January 2016 Please join the Friends of Fairfax County Archaeology and Cultural Resources, Gunston Hall Plantation, and the Cultural Resource Management and Protection Branch of the Fairfax County Park Authority in hosting an archaeological symposium. History beneath our Feet: Archeology in the Chesapeake Region Saturday, February 6, 2016 – 9:00 AM ‐3:30 PM At Gunston Hall, 10709 Gunston Road, Mason Neck, VA 22079 Barbara Heath they can be usefully interpreted as artifacts of global, and local systems of Indo‐Pacific Cowrie Shells: Global Trade trade. and Local Exchange in Colonial Virginia Many archaeologists Barbara Heath is an associate professor of have interpreted Anthropology who specializes in the cowrie shells found archaeology of colonialism and the on sites from the African Diaspora, with a focus on the Northeast to the Chesapeake and the Caribbean. Prior to Caribbean as joining the faculty of the University of evidence of material Tennessee, Knoxville in 2006, Dr. Heath expressions of worked for more than 20 years as an African or African archaeologist at historic houses and American ethnicity or museums in Virginia, including Colonial spirituality. However, understanding the Williamsburg, Monticello, and Thomas routes by which these non‐native shells Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. made their way to the New World, and their distribution and use over time and Heath has authored Hidden Lives, The space, shows that they were global Archaeology of Slave Life at Thomas commodities with localized meanings. Jefferson’s Poplar Forest and, with Jack Gary, edited Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, Barbara Heath will present historical and Unearthing a Virginia Plantation. She is archaeological evidence relating to the currently working on Material Worlds: movement and modification of these Archaeology, Consumption, and the Road shells from harvest to delivery. She will to Modernity, co‐edited with Eleanor examine the distribution of two main Breen and Lori Lee. species of cowries, Monetaria moneta and Monetaria annulus, on late 17th‐ and 18th‐century Virginia sites, arguing that Page 1 Julia King and may have been buried on the property. The intensive investigations What Towne Belong You included mechanical and manual Too? Indian Mobility in excavation, GPR, and geoarchaeology. a Colonial Landscape. Over 8,000 artifacts were retrieved and Using a landscape are still being processed. archaeology approach to Native mobility in an occupied landscape, Dr. Julia King will examine wide‐area survey data, archaeological assemblages, and the rich documentary record to reveal how Native people in the lower Also pictured Jim Johnson (rear) and Potomac valley maintained and adapted Mia Carey (far right) familiar practices, schedules, and rituals Charlie LeeDecker has spent over 30 using both Native‐ and European‐made years conducting archaeological research objects. At the same time, Natives primarily in the Washington DC region recognized and used the power of and recently retired from the Louis European objects in their hands to Berger Group. On May, 6, 2015, he provoke colonial anxieties. received a District of Columbia Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation for his Dr. King is professor of anthropology at extensive work in the city. St. Mary's College of Maryland where she studies, teaches, and writes about Chardé Reid is the Assistant City Chesapeake history and archaeology. She Archaeologist with the District of is a past president of the Society for Columbia State Historic Preservation Historical Archaeology and spent eight Office (DC SHPO) and participates in years as an Expert Member on the every aspect of the program from Advisory Council on Historic archeological fieldwork to collections Preservation. In 2012 she received a management, compliance review and grant from the National Endowment for public outreach, and education. Reid the Humanities that focuses on people, received her B.A. in Archaeology from the places, and archaeological sites in the George Washington University. Potomac River drainage occupied from circa 1500 to 1720 AD. Dr. Ruth Trocolli is the City Archaeologist for the District of Columbia. She reviews Charlie LeeDecker, Chardé Reid, federal and local cultural resource and Ruth Trocolli projects and maintains the archeological site files. Dr. Trocolli received her An Overview of the Search for Yarrow doctorate from the University of Florida. Mamout in Georgetown Trocolli recently was awarded the Morris The Yarrow Mamout public archaeology & Gwendolyn Cafrtiz Foundation Award project was conducted between June and for Excellence in Public Leadership. October 2015 in Washington, DC. Mamout Bios adapted from the archaeology staff page was a formerly enslaved African