Page 103 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

Swan Cove
Situated on the banks of a relict cove off Mill Creek, the Swan Cove Site (18AN934) was occu- pied by planter Emanuel Drue from perhaps the 1650s. At the very least he occupied the land from its first patent in 1663 until his death in 1669.
This site was of interest because of a large number of terra cotta pipe fragments that were initially found eroding from the bank of Swan Cove by local collector Bob Ogle. When a minor residential subdivision was proposed for the area, an opportunity for formal archaeological testing by Anne Arundel County presented itself. As the excavation began, it immediately become obvious that Emanuel Drue was more than simply a plant- er, he was also a tobacco pipe maker. Numerous fragments of kiln muffles, lute, interior props and decorating tools were recovered that were clearly pipe manufacturing debris.
The origins of terra cotta pipes have been the subject of intense archaeological debate for decades. They were variously considered to be the product of Native Americans, African slaves, or Creole populations. Until the discovery at Swan Cove, however, no actual production sites had ever been physically located, and ironically the pipe maker involved at the site fit none of these de- scriptions. He was actually a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Based on comparable manufacturing sites excavated in England, Drue was using state of the art European production techniques in the manufacture of tobacco pipes made of native clays. But he was not simply digging for clay on his homelot — which would have produced only tan-colored pipes. Drue apparently went distances of up to 12 miles up the Severn River to obtain samples of varying mineral content; obtaining green, grey, pink, and white clays. Interestingly, raw examples of each of these diverse clays were recovered intact from Swan Cove features.
Drue used these clays to produce pipes of different colors, marbleizing them, and even using them as a slip to produce patterned effects. Cou- pled with the extensive decorative tools used to mark the pipes, it is obvious that Drue was not simply a pipe maker, but a highly artistic one. That he invested such effort in his products certainly di- minished economic theories on the relative worth of terra cotta pipes. Drue produced two main forms, a “Chesapeake” style angular elbow pipe and a European style “belly bowl.” He also pro- duced occasional presentation pipes, one of which
figure 10
Swan Cove kiln furniture and products.
figure 11
Drue pipe styles
from top to bottom: “Belly” bowl, the Chesapeake pipe, and the Crumhorn pipe.
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figure 12
A sampling of the varied colors of clay used in Drue products.