unit next to it, so hopefully tomorrow will be a more interesting day. Units 10 and 12, however, have been finding a ton of prehistoric flakes. Mike and Janet pulled a really nice point out of unit 10 this morning, while Jen and Frank have had bag after bag of flakes come out of their unit. It has been said that this is becoming more of a prehistoric site rather than a historic one, and I am starting to agree!

After closing out their unit (10) just before lunch, Mike and Janet opened up a new one (14). So far they have found a mixture of artifacts from different centuries, which makes us wonder how intact the historic material will be in that unit. That question will most likely have to wait until tomorrow. So, I guess you could say this site is a ‘to be continued…’

Top photo, by Janet Donlin, of a caterpillar on a screen. Below, Top: Courtney Singleton digging out the bottom of Unit 9. Middle: Nichole Sorenson-Mutchie profiling the wall of the same unit. Bottom: View of the site from the east.

Market Master's House, Second Season, Day 3, What a Surprise Today!

Everyone came in feeling a bit tired for our third day of fieldwork. We have had an interesting few days, but are already coming towards the bottoms of our first units. Luckily, we found some pretty neat stuff! Another piece of the puzzle we are putting together about Bladensburg's history. We asked Frank Mikolic and Zak Andrews to talk about what they were finding in Test Unit 12, located in the central portion of the site. Here is what Zak had to say:

"When I arrived at the Market House in Bladensburg this morning, I thought I knew what to expect; glass shards, maybe some nineteenth century ceramic, bits of bone. To my surprise, not even an hour into one of the central units here, we came upon a discovery of a prehistoric stone point found at its’ northeast corner. 30 minutes later, a second stone point poked its head out of the past into our hands. The two points were accompanied by a few dozen stone flakes, none much larger than the size of my pinky fingernail. Prehistoric/archaic artifacts were the last thing I was expecting to find among the colonial theme of things, so naturally I am thinking, “What does this all mean!?” With the help of my Maryland colleagues and the fine staff at the SHA, I’m sure we can come to the bottom of this mystery. This was my first discovery of a worked stone since my emerging practice into the field of historic archaeology and has surely caught my interest. Just goes to show you that you can never be too sure of what you might find out in the field; the past might just surprise you."

And Frank:

"Test Unit 12 produced excitement from the beginning of the morning until late into the afternoon. We kicked off the unit excavation by finding a 1865 2-cent coin along with various late eighteenth century ceramic types, including English Brown, Scratch Blue, Jackfield, and White Salt Glaze. Although there seemed to be some intrusions of nineteenth century artifacts, including the 1865 coin, the majority of artifacts recovered today within TU 12 dated to the late eighteenth century. Below this layer we began to recover a large amount of rhyolite flakes along with two rhyolite broadspear-type projectile points. Finding so much rhyolite in Prince George’s County is significant as much of the prehistoric lithics recovered in PG County and neighboring Montgomery County are from quartz and quartzite materials. Two fragments of prehistoric ceramic were also recovered during excavation of TU 12; it seems to be grit-tempered, but further analysis will be need to confirm both the temper and type. Our excavation of the test unit is approaching the sub-soil and we will likely complete it tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to the excavation of the adjacent unit so we can chase this rhyolite artifact concentration."

Market Master's House, Season Two, Day Two

This message was written by Rick Ervin from the Maryland State Highway Administration:

It’s been a hectic week. I just returned to the area following a week in Detroit, and started fieldwork at the Market Masters House the following day. My excursion to Dearborn, Michigan involved a reunion of WWII veterans who flew B-26 Marauders during the war (my interest stems from the fact that my late father was also a veteran). (see this website for more information: http://www.b-26mhs.org/) I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Courtney, one of the crew, had a grandfather who flew in the B-26. A small world!

We started a test unit at the back of the Market Masters property on Monday. So far, we’ve had a mix of everything between about 1800 and late 2008. Late this morning we started excavating a feature – the boundary appeared somewhat amorphous, but it was obviously different from the surrounding matrix. As it turned out, we had a trench for a water pipe. Although I had hoped it might have turned out to be a little earlier, we are starting to find some earlier ceramics, including edgeware and various transfer print sherds.

We also found a small cross, about which Courtney may have more to say in the near future. We’ve heard that the cinder block garage situated within 20 feet of our unit was once part of a small service station or auto repair shop. We’ve found a few artifacts that appear to be tool parts and may relate to the garage.

