Baltimore Community Archaeology Lab

We are honored to have BCAL Director Kat Ahlrichs serving in an advisory capacity on the Commission on the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children representing Seat II: One Academic Expert in Forensic Anthropology, Archaeology, and African American
History.

For decades, the remains of hundreds of Black children have rested in unmarked graves at a state-supported institution that was supposed to protect and care for them.

The creation of the Commission on the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children is an important step toward uncovering the truth about what happened at the former Cheltenham institution, honoring these children with dignity, and ensuring their stories are never forgotten.

Full press release: https://oag.maryland.gov/News/Pages/Attorney-General-Brown-Announces-Members-of-the-Commission-on-the-House-of-Reformation-and-Instruction-for-Colored-Children.aspx

We are spending the next three weeks in the field documenting an Archaic period Indigenous site in Idlewylde, Maryland. Access to the site is a little tricky, so we're scheduling public participation shifts and will transport volunteers from TU to and from the site. We'd love to have you come dig with us!

We're still thinking a lot about the oyster shells from North Point. As we ramp up for another month in the field near our North Point sites, we're sending shells off for radiocarbon dating. If we add dates to stable oxygen isotopes from shells at two sites, plus the of our Indigenous partners, we can come up with a much fuller picture of how lifeways differed at these two sites.

In one week, on Monday May 18, we'll be back out at the VFW in Sparrows Point for some final survey. These surveys help us determine where the highest concentrations of artifacts are so we know where to place our more intensive excavations in June. Come help us figure it out!