Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18ST334 Puma
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Puma Site (18ST334) is a multicomponent site with an 18th century tenant farm component and a possible Late Archaic/Early Woodland and Late Woodland small prehistoric component. This site is located aboard the Webster Field Annex, Patuxent River Naval Air Station (NAS WFA), at the Naval Electronics Systems Engineering Activity (NESEA), in St. Inigoes, Maryland. It is situated in Webster Field in the southern section of NESEA. The field is part of St. Inigoes Neck: a large peninsula bounded by St. Inigoes Creek to the north, the St. Mary’s River on the west, the Potomac River on the south, and Smith Creek to the east. The site sits on relatively level ground approximately east and inland from Fort Point, in a cultivated field. The site is bounded by roads, a large drainage ditch, and field and a field and pond. The soils are poorly drained Othello fine sandy loams.
The NESEA facility is located on the large land tract historically known as St. Inigoes Manor, although occupation at the site dates to the prehistoric period. The 2000-acre Manor had served as a plantation and as a mission operated by the Society of Jesus of the Catholic Church (Jesuits) for more than 300 years. The area known as the Old Chapel Field appears to have served as the main activity area of the Manor from as early as ca. 1638 until the mid-18th century. From ca. 1755 until the Navy’s acquisition of the property in 1942, the area known as Priest’s Point served as the main area of activity.
St. Inigoes Manor was patented in 1634, the same year that the Maryland colony was established, to Richard Gerard. In 1637, Gerard sold his property to Father Thomas Copley of the Society of Jesus. By 1638, the manor had a main residence known as St. Inigoes House, a storehouse, a tobacco barn, and other structures. Throughout the rest of the 17th century, the manor consisted of a semi-autonomous plantation with gardens, orchards, stables, barns, a store, a grist mill, and a blacksmith shop, with hundreds of acres of cultivated land producing tobacco and grain. It is maintained that in 1705 the Catholic Church located in St. Mary’s City was dismantled and the brick was reused to build a new Priest’s house at St. Inigoes. Another, possibly third, St. Inigoes Manor house appears to have been built at Priest’s Point ca. 1755. That the Old Chapel Field Manor house was dismantled and moved to Priest’s Point in the middle of the 18th century is supported by archeological and historical evidence.
Beginning in 1806, new structures were built on the manor property including a brick barn, a weaver’s house, a windmill, a miller’s house, cow and hen houses, workshops, and slave quarters. A destructive raid was carried by the British in 1814; the dwellings were looted, foodstuffs were confiscated, and the chapel was desecrated but the Priest’s House and all the other structures were spared from being burned, allowing the mission to recover and continue to prosper. In 1872, a fire gutted the brick Priest’s House. The east wing was rebuilt into a smaller dwelling. In 1876, a 4-story “Villa House” was built nearby to house mission students. In 1919, the priest’s residence was transferred from St. Inigoes to St. Michael’s. Operations continued on a smaller scale with tenants continuing to occupy various farms located on the property. In 1942, when the US Navy acquired the north 773 acres of manor land, the Villa house and all the Jesuit buildings were removed. The remainder of the original 2000 acres not bought by the Navy or lost to erosion remains in the possession of the Jesuits.
A Phase I/II survey was conducted in 1981 by the St. Mary’s City Summer Field School in Archeology, under the supervision of the Southern Maryland Regional Center. No final report was produced. However, in 1996, an additional study of the site was conducted in order to guide future management decisions at NESEA. During the background research phase of the 1996 work, a synopsis of the 1981 survey was written from field notes, catalog sheets, and site forms. This synopsis is presented here. No additional work was conducted at 18ST334 during the 1996 study.
During the 1981 survey, site 18ST334 was located in the southern portion of Tract 45. Tract 45 was systematically surface collected using 20 m collection blocks. In most cases, only the diagnostic artifacts were retained, although all artifacts were inventoried. Items noted in the field but no always retained included fire-cracked rock (FCR), flakes, cores, oyster shell, nails, and bricks. The 1981 study revealed several discrete areas of brick concentrations. This suggested the presence of at least one structure, maybe more, in the historic past.
The artifacts collected during the 1981 excavation at 18ST334 were not included in the Appendix D artifact inventory within the 1996 original report. The totals below derive from the provided synopsis and should be considered minimum estimates. These artifact totals are combined with the 1989 survey totals in the table above.
