How many people does it take...

One of the things that strikes me about the objects on display is the presence of several toys. At the Calvert House, Brice House, and Maynard-Burgess House archaeologists found toys ranging from different types of marbles at Maynard-Burgess, parts of a porceline doll at Brice House, and several different toys including toy soldiers and small toy pitchers at the Calvert House.

One of the toys found at Reynold's Tavern caused us a bit of trouble during installation. The object was a toy soldier and horse made out of metal that had broken into a few different pieces. As you can see in these pictures, attaching the toy was no easy feat. It took three people to attach these pieces to the case and secure them so that they will not fall over. Thankfully after several attempts, the installation was successful.

Expanded Cell Phone Tour

An expanded version of the Seeking Liberty Cell Phone Tour is hitting the streets today - literally. The new version of the tour covers not only objects inside the exhibit, but takes visitors out to each of the sites featured in the exhibit. The cell phone tour also includes new stops within the exhibit.

Visitors can pick up brochures for the cell phone tour at the Banneker-Douglass Museum or at the Annapolis Visitors Center starting this week. To learn more about the Seeking Liberty tour, check out our March posting on Cell Phone Tours.

Wye House Dig Video

To learn about the work Archaeology in Annapolis' field school is doing at Wye House, check out this video from Discovery News filmed in 2007.

Field School

Right now Archaeology in Annapolis is nearing the end of our six-week field school. Each year AIA teaches a class in archaeological field methods which offers beginners instruction in excavation methods, laboratory work, stratigraphic analysis, technical drawing, writing and interpretation. This year the last half of the field school was held at the Wye House in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Wye House is a plantation that was founded in the late 18th century by Edward Lloyd, a wealthy Maryland landowner. Wye House is a National Historic Landmark and is still privately owned by descendants of the Lloyd family. The field school is currently excavating in a location on the property called the "Long Green" where slaves to the Lloyds worked and lived. Frederick Douglass actually spent a few years of his childhood as a slave at Wye House. One of the best accounts we have of the property comes from one of Douglass' autobiographies, My Bondage, My Freedom, where he describes the landscape and living conditions in some detail. Students are excavating what we believe was a slave quarter. Through excavation we hope to confirm that this was in fact a domestic site for slaves and to further gain some insight into their everyday lives.

For more information on the AIA field school see the following link: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/aia/school.htm

For information on field schools that are held throughout the country and all over the world check out the Shovel Bums website: http://www.shovelbums.org/component/option,com_sobi2/catid,10/Itemid,880/