Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18BA158 T.D. Jones Field N, Locus 2
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
Site 18BA158, (also known as UMBC-2,3,5,&6 or TDJ - Field N2) is a multicomponent prehistoric site near the Arbutus area of Baltimore County. Middle and Late Archaic components are present, as well as Early, Middle, and Late Woodland occupations. The site covers roughly 5 acres and consists of 4 distinct loci (A/2, B/3, C/5, & D/6). It is situated on a low terrace amidst a gently undulating landscape. Freshwater streams flow to the north, east, and south of the site. Soils at the site are Russett and Sassafras sandy loams.
This site was initially identified in 1904 or 1905 by Talbot D. Jones, an insurance underwriter who was also an active avocational archeologist. He noted that the site extended over an area of about 5 acres. Jones graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1899 and died in 1926, at which point his collection and field notes were donated to Johns Hopkins. The Jones collection is now curated by the MAC Lab at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (JPPM), but is still owned by Johns Hopkins. The T.D. Jones collection includes 14 artifacts from this site.
In 1995, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) was beginning to undertake the construction of the UMBC Research Park and Playfields on the former Wartman-Lurman property (which included Site 18BA158). The area would be impacted by the construction of 4 new buildings, access roads, parking facilities, and two stormwater management ponds, as well as grading for the construction of new sports fields. A combined Phase I/II project was carried out, in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and in accordance with Article 83B, Section 5-617 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. The project also was undertaken in accordance with a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) reached between the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT), the US Dept. of Commerce, UMBC, and Baltimore County.
Survey of the field led to identification of four loci, named Loci A, B, C, and D, or alternatively, as UMBC-2, UMBC-3, UMBC-5, and UMBC-6. Loci A-D will be used here.
Phase I work at the site entailed the excavation of shovel test pits (STPs) in a systematic 15 m grid pattern, along with pedestrian survey. Additional testing was carried out around select positive STPs at 7.5 m intervals when site boundaries were unclear. Shovel tests measured 40 cm in diameter and were excavated to a depth of 10 cm into the B2 horizon, or to a minimum depth of 50 cm below the ground surface. Soil was removed to natural stratigraphy and screened through hardware cloth. The location of each test, the depth of the stratigraphic levels, and the presence or absence of cultural materials was recorded in the field. All soil characteristics, including color and texture, were recorded utilizing standard soil nomenclature and color identification conventions.
Locus A forms the westernmost portion of the site and cultural materials were recovered from 49 of the 54 shovel tests placed there. Prehistoric artifacts recovered from the locus included 3 bifaces, 16 flake tools, 8 cores, and 96 pieces of debitage. The distribution of this material was relatively thin, except for a concentration in the southeastern portion of the locus. Prehistoric artifacts were recovered from the second stratum, below the plowzone, in three shovel tests in this area. Historic artifacts were also recovered, but were randomly distributed across the locus and were primarily recovered from the plowzone. They are not cataloged in the tables above.
Locus B forms the easternmost portion of the site and cultural materials were recovered from 24 of the 39 shovel tests placed there. Prehistoric artifacts from this locus included 2 bifaces, 1 retouched and 8 utilized flakes, and 48 pieces of debitage. The material was concentrated near the crest of a hill and prehistoric materials were recovered from below the A horizon in 7 STPs in the northern portion of the locus (up to 40 cmbs in one STP).
Locus C forms the southernmost portion of Site 18BA158. Cultural materials were recovered from 10 of 12 STPs placed in this area during Phase I work. Prehistoric artifacts recovered included 5 flake tools, 4 cores, 22 pieces of debitage, and a possible fire-cracked rock fragment. Nearly all of this material was from a single shovel test placed in a sloping portion of the locus. The prevalence of tested cobbles and cores, the high percentage of cortical flakes (54%), limited raw material variability, and the large size of recovered flakes indicates that a major focus of activity in this locus was core preparation and primary lithic reduction. The presence of several flake tools suggested that non-lithic resource procurement occurred at the site as well.
Locus D forms the central portion of the site and is situated on a small mid-slope bench surrounded by wetland. Four shovel tests were excavated in this small area, three of which produced artifacts. Two produced only prehistoric artifacts (a core and a utilized flake). One produced only historic artifacts (a single late porcelain sherd). All of the artifacts were recovered from the A horizon, which appeared to be plowzone.
Based on these findings, Phase II work was carried out immediately in three of the four loci at 18BA158: at Loci A, B, and C. No further work was recommended in Locus D due to the paucity of material recovered there.
Phase II evaluation at the site included the placement of 1 X 1 m test units within areas in which shovel tests produced concentrations of prehistoric artifacts that were deeply buried, highly concentrated, or functionally discrete. Test units were placed on a Cartesian grid following the STP grid pattern established during the Phase I survey. In Locus A, six locations were selected for test unit excavations. Two of these were within the area of densest artifact concentration and potentially stratified artifacts located in the southeastern portion of the locus. A total of 7 locations were selected for test unit excavations in Locus B. Three of these were within the northern portion of the locus, where the prehistoric artifacts were most densely concentrated and potentially stratified. Phase II work in Locus C entailed the placement of two 1.5 X 1.5 m test units: one within the single concentration of lithic debris identified during Phase I shovel testing and one on the floodplain where a light scatter of artifacts was identified and buried materials might be present.
Test units were excavated in 10 cm levels within natural stratigraphic horizons and screened through hardware cloth. Soil characteristics were recorded using standard nomenclature and methods on standardized forms. A representative stratigraphic profile for each test unit was drawn and photographed.
