Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18FR110 Wiles II
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Wiles II site (18FR110) in Frederick County, MD is a small lithic scatter that was probably occupied throughout the Late Archaic and into the Woodland. The site is situated on Huntington silt loams in the floodplain of the nearby Monocacy River and within the boundaries of the Monocacy Battlefield Park (an NPS property). The site has been known to local collectors for over 75 years. The field notes of John J. Snyder at the Maryland Historical Trust, indicate that he was collecting in this vicinity as early as 1932. During a Phase I survey of the Monocacy Valley in the late 1970s, the site was re-identified and the researchers had the opportunity to examine a local collection of points from the site. This collection included 2 Savannah River stemmed points, 1 Susquehanna Broadspear, a Selby Bay stemmed, and 1 Selby Bay side-notched (Variant B).
The first professional testing at the site was conducted by R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates in the spring of 1990 as part of the Monocacy Interceptor Sewer Line project. The site was within the area of potential impact along the roughly 10.2 km sewer line which now stretches from the Ballenger Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant to the City of Frederick Waste Water Treatment Plant. One hundred shovel tests and five 1 X 1 m units were excavated within 18WA110. An auger test was placed in the bottom of each of nine shovel test units at 20-40 m intervals; these tests extended to an average of 78.7 cm below ground surface. In addition, a controlled surface collection consisting of 42 10 X 10 m collection areas, was made along the project corridor within the site. No intact cultural features were encountered.
Six of the shovel tests and all five of the test units recovered prehistoric materials; however, 1,187 of the 1,433 prehistoric artifacts recovered came from the surface collection. The assemblage from the 1990 Phase I and II work consisted of 1,113 unmodified flakes, 8 cores, 4 ground/pecked stone objects, 238 retouched/utilized flakes, 39 bifaces, 31 projectile points of point fragments, and 1670.4 g of fire-cracked rock. The vast majority of the lithic material consisted of non-cortical rhyolite; however, most of the cores were quartz. Of the 31 projectile points/point fragments recovered, 23 could be assigned to a known type. In the assemblage are a Morrow Mountain I point, a Savannah River Broadspear, 2 Brewerton Side-notched points, a Halifax Side-notched, a Lamoka-like point, 1 Susquehanna Broadspear, a point that is either a 2nd Susquehanna Broadspear or an Orient Fishtail, a Macpherson Side-notched point, 2 Guilford Lanceolates, 2 Rossville points, a Lackawaxen Stemmed point, 2 Selby Bay stemmed, 2 Selby Bay lanceolates, a Selby Bay Side-notched Variant B point, 3 Selby Bay Side-notched Variant C points, and a large generalized triangular point (probably Levanna).
The site was revisited during the Phase I survey associated with the I-270/US 15 Multi-Modal Corridor Study. A number of shovel tests were dug throughout the site, but no artifacts were recovered.
In the summer and fall of 2001, the National Park Service conducted a controlled surface collection at the site to refine the site's boundaries and chronology and, if possible, to determine to what extent the site had been compromised by the installation of the earlier sewer interceptor. The impetus to this research was the relocation of the Monocacy National Battlefield visitor’s center to the Best Farm portion of the park, which includes site 18FR110. A total of six diagnostic artifacts were collected from this site and include a Selby Bay/Fox Creek Stemmed point fragment, a Selby Bay/Mockley Phase quarry blade, a Selby Bay stemmed blade fragment, a Selby Bay-phase blade fragment, and a Savannah River variant. An additional outlying Selby Bay point was collected to the north of the site, some 228 meters from the river, but is probably associated with 18FR110. These diagnostic projectile points suggest a Late Archaic to Middle Woodland time period, which is consistent with the results of earlier work. Lithic debitage was also recovered, but details and quantities are not provided in body of the full report.
The site was revisited again in 2003 as part of a water main installation project along a corridor running parallel to the previously installed sewer line. Testing was undertaken at the site due to new information uncovered by NPS archeologists during the past several years and expansion in our understanding of the presence of deep alluvial deposits across much of the Monocacy River floodplain. Thirty-two shovel tests, four 1 X 2 m test units, two 1 X 1 m units, two 1 X 10 m deep trenches, and four shallow strip trenches were excavated within the portion of Site 18FR110 contained within the project corridor. From these excavations, 34 prehistoric period and 9 historic period artifacts were recovered.
The prehistoric artifacts that were recovered in 2003 include 4 rhyolite bifacial tool fragments (none are temporally diagnostic), 24 fragments of debitage (rhyolite, quartz, and chert), a quartzite hammerstone, 4 pieces of fire-cracked sandstone, and one ceramic sherd. The single fragment of prehistoric ceramic is an eroded shell tempered body sherd, possibly of Keyser Ware. The historic artifacts were a whiteware body sherd, 6 pieces of bottle glass, an iron horseshoe, and a piece of flat plastic.
Excavations also indicated that previous disturbances within the site from high velocity flooding, sheet erosion after the start of historic plowing, and the excavation of the existing sewer interceptor trench (the sewer line trench was much deeper than the original plans had specified prior to 1990 Phase II testing), there are few intact soils that might contain cultural features. Limited mechanical stripping of portions of the project corridor on the higher terrace landform failed to find any prehistoric features. The quantities and nature of the prehistoric assemblage within the project corridor, even in a primary context, are not sufficient to address important research questions. Thus, the site can only be characterized as a heavily disturbed and very diffuse lithic scatter. The diagnostic artifacts recovered to date, seem to indicate occupations ranging from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland.
|
