Towson archaeologist explains ongoing work at Barton dig site

Archaeologist Bob Wall, professor of anthropology at Towson University and dig director at the Barton site, provided approximately two hours of information about the work done at the site. As the second of three presentations in the society’s Speaker Series, Wall provided slides of artifacts found at the dig and explained their relative relationships to the chronology of various time periods in history.

Wall noted that the prehistory of the upper Potomac River valley has been explored through ongoing research at the Barton site over the past decade. Based upon data recovered during the 2007 excavations, it is likely that the Keyser village was inhabited until some time in the 1500s, the last pre-contact period inhabitants lived on the site. The periphery of the Susquehannock’s settlement, which was occupied at about the time Jamestown was settled in 1607, was also the focus of this year’s investigations. Further work is currently under way on the deeper components of the \
site to find out who the earliest inhabitants of the valley were.