Muslim http://yarrowmamoutarchaeology.weebl y.com/staff who purchased an upper Georgetown lot in 1803. He was well‐known in his time Page 2 Laura Galke town that was in operation from ca. 1754‐ 1830. Beginning in 2010, the Colchester Social Dimensions of Archaeological Research Team (CART) Antebellum Colonoware has been researching the architectural Use at Manassas, Virginia and archaeological The social dimensions of history of the locally‐made, low‐fired OCPP. People colonoware vessels is have left their debated, and varies mark on the land between regions and for at least 10,000 time periods. Decades of National years and CART is Park Service, National Capital Region‐ slowing revealing sponsored archaeological investigations their secrets. have yielded material culture from a variety of antebellum‐era domestic sites. Christopher Sperling is the Fairfax County These assemblages indicate that main Senior Archaeologist. Sperling has stream conventions in this community extensive archaeological experience relegated colonoware to the enslaved throughout the Middle Atlantic region and population: an emblem of bondage rather his professional interests include early than cuisine or ethnicity. European contact with Native American cultures and the archaeology of slavery in colonial Virginia and Maryland. Laura Galke is the field supervisor and data analyst for The George Washington Megan Veness has been a member of the Foundation. Her published works include Colchester Archaeological Research Team analyses of the material culture of 19th‐ from its onset and has been the Field century African American spirituality, of Director since 2011. Prior to joining 17th‐century European and American CART, she worked at Mount Vernon, Indian contact in the Chesapeake, James Madison’s Montpelier and other antebellum college surveillance strategies sites across Virginia. Megan graduated on the campus of Washington and Lee from James Madison University with a B.S. University, and spatial analysis of the in Anthropology with a concentration in mid‐eighteenth century home and Archaeology and is currently pursuing landscape of George Washington’s her Master’s degree in U.S. History from Childhood Home. Her current research is George Mason University. contributing to a richer understanding of the role that historical narratives serve in Dessa Lightfoot contemporary society. Cracking the Code: Megan Veness and Christopher Exploring Oyster Sperling Exploitation in the Eighteenth‐ A Slowly Unraveling Mystery: Century CART Excavations at the Cemetery Site Chesapeake The Old Colchester Park and Preserve Dessa Lightfoot is (OCPP) is situated along the Occoquan a faunal analyst River in Lorton, Virginia and is with the Colonial Williamsburg maintained by the Fairfax County Park Foundation's Environmental Archaeology Authority. Colchester was a tobacco port Laboratory, and is conducting a multi‐site Page 3 study of oyster shells recovered from talks” about the project. The team relied archaeological sites to assess their heavily on volunteers and needed to raise potential for revealing information about funds to rent some of the equipment daily life, the larger economic system, and needed to conduct specialized studies. past environment. Dessa holds a B.A. in Lab work is underway on the thousands English and Textual Studies from of recovered artifacts to determine if any Syracuse University and an M.A in relate to Mamout’s occupation. This Anthropology from New Mexico. She is research will become the subject of currently a Ph.D. candidate at the College Carey’s dissertation at the University of of William and Mary in the Department of Florida. Anthropology, with a focus is on zooarchaeology and cuisine in the Anglo‐ Contributed by Chris Sperling ‐ American colonial world. In October of 2015, the Cultural Resource Management and Protection Branch ARCHEOLOGY IN THE NEWS (CRMPB) received a call from the Fairfax County Utilities Design and Construction Contributed by Jim Evans ‐ Division (UDCD). Excavations for a road Urban archeology can reveal surprising improvement project near the City of finds in terms of both prehistoric and Fairfax had struck an old, buried historic activity, as demonstrated by macadam surface. When that was lifted it recent local discoveries, including the exposed a cedar log road. In the past, it Yarrow Mamout Archaeological Project was common to use logs as a road surface, conducted at 3324 Dent Place, NW. in particular during the Civil War when high traffic in the area mucked up what The circa 1850 dwelling on this lot fell had been dirt roads. into disrepair and necessitated its removal; however, redevelopment plans A detailed map of the logs was drawn and were put on hold until excavations were they were survey located in three completed, as the site