Earlier today, another unit produced a lead musket ball that probably relates to the Battle of Bladensburg. A quick measurement indicates that the diameter of the ball is slightly more than one-half inch, suggesting that it may represent an American round that was fired into the British positions within the town of Bladensburg. Most of the American militia units were armed with .58 caliber muskets that fired a ball with a slightly small diameter (about .52 caliber). See a picture of the musket ball below, along with a thimble found in the same stratum, possibly dating to around the same time:
Earlier, the family that lives here stopped by to see the site. Unfortunately, we had not found much at the time they stopped by. Hopefully they will come back soon so we can show them the good stuff – we appreciate their hospitality!

The weather of course has been perfect now that the heat of summer is dissipating. Despite the traffic noise, we have quite an idyllic setting here under the trees. However, we just heard the call to start packing up for the day, so its time to sign off for now.....

Today, archaeologists from the Maryland State Highway Administration and University of Maryland students returned to the Market Master’s House. Over the next two weeks we will be excavating south of the house and in the backyard in an attempt to find the remains of out buildings and refuse deposits. Our work is especially important this year since we are trying to understand how the area behind the house was used by the occupants. Last year we encountered post molds that suggested buildings may lie behind us to the south. Old maps and historic descriptions revealed nothing about how this area was developed and that is why archaeology is so important.

After excavating almost 20 shovel test pits, we opened up three five foot by five foot units and just made it through the first stratum. After finding a plastic dinosaur, we soon came down upon 19th and some colonial artifacts. There is nothing too out of the ordinary yet, but we hope to connect the post molds from last year to see if we can recognize a structure.
Research Update

After our excavation last year, we hit the old records to learn what the Market Master’s house was really used for and who lived here. What we learned is that there is no documentation for the building being lived in by a “market master”. Instead, the building appears to have been Christopher Lowndes’ store and one of the first mail stops in the country. It is possible people lived above the store, but based on the probate inventory the store was packed with a long list of items that would have made for camped quarters. By the late 1850s, Dr. Anderson bought the lot with Lowndes’ old store and he lived with his wife in a separate residence to the southeast on the same lot. We are not sure if the old store was used as a doctor’s office or rented out. The 1860 slave census does show Thomas Anderson owning a 51 year old female and 12 year old male slave. Did they use the Market Master’s House as a slave quarter? We may never know for sure, but is something to keep in mind as we examine the mid 19th century artifact assemblage.

Searching for the USS Scorpion

The following post was written by SHA lab director, Nichole Sorensen-Mutchie.

The Bladensburg Archaeology Project has now branched out into the waters of the Patuxant River in Upper Marlboro. The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) in partnership with the US Navy and Maryland Historical Trust has begun the search for Commodore Joshua Barney's flagship, the USS Scorpion. With the British in pursuit, Barney (pictured below) ordered the burning of his flotilla. It was better to have the ships destroyed than have them fall into enemy hands. After the ships were scuttled, Barney and his men went to Bladensburg on foot and fought in the battle there.

I spent the last two days assisting in the underwater archaeology operations underway to confirm the location of the USS Scorpion. This was a new experience for me, I had never worked on a shipwreck site. I couldn't help but think about how both terrestrial and underwater archaeologist have the same mission, but with completely different methods. First, you are confined to a metal barge! As you can see from the lower right picture, a lot of equipment is needed, which doesn't leave much room to move around. Then there is the various dangers the divers could potentially face. For one diver in the water, there are several people assisting them up top to communicate with them and be ready to jump in should the diver get into trouble. "Digging" is done with dredge, a motorized vacuum system that sucks water, sand and artifacts from the river floor to the surface. The sediment and artifacts then flow into a screen on the surface, which is inside a metal tub as seen in the lower left picture. Another hose is inside the tub to pump out excess water and sand into a holding tank to later be disposed of. No artifacts associated with the shipwreck were found while I was there, however the divers have come down on the wooden planks. Although there is very low visibility in the water, a lot is being learned about where exactly the ship is and how it is oriented.

There is a separate blog for the USS Scorpion project. Please visit http://www.scorpionarchaeology.blogspot.com/, as well as the Facebook page, USS Scorpion Project.