Photo credit:
MHT File Photo, 11/1997
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Accokeek Creek Site
Inventory No.:
PG:83-11
Other Name(s):
Moyaone
Date Listed:
10/15/1966
Location:
Mockley Road, , Accokeek, , Prince Georges County
Category:
Site
Period/Date of Construction:
Late Archaic to Contact
NHL Date:
7/19/1964
The nomination is marked Not for Public Access. Qualified Medusa accountholders should please contact the MHT Librarian for a copy.
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Description:
This extensive tract of land at the confluence of Piscataway Creek with the Potomac River includes a series of archeological sites, ranging in date from the Late Archaic period (c. 3000 B.C.) to historic times. The earliest components at the site are represented by hunting and campsites. Later, during the Middle Woodland period (c. A.D. 800), small horticultural hamlets were established. The major component at Accokeek Creek, however, is an extensive late-16th/early-17th century village of the Piscataway Indians, referred to as Moyaone. Multiple palisade lines at this Potomac-facing village indicate numerous rebuilding episodes, and attest to a fairly lengthy occupation of the site. Four ossuaries associated with the village contained the remains of more than 1000 individuals, indicating a substantial population at Moyaone. The village appears to have been abandoned prior to Contact. At the north end of this tract on the banks of Piscataway Creek was a rectangular fort occupied by the Susquehannocks in 1674-75.
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Significance:
Based on material excavated by Alice L.L. Ferguson in the 1930s and 1940s, and analyzed by Robert L. Stephenson in the 1950s, the Accokeek Creek site served as the basis for understanding ceramic chronology in the Middle Atlantic region. This chronology established the Early Woodland Marcey Creek/Accokeek/Popes Creek--Middle Woodland Mockley--Late Woodland Potomac Creek continuum. The village referred to as Moyaone represents the largest and last-occupied Piscataway village before the arrival of Europeans.
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