Maryland Historical Trust
Public Access

Maryland Archaeological Synthesis Database

Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18BA394    Owings Mills New Town Site A

Site Data
Site Number: 18BA394
Site Name: Owings Mills New Town Site A
Other name(s):  
Prehistoric:
Historic:
Unknown:
Brief Description: Early and Late Archaic short-term resource procurement camp
Site Location and Environmental Data
Latitude: 39.41
Longitude: -76.82
Elevation: 165
Site slope: 0
Maryland Archaeo Research Unit No.: 14
SCS soil & sediment code:  
Physiographic province: Eastern Piedmont
Terrestrial site:
Underwater site:
Ethnobotany profile:
Maritime site:
Site setting: -Site Setting restricted -Lat/Long accurate to within 1 sq. mile, user may need to make slight adjustments in mapping to account for sites near state/county lines or streams
Topography
Floodplain:
Hilltop/bluff:
Interior flat:
Upland flat:
Ridgetop:
Terrace:
Low terrace:
High terrace:
Rockshelter/cave:
Hillslope:
Unknown:
Other:
Other Text:  
Ownership
Private:
Federal:
State of MD:
Regional/county/city:
Unknown:
Nearest Surface Water
Name (if any): Unnamed tributary
Saltwater
Ocean:
Estuary/tidal river:
Tidewater/marsh:
Freshwater
Stream/river:
Swamp:
Lake or pond:
Spring:
Min distance to water:
20 meters
Temporal Contextual Data
Paleoindian:  
Archaic:  
Early Archaic: Y
Middle Archaic:  
Late Archaic: Y
Woodland:  
MD Adena:  
Early Woodland:  
Middle Woodland:  
Late Woodland:  
Unknown prehistoric:  
Contact period site:  
ca. 1630 - 1675:  
ca. 1675 - 1720:  
ca. 1720 - 1780:  
ca. 1780 - 1820:  
ca. 1820 - 1860:  
ca. 1860 - 1900:  
ca. 1900 - 1930:  
Post 1930:  
Unknown historic:  
Unknown context:  

Y=Confirmed, P=Possible

Ethnic Associations (historic only)
Native American:  
African American:  
Anglo-American:  
Hispanic:  
Asian American:  
Unknown:  
Other:  
Other Text:  

Y=Confirmed, P=Possible

Site Function Contextual Data
Prehistoric
Multi-component:
Village:
Hamlet:
Base camp:
Rockshelter/cave:
Earthen mound:
Cairn:
Burial area:
Misc. ceremonial:
Rock art:
Shell midden:
STU/lithic scatter:
Quarry/extraction:
Fish weir:
Production area:
Unknown:
Other PH context:
 
Historic
Urban/Rural?:
 
Domestic:
Homestead:
Farmstead:
Mansion:
Plantation:
Row/townhome:
Cellar:
Privy:
Industrial:
Mining-related:
Quarry-related:
Mill:
 
Black/metalsmith:
Furnace/forge:
Other industrial:
 
Transportation:
Canal-related:
Road/railroad:
Wharf/landing:
Maritime-related:
Bridge:
Ford:
Educational:
Commercial:
Trading post:
Store:
Tavern/inn:
Military:
Battlefield:
Fortification:
Encampment:
Townsite:
Unknown:
Other hist context:
 
Interpretive Sampling Data
Prehistoric context samples
Soil samples taken: N
Flotation samples taken: N
Other samples taken:  
Historic context samples
Soil samples taken:  
Flotation samples taken:  
Other samples taken:  

Diagnostic Artifact Data

Projectile Point Types
Clovis:  
Hardaway-Dalton:  
Palmer:  
Kirk (notch):  
Kirk (stem):  
Le Croy: 1
Morrow Mountain:  
Guilford:  
Brewerton:  
Otter Creek:  
Koens-Crispin:  
Perkiomen:  
Susquehana:  
Vernon:  
Piscataway:  
Calvert:  
Selby Bay:  
Jacks Reef (notch):  
Jacks Reef (pent):  
Madison/Potomac:  
Levanna:  

All quantities exact or estimated minimal counts

Prehistoric Sherd Types
Marcey Creek:  
Dames Quarter:  
Selden Island:  
Accokeek:  
Wolfe Neck:  
Vinette:  
Popes Creek:  
Coulbourn:  
Watson:  
Mockley:  
Clemson Island:  
Page:  
Shepard:  
Townsend:  
Minguannan:  
Sullivan Cove:  
Shenks Ferry:  
Moyaone:  
Potomac Creek:  
Keyser:  
Yeocomico:  
Monongahela:  
Susquehannock:  

All quantities exact or estimated minimal counts

Historic Sherd Types
Earthenware
Astbury:  
Borderware:  
Buckley:  
Creamware:  
Ironstone:  
Jackfield:  
Manganese Mottled:  
North Devon:  
Pearlware:  
Staffordshire:  
Tin Glazed:  
Whiteware:  
Porcelain:  
Stoneware
English Brown:  
English Dry-bodied:  
Nottingham:  
Rhenish:  
White Salt-glazed:  

All quantities exact or estimated minimal counts

Prehistoric Artifacts
Flaked stone: 9
Ground stone:  
Stone bowls:  
Fire-cracked rock:  
Other lithics (all):  
Ceramics (all):  
Rimsherds:  
Other fired clay:  
Human remain(s):
Modified faunal:  
Unmodified faunal:  
Oyster shell:
Floral material:
Uncommon Object:  
Other:
 

