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The 2025 Tyler Bastian Field Session in Maryland Archeology will be held at the Teagues Point archeological site (18CH1005), near Hughesville, Maryland, from 23 May - 2 June, 2025.

The Teagues Point site is a mystery. The site was only assigned the MIHP-Archaeology site number 18CH1005 in September of 2023, shortly after a local resident contacted the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) about a colonial site he'd collected artifacts from decades earlier. MHT archaeologists knew immediately that they had an important resource on their hands based on the plentiful pottery sherds, tobacco pipes, glass bottle fragments, and other artifacts in the informant's collection. Fortunately, the informant was able to lead MHT to the exact spot they remembered (now owned by Maryland DNR), where additional artifacts were quickly located.

In December of 2023, working with the Charles County Archaeologist and a local chapter of the Archeological Society of Maryland (ASM), MHT organized a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey at Teagues Point. The results of the GPR survey revealed the presence of multiple anomalies consistent with infilled cellars and subfloor storage pits. In short, based on both the GPR results and the types of artifacts in the extant collection, Teagues Point is believed to be a remarkably intact mid to late 17th-century domestic site likely capable of addressing important research questions.

What is presently a mystery, is the identity of whoever occupied this landscape at that time. The current working theory is that the site may represent the plantation of Captain Richard Smith, a militia leader who may have acquired the land as an investment and settled indentured servants or relatives on the parcel. Smith was one of the few Protestant militia officers to support Lord Baltimore during the Glorious Revolution (1688-1689), and served the colony as Surveyor-General in the 1690s. Additional research at the site through controlled excavation by ASM (working under the direction of MHT), will go far to solving the mystery of who occupied Teagues point at this early date.

The Field Session is held in cooperation with the Maryland Historic Trust's Office of Archeology. The purpose of the Field Session is to introduce lay persons to archeological methods and to teach Maryland's past through hands-on involvement while making meaningful contributions to the study of Maryland archeology. MHT, Office of Archeology staff will provide professional oversight of volunteers at the site and will work to produce a final scientific report.

More information about the site is found in Dr. Matt McKnight's Maryland Historical Trust Blog entry, "Our History, Our Heritage.

In addition to the contributions of the ASM, funding for this project was provided in part by Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust.

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