Page 153 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

coming by way of the Potomac River. The site, re- gardless or when it was abandoned, offers a unique glimpse into the native settlement landscape prior to the upheaval of native culture as colonization took hold.
The Accokeek Creek Site was excavated by Alice Ferguson, an avocational archaeologist, be- tween 1935 and 1939. What Ferguson uncovered was a site that spanned over a large area mea- suring roughly 650 by 350 feet within a series of semi-circular palisaded or stockade enclosures. The palisade lines consisted of two to eight-inch postmolds set at roughly one-foot evenly spaced intervals.31
It has been long assumed that these palisades and stockades were for defense. The Potomac Creek site itself contained a circular enclosure consisting of palisades or stockades and trench- es roughly 250 by 300 feet in width and breadth. Being considered enemies, and under threat from groups like the Susquehannock, it makes sense that these features were defensive in nature. However, they may have also served a ritual function. Several dog burials at the Accokeek Creek Site follow a trend among other Chesa- peake native sites, where dog remains were buried at boundaries and/or palisade lines, which taken together represent rituals of demarcation or offer- ings to prevent or end misfortune.32 It has been
suggested that these palisade features are indic- ative of separation of sacred spaces — a type of monumental architecture separating the built environment from the natural.33
Other types of possible monumental archi- tecture are also present at the Accokeek Creek Site. Alice Ferguson notes a number of stacked stone features she interpreted as “pawcorances” located both inside and outside of the pali- sade. Most of these features were small, while others measured up to 12 feet in diameter. One such stone feature was located about a quarter mile from the Accokeek Creek Site, associated with nearby burial pits and ossuaries. Captain John Smith noted pawcorances among Virginia Indians, which consisted of small stone mon- uments. Smith relates that these monuments were located “some by their houses, and others in the woods or wildernesses where they have had an extraordinary accident, or encounter,” and that when traveling with the native people that they would “tell you the cause of why they were erected.”34 Robert Beverley, who lived near- by to the Rappahannock tribe in Virginia in the early 18th century noted that they kept a “great Pawcorance,” or altar stone consisting of a single large, heavy, solid glass-like crystal measuring between three and four cubic feet.35
The Accokeek Creek Site was no doubt an
TABLE 3 — Total identifiable ceramics by midden, Secowocomoco.
Total
%
North Midden
%
South Midden
%
Surface Survey
%
Accokeek
15
3.8%
0
0.0%
15
4.1%
2
8.0%
Popes Creek
28
7.2%
0
0.0%
28
7.6%
2
8.0%
Popes Creek or Accokeek
3
0.8%
3
13.0%
0
0.0%
1
4.0%
Total Early Woodland
46
11.8%
3
13.0%
43
11.7%
5
20.0%
Mockley
46
11.8%
4
17.4%
42
11.4%
0
0.0%
Total Middle Woodland
46
11.8%
4
17.4%
42
11.4%
0
0.0%
Townsend
284
72.8%
15
65.2%
269
73.3%
15
60.0%
Potomac Creek
4
1.0%
0
0.0%
4
1.1%
1
4.0%
Potomac Creek or Moyaone
3
0.8%
1
4.3%
2
0.5%
2
8.0%
Moyaone
2
0.5%
0
0.0%
2
0.5%
2
8.0%
Yeocomico
5
1.3%
0
0.0%
5
1.4%
0
0.0%
Total Late Woodland
298
76.4%
16
69.6%
282
76.8%
20
80.0%
TOTAL IDENTIFIABLE
390
23
367
25
151