Page 100 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

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Dr. Owsley inspecting the burial at Leavy Neck.
as well as bone fractures at the time of death. Since William Neale had no male children of an appropriate age it is assumed that the individual who was buried was an indentured servant (which Neale did have). Leaving aside the possibility of foul play, the colonial governments of both Mary- land and Virginia had both passed laws mandat- ing the decent burial of indentured servants. This was apparently required given the evidently not uncommon practice of simply leaving the bodies of servants exposed in the woods. It seems quite possible that the “body in the basement” at Leavy Neck is an example of such an expedient burial.
The mystery involved with this interment spurred national attention. The Leavy Neck burial was not only the subject of an episode of History Detectives, but was also part of multi-year exhibit called “Written in Bone” on display at the Smith- sonian Museum of Natural History.
The recovery of a terra cotta pipe fragment (of a type not found at other Providence sites), a merchant token from the Isle of Wight dated 1663, and red-bodied tin-glazed earthenware, all suggest that the cellar’s fill must have dated to the late 1660s. Other artifacts included ceramics, glassware, and a deer antler. It is, of course, very difficult to extrapolate the structure at Leavy Neck with only the cellar for architectural evidence. As- suming that turf farming would not have totally erased evidence for large structural posts, it may have been another example of sill on the ground construction.
Town Neck
The Town Neck site is located on property that now belongs to the U.S. Naval Academy on Greenbury Point where the Severn River meets the Chesa- peake Bay. It was first discovered during a Seabees training construction exercise that was conducted without the required prior federal archaeological review. The huge pit excavated by the Navy bisect- ed a large trash-filled cellar and prompted emer- gency salvage excavations. Documentary evidence revealed that the Town Neck Site (18AN944) was occupied by Ralph Williams between at least 1661 and 1673 and possibly before.
Given that the archaeological investigations at Town Neck consisted simply of sampling the bi- sected cellar, little additional architectural evidence was observed. However, large structural posts were also visible in the Navy’s construction pit, indicat- ing that the building was of earthfast construction. Other architectural artifacts associated with the structure included large numbers of green and yel- low Dutch floor tiles (first seen at the Burle Site), English-sized red brick and an interesting assort- ment of Dutch yellow brick. The latter included three different size and hardness variants, as well as indications that some of the yellow brick had been stained red on the outside. These brick varieties re- call the elaborate brickwork seen in contemporary Holland, and suggest that Town Neck was once an impressive structure — presumably with patterned brick gable ends.
The charred state of many of the finds sug- gested that this 17th century structure had been
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