All quantities exact or estimated minimal counts

Historic Artifacts
Pottery (all):  
Glass (all):  
Architectural:  
Furniture:  
Arms:  
Clothing:  
Personal items:  
Tobacco related:  
Activity item(s):  
Human remain(s):
Faunal material:
Misc. kitchen:  
Floral material:
Misc.:  
Other:
 

All quantities exact or estimated minimal counts

Lithic Material
Jasper:
Chert:
Rhyolite:
Quartz:
Quartzite:
Ferruginous quartzite:
Chalcedony:
Ironstone:
Argillite:
Steatite:
Sandstone:
Silicified sandstone:
European flint:
Basalt:
Unknown:
Other:
 

Features

Dated Features
Dated features present at site:
 
Prehistoric Features
Mound(s):  
Midden:
Shell midden:
Postholes/molds:
House pattern(s):
Palisade(s):
Hearth(s):
Lithic reduction area:
Storage/trash pit:
Burial(s):
Ossuary:
Unknown:
Other:
 
Historic Features
Construction feature:
Foundation:
Cellar hole/cellar:
Hearth/chimney:
Postholes/molds:
Paling ditch/fence:
Privy/outhouse:
Well/cistern:
Trash pit/dump:
Sheet midden:
Planting feature:
Road/walkway:
Depression/mound:
Burial(s):
Railroad bed:
Earthworks:
Mill raceway:
Wheel pit:
Unknown:
Other:
 
Radiocarbon Data
Sample 1:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 2:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 3:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 4:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 5:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 6:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 7:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 8:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Sample 9:   +-   years BP  
Reliability
 
Additional radiocarbon results available:
   
External Samples/Data
Additional raw data may be available online:
Collection curated at MAC
Summary
The Owings Mills New Town Site A (18BA394), also known simply as Site A, is a prehistoric lithic scatter with possible short-term occupations in the Early and Late Archaic periods. The site likely functioned as a short-term resource procurement camp. The site is located west and slightly southwest of Owings Mills, in Baltimore County. It is situated on the first terrace above the Red Run floodplain, adjoining a tributary just inland from its confluence with Red Run and its floodplain. Soil at the site is Glenville silt loam and the entire site area has been under cultivation. In the 1980s, Baltimore County set up the Owings Mills Growth Area wherein areas were specified for either residential or commercial development. The Lakeside Development was a 432 acre residential development within the Growth Area. To facilitate the building of the development, the land owner was to fund the construction of the extension of two roads, which would cross over Red Run and its tributaries. In order to obtain the permits for the road construction, the developer was required to conduct a preliminary archeological and structural survey of the entire project area. The Phase I reconnaissance survey was divided into 2 stages of work: Stage 1 consisted of the survey of the proposed road alignments and ca. 150 acres of the development slated for construction in 1988 and Stage 2 consisted of the survey of the remaining 282 acres during the spring of 1988 while construction began in the Stage 1 area. Ultimately, Stage 2 of the project was delayed until 1989. In the vicinity of 18BA394 (the westernmost portion of the 282 acre Stage 2 area), Phase I investigations began with surface collection. Some areas were an active floodplain with good surface visibility, but most other areas had to be plowed in parallel strips that exposed about 50% of the survey area for surface collection. Several surface artifacts led to the identification of 18BA394 and were then plotted. A series of ten shovel test pits (STPs) were then excavated within this artifact producing area. The surface collection contained three bifaces, a core, and three flakes. A dense quartz scatter was noted in the northern section of the site, but examination of the materials failed to find an indication of prehistoric reduction activities. Two of the bifaces were a quartz LeCroy and a Bare Island projectile point, with the third being the upper section of a rhyolite blade. Debitage consisted of a quartz core and three flakes of quartz, chert, and rhyolite. Shovel test pit excavation failed to recover any artifacts which would indicate that the artifact distribution pattern over the site may be either clustered outside of the individual tests or that the artifact dispersal is limited in frequency. The latter is probably the case. Based on the fact that 18BA394 was the only site examined during the course of multiple Phase I projects conducted from 1987-1989 to encounter diagnostic prehistoric artifacts, Phase II testing was recommended for the site. Late in 1989 a combined Phase II/III project was conducted at several sites, including 18BA394, in the development area (see synopsis reports for 18BA328, 18BA330, 18BA330a, 18BA331, 18BA332, and 18BA354) that previous investigation had revealed were potentially eligible for listing to the National Register of Historic Places. The Phase II program included a background study of the prehistory and history of the site area and addressed questions concerning settlement patterns or area development, subsistence or diet, ethnicity, socioeconomics, and environment. Field investigations were conducted in order to determine the site horizontal and vertical boundaries and to collect data sufficient to address questions of cultural significance and integrity. The Phase II field investigations involved the plowing of the site and adjoining land, followed by a controlled surface collection and machine topsoil stripping of transects. The surface collection was conducted with survey transect intervals averaging 1 meter and ground visibility at near 100%. The plowed ground extended outside of the Phase I site boundaries in order to assure that specific horizontal site limits were established. Two artifacts were identified during the surface collection in the plowed area; a chert secondary flake and an argillite biface similar in form to the Late Archaic Lackawaxen point type. The machine stripping of the topsoil revealed no additional artifacts, and also that the entire site had been heavily disturbed by plowing. Owings Mills New Town Site A (18BA394), was identified as a prehistoric site with possible short-term occupations in the Early and/or Late Archaic periods. The site revealed a paucity of artifacts and lacked any artifact concentrations. Because of its lack of research value and ability to contribute archeological information regarding the prehistory of the area, the site was determined to have no cultural significance and was not deemed eligible for listing to the National Register of Historic Places. Project development activities were given the go-ahead without the requirement of further archeological testing and the site has been essentially destroyed.
External Reference Codes
Library ID Numbers: