Page 101 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

destroyed by a massive fire. Interestingly, the cellar contained a large quantity of burned wheat and a dead dog was found near the floor of the fea- ture. The upper part of the cellar fill contained a huge amount of debris from the structure’s demise. Most notable among this destruction debris was a large quantity of Dutch floor tiles. Unlike the Burle Site where only a few examples of green and yellow floor tiles were recovered, the numbers seen at Town Neck seem to indicate that a much more extensive area was covered by these tiles.8
Homewood’s Lot
Discovered as part of development review conduct- ed by Anne Arundel County’s Office of Planning and Zoning, the investigations at Homewood’s Lot eventually proved the location to be the site of at least five early homesteads ranging from ca. 1650 to the present. As such, it presented an interesting opportunity to sample changing building styles, especially over the first century of colonial occu- pation. Interestingly, each new structure remained precisely orientated to the first, which undoubtedly
indicates overlapping generations of buildings as the new structures replaced the old.
The earliest structure discovered — designated Homewood’s Building A — was a small one-room structure that once had an earthen cellar construct- ed under the floor boards. Apparently, the build- ing utilized wood sills resting on an above-ground ironstone foundation. The cellar had been used for trash disposal which had periodically been capped by clay filling episodes. The roughly 6 by 10 foot feature proved to contain an interesting assortment of ceramics and tobacco pipes dating from the 1660s. The ceramics included a notable amount of high-end delftware including three porringers and a mid-drip candlestick. The cellar also contained a window lead dated 1661 which appears to be related to the construction of the adjacent Home- wood’s Building B.9
Although the archaeological testing at Home- wood’s Lot was initiated because of planned con- struction, the current owners eventually agreed to move the location of their new house to avoid this important concentration of early building remains. The site remains preserved in place.
figure 6
Town Neck archaeological salvage excavations in progress.
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