57th Annual Spring Symposium on Archeology

Presented by the

Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc.,

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Maryland Historical Trust
100 Community Place


After the Dig: Community Engagement and Placemaking at the Site of Laurel Cemetery

presented by: Elgin Klugh

Archeological investigations at the site of Baltimore’s former Laurel Cemetery (now a shopping center) were planned as a means to expose students to archeological research. After GPR and excavation confirmed the existence of many burials, researchers initiated the Laurel Cemetery Memorial Project (LCMP) to engage the community and to find a fitting way to acknowledge the history of the cemetery.

Elgin Klugh is an applied cultural anthropologist at Coppin State University.


New Archeological Discoveries at the Basil & Nancy Dorsey Farm Challenge the Myths About Post-Emancipation African-American Communities like Sugarland, MD.

presented by: Tara L. Tetrault and Suzanne Johnson

Community Archeological sites like the Dorsey Project allow us to learn about Sugarland residents who built farms of their own, mobilized community members to work together during planting and harvesting seasons, and ensured everyone received food. Our team uncovered the Dorsey house and farm. We learned details that defy modern stereotypes, like the legal ownership of land by recently emancipated African American women in 1874.


The 2023 Richard E. Stearns Memorial Lecture


The Richard E. Stearns Memorial Lecture is named in honor of Richard E Stearns (1902-1969), curator of the Department of Archeology at the Natural History Society of Maryland for more than 30 years. Mr. Stearns located numerous archeological sites in the Chesapeake area, and carefully documented his surface and excavated finds. He published numerous archeological articles and several monographs, and donated his collection to the Smithsonian Institution. A commercial artist by profession, he was nonetheless a pioneer in Maryland archeology, instrumental in recording much of Maryland prehistory.

_________________________

Archeology Education as Redress: Highlighting Archeology in the Community

presented by: Alexandra Jones

Through educational programs and outreach, archeologists are inspiring new generations to explore the many fields of archeological study. Archeology can be redress; it can begin the process of setting right the wrongs cause by those in the past. It can do social justice work, particularly with communities that have been victim to past atrocities. Archeologists can raise collective consciousness and promote the demands and desires of the communities where they work. Archaeology in the Community (AITC) uses archaeology education as a tool of redress; it conducts programs in communities seeking to address local needs and heritage concerns identified by the local communities.


Stories of Survivance at the Old Leupp Boarding School, an Early 20th Century Federal Indian Boarding School on the Navajo Reservation

presented by: Davina Two Bears

As a Diné (Navajo) archeologist she aims to decolonize archeology by researching her tribe’s history. The Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS) was meant to assimilate Navajo children into Western society. She analyzed archival records and conducted interviews with elders who attended the OLBS. She will share a brief history of this school and stories of Navajo survivance.


Spatial Indigeneity: Uncovering the Indigenous Rappahannock Landscape

presented by: Julia King

In the 21st-Century Middle Atlantic landscape, traces of earlier times and places survive, easily observed if we take the time to notice them. For the region's Indigenous communities, finding these traces requires oral history, archeology, documents, environmental data and occasionally even astronomical evidence. This presentation describes how these varied sets of information were woven together to reveal the Indigenous landscape and people of the 16th- and 17th-Century Rappahannock River valley in Virginia and how they can be used to do the same in Maryland.


Student Spotlight

Unrecorded History: Anglo-Indigenous Exchange at St. Clement's Manor (1640-1673)

presented by: Jade Burch, St. Mary's College

On land granted to him by Cecil in 1640, Thomas Gerard established his plantation in Indian Country and along the Potomac River during the first decade of settlement up until 1672. Sites occupied this early are rarely found outside of St. Mary’s City and the Indigenous perspective on a European site is often overlooked.. A look at changing Indigenous cultural practices, disrupted trading networks, and anti-proprietary/anti-Calvert movements.

Jade Burch is an undergraduate at St Mary’s College of Maryland, in anthropology.


The Iris McGillivray Memorial Lecture

Iris McGillivray was a founding member of the Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc., ably serving the Society for over thirty years as Secretary, President, Newsletter Editor, Field Session Registrar, and Membership Secretary. She is perhaps best known, loved, and respected for her organization of the annual Spring Symposium, first held in 1965, arranging all aspects of the day-long program. In 1991 Iris was presented with the Society's William B. Marye Award to honor her services to archeology in Maryland.

_________________________

Canavest: A 17th Century Piscataway Indian Refuge on the Maryland Frontier

presented by: Dennis Curry

Canavest (also known as the Heater’s Island site) was the last permanent village of the Piscataway (Conoy) Indians in Maryland. Various aspects of the site—occupied from 1699 to at least 1712—are vividly described in a series of colonial documents from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. These archival records are paired with analysis of archeological remains to provide a glimpse of late 17th Century Piscataway life. Despite their presumed removal, Piscataways still reside in the state, largely in Southern Maryland, where they are experiencing a modern-day resurgence.