Hampden Heritage

Archaeology, History, and Heritage in Central Baltimore

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Post-Excavation Artifacts

Hello,

My name is Abbie and I am a graduate student at the University of Maryland. I have been interning with the Hampden project for approximately the last year. I and some undergraduates here at the University of Maryland have been working on washing, bagging, cataloging, and labeling the artifacts uncovered at the five sites in Hampden. This work has to be done after the excavation in order to prepare the collection for storage. As evidenced by the list of tasks that need to be done, the bulk of archaeological work actually takes place in the lab after the excavation.

As we wrap up this portion of the project, I wanted to share some of the artifacts with you. I will be posting various pictures over the next few weeks to lead up to a community workshop to be held April 22nd at the Roosevelt Rec Center in Hampden. The workshop will be at 7 pm and will allow you to see a sample of the artifacts from the various sites in person.

In working with the project, I have seen pretty much every artifact, which includes everything from bricks and coal to plastic army men and buttons. I have enjoyed seeing it all, but I am assisting with an analysis of the ceramics specifically. Due to this, I am going to start out with pictures of some of my favorite ceramic sherds from the primary Falls Road site.

This picture shows some lovely hand-painted whiteware sherds. If you look closely, you can see that these two portions of a tea cup are actually multiple sherds that have been mended.


In contrast to the decorated whiteware tea cup above is this plainer ironstone cup, which was most likely a local piece as there appears to be a matching plate that has a Baltimore stamp on the base.

Please check back between now and April 22nd as I share more images. I will also be posting a few images of items you might be able to help us identify. If you have information about any of the items pictured, please let us know in the comments section. Thank you.

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