Laura Galke’s 1990 Excavation of the William Paca Garden
During the summer of 1990, Historic Annapolis Foundation conducted repairs of the artificial brick stream located directly below the third fall of the William Paca Garden. These repairs provided the opportunity for archaeological investigations to be conducted in the surrounding area. During July of that year, Archaeology in Annapolis was allowed to conduct investigations to enhance the previous archaeological work that had taken place at the garden from 1966-1975 (Galke 1990). From July 9-14 excavations were conducted under the supervision of Laura Galke, Curator of Archaeology at Historic Annapolis Foundation. The project crew consisted of members of the University of Maryland’s summer field school.
The first goal of the excavation was to determine whether any intact 18th century surfaces had survived since earlier excavations. Bruce Powell and Glenn Little found evidence of both the 18th century surface and garden structures during the previous excavations in the area. Unlike the previous excavations, Galke did not expect to discover any evidence of additional 18th century structures; however, she anticipated that evidence of other garden activity might still be present such as planting holes and shovel divots. Three excavation units were placed within the lower terrace of the garden to explore this possibility (Galke 1990).
The second goal of the project was to form a comprehensive interpretation of the archaeology of the Paca Garden in the area around the third fall and terrace. In order to accomplish this goal, Galke intended to compare Glenn Little’s 1968 profile maps with her own findings. Because of the lack of field notes about Little’s year-long excavation of the garden, Galke felt such a comparison was extremely important to the project (Galke 1990). In order to accomplish this goal, Galke placed three excavation units in proximity to where Little had placed three of his trenches. Unit one was placed close to Little’s trench 54; unit two near Little trench 29; and unit three near Little trench 34. If Galke were to discover at least one of the former archaeological trenches, an accurate physical relationship would be created between the current and previous excavations. If one of Little’s original trenches was not discovered, Galke could at least compare her excavated stratigraphy with the stratigraphy documented by Glenn Little in 1968.
Laura Galke’s excavation of the William Paca Garden in 1990 provided valuable information regarding both the post-Paca use of the garden as well as the condition of the historical landscape following its restoration in the 1970s. Galke concluded that the excavation of the area to the south and east of the artificial brick stream contained no significant intact 18th or 19th century layers (Galke 1990). As a result of the garden restoration project, twentieth century fill now rests directly on top of sterile subsoil. To the west and north of the artificial canal, the investigation showed that the stratigraphy remains intact. Excavations in this area revealed 20th century fill episodes, the late 19th century fill episode, and finally, some evidence of an 18th century layer (Galke 1990). The excavations also provided evidence of numerous planting features found within the 19th century level. This indicates that the garden was still active during the 19th century. Galke concludes her report by stating that the excavations she carried out in 1990 suggest that much of the historic garden surface has been to a great extent destroyed by fill activity in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, further excavation to the north and west of the artificial stream may provide additional information regarding the 18th century topography of the garden.
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