UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND FIELD SCHOOL IN HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Annapolis and the Eastern Shore of Maryland
The University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) Department of
Anthropology and the Office of Continuing and Extended Education
announce the 24th season of excavation with Archaeology in Annapolis, a
summer program of onsite archaeological excavation and research. This
intensive, six-week program devotes eight hours daily to supervised
archaeological fieldwork, analysis, technical drawing, writing and
interpretation. The Summer 2005 excavations extend a long-term program
of public archaeology in Maryland’s state capital that is supported by
the Mayor and City Council of Annapolis. This year excavations will be
conducted in the historic district of the City of Annapolis, as well as
outside of the city at the former plantations and estates of William
Paca and the Lloyd family on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay,
on Maryland’s Wye River.
During the summer of 2004, University of Texas Austin graduate students
Jennifer Babiarz and Lisa Kraus directed a crew of students from UMCP
while excavating at William Paca’s late-eighteenth century home and
plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Previous excavations at
Wye Hall, undertaken with support from the homeowners from 2000-2003,
have focused on the vicinity of the house and the formal, planned and
planted landscape upon which it is sited. New access to lands lying
adjacent to the Wye Hall property, administered by the Maryland
Department of Natural Resources (DNR), have made much of the plantation
landscape available. William Paca acquired his large plantation on Wye
Island through marriage to Mary Chew, and construction of a house and
the garden landscape began in the 1790s. Under Paca and his
descendents as many as 150 enslaved people lived on the plantation at
one time. Excavations in the summer of 2004 were directed at testing
several areas including a cluster of brick building foundations, a
midden area, a historic road extending across the plantation, and other
areas suspected to contain intact deposits. During the summer of 2005,
excavations will continue to focus on the organization of the entire
plantation landscape and its change through time, specifically road
systems leading to docks and bridges, as well as further investigations
of intact deposits at a possible slave quarter site.
Excavation this summer will also take place at Wye House, the
plantation and estate of the Lloyd family for the last 350 years.
Excavations will first focus on testing to establish the nature and
integrity of archaeological deposits on the property. The work will be
supported by abundant written records, including autobiographical works
by Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was enslaved by Anthony
Aaron, the Lloyd’s overseer at Wye House, and moved to Wye House
plantation at the age of 6, where he remained for most of his
childhood. The combination of archaeology and Douglass’
autobiographical work will provide a unique and detailed understanding
of life for enslaved peoples in antebellum, Eastern Shore Maryland. A
comparison between the classic Southern plantation model and the likely
different strategies that were being used at Wye House by Edward Lloyd,
to maintain and increase his wealth through diversification and
experimentation, is also of interest.
ENROLLMENT
Enrollment is limited to 20 students at either the graduate or
undergraduate level. While there are no formal prerequisites for the
field school, at least one introductory course in archaeology is
recommended (at the University of Maryland, this would be ANTH 240,
Introduction to Archaeology). Physical ability to engage in field work
is essential, and any student currently in good standing at a college
or university is eligible to register.
REGISTRATION PROCESS
Interested students must register for either ANTH 496: Field Methods in
Archaeology (six undergraduate-level academic credits) or ANTH 696:
Field Methods in Archaeology (six graduate-level academic credits).
Registration for undergraduate Independent Study (ANTH 389A) is also
possible. Admission and registration materials are available through
the University of Maryland. Payment is due May 2005 and fees are
subject to change.
ADDITIONAL LOGISTICS
The field school meets daily in the field for approximately eight hours
a day, Monday through Friday. The daily starting time will probably
change over the course of the summer, depending on the weather, and
students should be flexible. Students are responsible for their own
transportation to the field school site (approximately 120 miles round
trip daily from the University of Maryland) and living accommodations
in the Washington, D.C./Annapolis area. Effective carpooling will ease
this burden, and tolls for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge will be covered.
A waiver of liability will be required by the University of Maryland
before a student can participate in field work and/or laboratory work
at any of the sites.
INFORMATION
For further information, contact:
Jenn Babiarz ([log in to unmask]) or Matthew Palus
([log in to unmask])
Department of Anthropology
University of Maryland
1111 Woods Hall
College Park, MD 20742-7415
301-405-1429
For updated information, visit
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/aia/school.htm
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