Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18CV152 Bowen Road III
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
Site 18CV152, the Bowens Road III site (or H-JB-17) is the location of refuse disposal area associated with an early to mid 20th century farmstead located northwest of Prince Frederick in Calvert County, Maryland. The site is situated on the edge of a dissected terrace overlooking a small, unnamed tributary of Hunting Creek. The site lies within a heavily eroded field. Soils at the site are predominantly of the Ingleside-Woodstown complex.
Informant interviews and archival research reveal that the site is debris from a former house likely built by the Buck family, who owned the property after 1904. It was used either as their dwelling or as a tenant structure and later sold to the Boyd family in 1916. A member of the Boyd family informed researchers working on the site in 2004 that she grew up in the house and that it was the original Boyd family dwelling until the family moved elsewhere on their property. The house, itself was located nearby to the west of the site at a leveled-off “pad” site near a capped well and tobacco barn. The structure does not appear on historic maps of the area in 1892, 1893, or 1901. A structure is present on a 1910 USGS map and a 1938 USGS map. This would suggest that the structure was likely built by the Buck family, shortly after their purchase of the property in 1904. The Boyd family, reportedly lived in the house from 1916 to 1926 and then housed tenants there until it was torn down.
While on the farm, the Boyd family had an orchard, pig pens, chicken coops, and other farm animals. A white picket fence separated the house yard from the rest of the farm complex. Tobacco was the main (cash) crop in cultivation for many years followed later by soy beans. Corn was also cultivated for use as animal feed.
The site was first identified in 1981, during the course of a research project supported by the Maryland Historical Trust by a researcher at SUNY Binghamton. The research project was a large scale survey of the Patuxent River drainage basin, throughout several counties. Several of the agricultural fields in the vicinity of the site were a part of that survey. Site 18CV151 was discovered during an ungridded survey through an agricultural field, in which the project participants walked the field in transects spaced 10 m apart. At the time of the survey, the field was estimated to have 90% visibility. Kitchen and architectural debris were recovered, suggestive of a late 19th to 20th century domestic site.
Artifacts collected during the 1981 survey included 2 architectural artifacts (iron nails), 194 kitchen-related artifacts (141 pottery sherds and 53 pieces of colored glass) and 17 miscellaneous object (16 pieces of clear/unidentified glass and an unidentified metal fragment). The pottery assemblage includes 21 pieces of porcelain, 95 whiteware sherds, 3 ironstone sherds, 7 miscellaneous earthenware sherds, 1 redware sherd, 4 Albany slip stoneware sherds, and 10 miscellaneous stoneware sherds.
The site was examined again in 1992 as part of a Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) powerline survey through Calvert County. The 30.5 m (100 ft) wide right-of-way (ROW) for the powerline was surveyed by excavating shovel test pits at 15.24 m (50 ft) intervals and all excavated soils were screened through hardware mesh. A total of 149 STPs were excavated in the survey segment that included site 18CV152. The site was re-located by a cluster of seven STPs within the ROW, three of which either yielded artifacts or artifacts were located on the surface nearby. Two pieces of brick, a whiteware sherd, 20th century ceramics (estimated at 2 sherds), and oyster shell (estimated at 2 pcs.) were recovered. Surface features (a capped well, the level house pad, and a barn) were noted to the west of the site. As these features were outside the powerline ROW, no additional work was conducted in 1992.
The site was again a subject of interest during a Phase I survey in 2004 as part of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline project in Calvert, Charles, and Prince George’s Counties. The proposed construction work involved the installation of a 36-inch pipeline over 48 miles of right-of-way, as well as construction of ancillary facilities (e.g. pipeyards and access roads). As such, Phase I and, in some cases, Phase II work was conducted throughout the pipeline right-of-way and in other areas that might be impacted by the construction.
In the vicinity of Site 18CV152, this work entailed the excavation of 5 STPs at 15 m intervals within the LNG pipeline ROW. Some of these STPs were positive, resulting in the excavation of an additional 19 radial STPs, for a total of 24 Phase I shovel tests. STPs measured approximately 50 cm in diameter, and were excavated in natural soil horizons 15 cm into sterile subsoil. Excavated soils were screened through hardware mesh. Eighteen STPs were positive resulting in the recovery of historic artifacts from the plowzone horizon. As a result of this Phase I investigation, site dimensions were determined to be 35 X 30 m within the ROW. However, the site clearly extended beyond the western limits of the ROW over to a nearby road and including the visible capped well, level area, and barn.