The preponderance of prehistoric artifacts (97.91%) were concentrated within the plowzone in each of the six test units placed in Locus A. The densest concentration of materials was in the southern portion of the locus. The few artifacts recovered from below the plowzone came from the eastern portion of the locus, where Phase I STPs had indicated potentially buried deposits. The vertical location of these materials now appears to have resulted from post-depositional downward movement of artifacts within the soil column. The only feature encountered in this locus was a trench for a ceramic drainpipe. It was thought to be associated with nearby Site 18BA445 based on the presence of mostly late 19th century materials in the feature fill.
A total of 719 prehistoric artifacts were recovered from the six test units in Locus A. This sub-assemblage included 6 bifaces, 27 flake tools, 3 cores, 537 pieces of debitage, 3 hammerstones, and 132 pieces of fire-cracked rock. Among the bifaces were a contracting stemmed point characteristic of the Late Archaic/Early Woodland interface and a quartz Potomac point. The dominant raw materials at the site were locally available quartz and quartzite. Rhyolite was the only non-local material comprising a significant amount of debitage. Trace amounts of chert, silicified sandstone, jasper, and ironstone were present. A total of 107 historic artifacts (cataloged in the table above as “miscellaneous” items) were recovered from the locus during Phase II testing. All of this material was recovered from the plowzone and was evenly distributed across the locus.
Locus A appears to represent a palimpsest of occupations dating from the Late Woodland and possibly Late Archaic periods. It is possible that this portion of 18BA158 originally extended onto the crest of the hill northeast of the site where athletic fields are situated. The frequency of artifacts varied across the site, but artifacts were concentrated almost entirely within the plowzone throughout.
Prehistoric artifacts were concentrated within the plowzone in all 7 test units in Locus B, with the largest number of artifacts coming from those units situated near the crest of the hill. This material accounted for nearly 63% of the prehistoric material recovered from Locus B. The cultural materials recovered from deep within a few shovel tests placed near the crest of the hill during Phase I testing were apparently the result of post-depositional artifact movement downward in the soil column. The remains of a lithic reduction area were encountered in the southeastern portion of the locus, but the central portion of the locus was essentially devoid of artifacts.
A total of 580 prehistoric artifacts were recovered from Locus B. The assemblage included 2 projectile points, 4 projectile point fragments, 2 biface fragments, 19 flake tools, 9 cores, 483 pieces of debitage, 2 hammerstones, 57 pieces of fire-cracked rock, and 2 ceramic sherds. One of the projectile points is a probable Early Woodland Vernon point, while the other is similar to the Middle Woodland Snyders point. The debitage was dominated by quartz and quartzite, with vary small amounts of rhyolite, chert, amphibolite, and ironstone. The two ceramic sherds recovered are too eroded and fragmentary to permit identification.
Locus B appears to represent a series of brief occupations minimally dating from the Late Archaic to Early or Middle Woodland periods. The overall character of the assemblage is indicative of a resource procurement camp in which activities included primary and secondary lithic reduction, stone tool maintenance, and possibly the working of bone or wood. The relative dearth of evidence for features at the site, the moderate diversity of the assemblage, and the dispersed nature of the prehistoric debris suggest that its use was brief.
A total of 4.5 m2 of Locus C was excavated during Phase II work. The oversized test units used in this area (1.5 X 1.5 m in extent) were necessitated by the depth of the cultural deposits on the floodplain. The small size of the locus allowed the excavation of larger units without sacrificing knowledge about the spatial distribution of material within the site. The prehistoric artifacts from the unit placed on the slope (see above) were concentrated within the plowzone. Just over 60% of the prehistoric artifacts from the test unit on the floodplain were recovered from the mass-wasted colluvium from the slope above. A large portion of the remaining artifacts were concentrated in the B horizon, below the Ab or Apb horizon buried by the colluvium.
A total of 2,287 prehistoric artifacts were recovered during Phase II work in Locus C. The assemblage included 2 projectiles points, 2 biface fragments, 23 flake tools, 98 cores, 1,714 flakes, 306 pieces of block/shatter, 2 hammerstones, and 140 pieces of fire-cracked rock. One of the projectile points recovered was morphologically similar to the Middle Archaic Stanley or Neville types. The other is a Late Woodland triangular type. The debitage was comprised almost entirely from quartz and quartzite, with chert and ironstone accounting for an extremely small proportion. A total of 48 historic artifacts also were recovered from Locus C. The character of this material is consistent with that found scattered on agricultural fields throughout the eastern portion of the UMBC project area.
Locus C represented the mixed remains of a quarry-related site dating from the Middle Archaic and Late Woodland periods. Most of the site had been destroyed by plowing and the gradual mass-wasting of sediments downhill onto the floodplain.
Loci A and B of Site 18BA158 were both multi-component, multiple activity resource extraction sites, minimally dating from the Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods. Locus B was characterized by a slightly greater degree of early stage lithic reduction while secondary reduction appears to have predominated in Locus A. Nearly all of the prehistoric artifacts recovered from both sites were from the plowzone. Locus C was characterized by quarry-related/early stage lithic reduction activities dating from the Middle Archaic and Late Woodland periods. Mass-wasting of sediments off the hillside onto the floodplain portion of the site compromised the integrity of that area. Based on these findings, Site 18BA158 does not appear to possess integrity and significant research potential.
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