Page 29 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

for existed primarily in the very plowzone artifacts that were being stripped away. Recognizing this loss of important data prompted a rethinking of the methods and no further stripping would be done at St. John’s. Even in rescue situations, where limited time may demand stripping, sampling the plowzone first in some systematic manner is es- sential. One cannot understand a colonial site with features alone and plowzone artifacts offer valu- able in-sights that are obtainable in no other way.
Exploring the potential of plowzone artifacts began with the efforts of Ph.D. student Robert Keeler. He began tabulating the artifacts from different areas and mapping their distributions by their density over the site.11 This showed that
spaces were maintained differently at the site, with some kept relatively clean and free of trash while others were major dumps throughout much of the site occupation. An unanticipated finding came from tobacco pipes. Most pipes smoked by the colonists were made of white clay and imported from England or the Netherlands. But the digging at St. John’s revealed another brown type labeled terra cotta pipes. Handmade of Chesapeake clay, the vast majority of these were produced by Chesapeake Indians.
A smaller subset was made in European pipe molds by artisan planters who were proba- bly supplementing their income by pipe making. Many of the handmade pipes were decorated by
27
figure 12
Fence features as uncovered and
not yet excavated. These represent multiple generations of yard fences at the St. John’s Site.