Positive STPs yielded 189 historic artifacts, 51 of which were temporally diagnostic. These provide a mean date of 1901 for the site with the date range of many of the bottles suggesting occupation during the early to middle 20th century. Based on the visible features to the west and the recovery of historic artifact within the ROW, Phase II testing was recommended, which was also conducted in March and April of 2005. The 2004 Phase I artifacts are included along with the 2005 Phase II assemblage below.
Phase II field investigations included detailed site mapping, and STP, test unit, trench, and feature excavations. A grid was established across the site with the long east-west axis oriented parallel to the pipeline project corridor. Investigations began with the excavation of 186 STPs (placed on a 3.05 m or 10 ft grid) and 60 judgmentally placed STPs to refine site boundaries, identify artifact concentrations, and facilitate placement of test units. One hundred-fifty one positive Phase II STPs resulted in a revised site dimension of 70 m north-south by 30 m east-west within the ROW, and revealed one significant artifact concentration in the center of the site (designated Cluster 1).Cluster 1 corresponded to a low-lying “catch-basin” on the terrace hillside. The large quantities of kitchen-related artifacts relative to architectural debris strongly suggested to researchers that the house site was not here, but at the aforementioned level “pad” area outside the pipeline ROW.
A total of 9 test units of varying sizes and one 0.45 X 1.83 m (1.5 X 6 ft) hand-excavated test trench were excavated to sample locations of higher artifact densities identified during Phase I and II shovel testing and to explore for features. The test units and trench were hand-excavated by arbitrary 10 cm levels within natural strata to a minimum depth of 10 cm into sterile soil and 10 cm below the last recovered artifact. All soils were screened through hardware cloth.
As a result of the test unit and trench excavations, one historic feature was identified during Phase II testing. The feature was sandwiched between the base of the plowzone and the top of the subsoil and likely represents a localized buried plowzone within a low area of the hillside. Over time this depression was gradually filled with other colluvial deposits and secondary refuse from the nearby house and generally corresponds to the location of Cluster 1. Numerous gullies from water runoff were visible across the site landscape. In general, site stratigraphy consists of a plowzone containing artifacts, directly overlying sterile subsoil.
Site 18CV152 produced 6,311 historic/modern artifacts during the 2004-05 Phase I and II investigations. The assemblage included 691 activity items, 508 architectural artifacts, 121 clothing remains, 4,890 kitchen–related artifacts, 3 personal items, 11 arms objects, and 87 miscellaneous objects. The activity items include 2 musical objects, 2 recreation items, 194 lighting objects, 439 container parts (cans/tins), 3 farm implements, 1 hand tool, 46 machine parts, and 4 miscellaneous pieces of hardware. Architectural remains were 97 pieces of window glass, 125 brick fragments, 1 piece of roofing material, 1 piece of flooring, 2 pieces of building material, 270 nails and spikes (19 cut, 2 wire, 249 unidentified), 9 plumbing parts, and 3 other architectural items. Clothing remains include 2 fasteners and 119 pieces of shoes. The kitchen assemblage consisted of 848 ceramic sherds (460 ironstone, 114 whiteware, 26 yelloware, and 248 unidentified), 6 glass tumbler/stemware pieces, 2,357 bottle fragments, 2 animal bones, 1,676 shell fragments, and 1 other kitchen item. The personal items were a coin and 2 cosmetic objects. The arms objects are not identified. The miscellaneous historic/modern items were a piece of wood and 86 unidentified objects.
The analysis of historic artifacts indicated that this portion of Site 18CV152 represents secondary refuse and possibly demolition debris discarded over the hill from the former tenant house. This portion of the site has been plowed and severely eroded. It is unlikely that additional excavations within this portion of the site would reveal any important information about former occupants. The LNG pipeline installation likely impact the site, since a finding of “no adverse effect” was determined appropriate within the ROW in 2005. However, intact deposits may be present outside the ROW in the level “pad” area where the house is believed to have been located.
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