The 39 historic artifacts included 10 architectural items (all brick fragments, minimum estimate), 27 kitchen items (3 bottle glass fragments, 11 Buckley sherds, 6 Staffordshire slipware, 4 Rhenish Blue & Gray, and 3 whiteware), and 2 tobacco items (white clay pipe stem fragments).
The 15 prehistoric items included 1 Piscataway point (Early Woodland), 1 Levanna point (Late Woodland), 1 scraper, 10 pieces of debitage (minimum estimate), and 2 FCR (minimum estimate).
A Phase I/II was conducted at the Puma site in 1989 ahead of proposed development including the construction of a building, loading docks, parking lots, and pedestrian pathways. The purpose of the investigation was to provide planning information for NESEA to use in determining the placement of the proposed buildings and other improvements. Goals of the project were to (1) locate and identify previously unrecorded sites, (2) assess the potential significance of those sites, (3) determine the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the Puma Site, and (4) identify, if possible, the age and function(s) of the Puma Site. The total project area was 5-acres in size. The 1981 baseline could not be relocated so a new line and grid were established, with the southwest corner of the base line set as grid North 0/East 0. Collection units measured 9.3 m². North-south transects were set at 3 m intervals across the base line. All artifacts within each collection unit were retained except for brick and shell which were counted then discarded.
Based on the systematic surface collection, 3 historic artifact clusters were identified (Clusters 1-3). Cluster 1 roughly corresponds with the concentrations identified at the site in 1981. Cluster 2, located at the western edge of the site, and Cluster 3, located at the southern edge of the site, represented subsequent and unrelated (19th and 20th century) historic components. A fourth component was represented by prehistoric artifacts, which were scattered across the entire site.
Five 1.524 m² test units were placed in areas of highest artifact concentration. Test units 1, 2, and 3 were excavated within the boundaries of Cluster 1. Test unit 4 was excavated in Cluster 3, and test unit 5 was excavated in Cluster 2. The soil profiles consisted of a dark, grayish brown (2.5Y4/2) silt loam plowzone. The plowzone overlaid a grayish-brown (2.5Y5/2) to light brownish gray (2.5Y6/2) mottled silt loam. The subsoil consisted of a grayish-brown (2.5Y5/2) loamy clay mottled with a light olive brown (2.5Y6/2) loamy clay.
Cluster 1 represents a late 17th to mid- to late-18th century occupation at the site. The architectural debris suggested that a wood framed building may have at one time stood there. The lack of ‘expensive’ ceramic types, along with documentary evidence of land use at that time, indicates that this may have been a tenant farmer household. Three features were identified in Cluster 1. Feature 1 was a posthole located in test unit 1. It appeared as a round, dark stain that measured approximately 30.48 cm in diameter and was 30.48 cm deep, narrowing to 10 cm at its base. No artifacts were recovered from the fill but charcoal flecks were noted throughout. Feature 2, also a posthole, was found in test unit 2, approximately 7.3 m east of Feature 1. It was semi-circular and measured 28 cm in diameter and was about 10 cm deep. The fill contained shell, brick fragments, and charcoal flecks. The posthole features could indicate that either a small structure or a fence line once existed there. Feature 3, a possible large pit, was extended across test units 2 and 3, and beyond the boundaries of the units. The exposed portion of the feature measured 0.914 m east-west and at least 1.524 m north-south. Feature 3 was not tested; brick and shell fragments and a sherd of coarse earthenware were observed at the surface of the feature. Cluster 2 consisted primarily of a scatter of oyster shell and a few historic and prehistoric artifacts. It appeared to be a later historic field scatter, which may include materials displaced from Cluster 1. Cluster 3 primarily consisted of brick fragments, which suggested that a single load of construction debris may have been dumped in the area during the 20th century. The prehistoric component appeared to represent activities indicating its use as a short-term camp site, rather than a special-purpose site such as a procurement site.
There were 417 historic period artifacts collected in 1989. There was 1 activity item (a V-shaped iron strap). There were 145 architectural items (109 brick fragments, 3 mortar pieces, 1 wrought nail, 5 rose head nails, 24 unidentified nails, and 3 fragments of ceramic drainage pipe). There were 207 kitchen-related items (6 bottle glass fragments – 1 modern, 43 Buckley sherds, 13 Staffordshire slipware, 6 Westerwald, 6 buff-bodied earthenware, 22 other earthenware, 1 creamware, 2 pearlware, 2 English brown stoneware, 3 unidentified salt-glazed stoneware, 6 whiteware, 96 oyster shell fragments, and 1 fish scale). There were 7 miscellaneous items (2 unidentified iron objects, 1 piece of slate, and 4 pieces of coal). There were 57 tobacco items (28 kaolin pipe stems, 24 kaolin pipe bowls, and 5 stem and bowl fragments).
There were 16 prehistoric period artifacts collected in 1989. There were 10 pieces of debitage (2 quartz, 4 quartzite, 4 chert). There were 4 chipped stone tools (2 preforms, 1 biface, and 1 quartzite Rossville point dated to the terminal Archaic/Early Woodland period). The 2 ‘other lithic’ items were a chopper tool and a grinding stone.
No further archeological work is documented to have taken place at 18ST334 until 2010. At that time, site evaluation studies (Phase II archeological investigations) were conducted at 3 archeological sites at the Webster Field Annex, one of which was 18ST334. The Phase II investigations were conducted as part of the planning for the MILCON P-140 project. The sites were situated at three alternative locations for the construction of the Communications Engineering Facility at Webster Field Annex for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD). The (then) proposed facility would be approximately 18,000 square feet and would be a multi-storey building with a masonry exterior containing administrative spaces, storage, communications rooms, and lab space. The work was conducted to comply with requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Phase II investigation of 18ST334 consisted of the excavation of 9 formal test units. Since previous work had utilized extensive shovel testing to document the location of artifact concentrations and potential features, these previous studies were consulted to determine the placement of the test units. The 2010 study aimed to confirm the integrity of the site and supplement the earlier information about site structure and age. Eight of the test units were concentrated in the area where the 18th century house, possible pit, and postmolds had previously been encountered. The 9th test unit was situated where an undifferentiated scatter of historic and prehistoric artifacts had been previously identified.
Test units measured 1 X 1 m and were excavated into subsoil. The plowzone was screened in its entirety and excavated as a single level. Below the plowzone, excavation levels followed natural stratigraphy with arbitrary 10 cm levels for vertical control. Subsoil was sampled with either the excavation of one 10 cm thick level across the entirety of the unit, or a 50 X 50 cm window. Each stratum or level was recorded on standardized field forms, and scaled stratigraphic profiles and plan views were drawn. Test unit locations were recorded on field maps as well.
Excavations in 2010 revealed that 18ST334 had been impacted by installation of an unmapped fiber optic line but had not been critically affected and still retained information potential. Most of the test units encountered intact soil columns, and a feature was identified, a shallow pit of unknown age and function. It may relate to one of the occupations of the site (historic or prehistoric), but it might also be disturbed soil from the utility line installation or construction-related earth-moving. The principal site component is an 18th century residence, including a lightly built, post-in-ground structure. Research suggests that the residence belonged to a tenant farmer. The prehistoric component is less substantial and appeared mainly to be a Late Archaic encampment.
Though the earlier studies of the site revealed a fairly rich assemblage with numerous artifacts recovered and three features identified, a relatively meager collection of artifacts was recovered during the 2010 Phase II study. The Phase II assemblage consisted of 1 nail (unidentified form), 13 ceramic sherds (1 buff-bodied slipware, 4 Buckley, 1 redware, 1 German brown stoneware, 4 white salt-glazed stoneware, and 2 Westerwald), 7 olive-colored wine bottle fragments, 1 other container glass fragment, 2 pipe bowls, 4 pipe stems, 1 unidentified piece of metal, 2 prehistoric flakes, 2 pieces of block shatter, and 6 fragments of fire-cracked rock.
The historic component at the Puma Site (18ST334) is considered particularly important because few 18th century sites outside of the immediate vicinity of St. Mary’s City have been documented and investigated. The relatively insubstantial structure and low number of artifacts suggest a tenant farm. The site represents the Maryland historical context of the Rural Agrarian Intensification from AD 1680-1815. Avoidance of the site has been suggested as the best means for its preservation. Any surface modifications (such as soil stripping or intensive landscaping) near to the site have the potential to disturb the integrity of the deposits. However, if the Puma Site cannot be protected and preserved through avoidance, then a Phase III data recovery program is recommended.
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