As I drove down High Street to the Custom House this morning, I looked straight ahead to the river. It was calm. Flat. The air was cool, the skies were overcast, and that pretty, cyan green ketch that visits Chestertown every summer from New England was poised on the water as though waiting for its close-up, Mr. DeMille. Close to the High Street dock was a raft of mallards soaking up the warmth of the pavement.
A day at the Custom House always begins with a view of the river. Lucky I am. I try to wrangle all of CES from my desk in the house ... all seven who work in the Custom House and the many others who make vital contributions to our good work from farther afield. You've heard from most of the others. I'm here to make their jobs easier.
All in a day's work.
Jenifer is the Coordinator and Office Manager for the Center for Environment & Society and can be contacted here.
Showing posts with label GIS lab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GIS lab. Show all posts
Friday, July 13, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Time Travel
I’ve been sitting at this desk, off and on, for the past week, pulling all nighters and writing what seems to be an endless procession of archaeological reports. But half the time I’m not really here. I’m actually on a hillside in New Jersey, in the winter of 1778-1779. It’s the middle of the American Revolution, and General Henry Knox and his artillery have stripped the hillside above the little village of Pluckemin and created a small city. They’ve cut down the trees to build barracks, an academy, warehouses, a laboratory for munitions, and workshops for gunsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, tinsmiths, and other craftsmen.
What blows my mind is that they built all of this in only two months! How did they do it? What were they thinking? What was life like for these people, men, women, and children?
In my schizoid, time traveling world, I’m also flitting back to the 1980s, when I led a team of archaeologists and historians in uncovering the archaeological remains of Knox’s military city. We mapped stone mounds that held the remnants of fireplaces and chimneys, as well as lines of stone where walls once stood. We plotted artifacts, such as nails, refuse, and gun parts that showed us what went on inside the buildings. Initially, we were simply trying to save this forested slope and its historical remains from residential development. But the project quickly grew into a major mystery story.
• Why was so little known about this winter, which was overshadowed by the previous winter at Valley Forge? Crack open any history of the war, and you’ll find no more than a passing mention of the winter of 1778-1779.
• Why did the soldiers seem so well-supplied and well-fed? The perpetual image is of shivering starving soldiers, huddled in make-shift cabins. But in the Pluckemin barracks we found plenty of bone, shell, and the latest ceramics from England, so they weren’t eating their shoes.
• How is that officers were drinking tea from Chinese export porcelain and inviting the local ladies to visit, a dozen or more at a time? Hundreds of pieces of porcelain were found in a dump behind their barracks, along with broken wine bottles. It sure looks like they were having a good time! They also held a ball, with dancing and fireworks…a real disconnect with our images of bloody footprints in the snow.
• How is it that these men built timber-framed barracks, one of them more than 450 feet long, rather than the crude log cabins that we usually hear about? A guy named John Lillie, a captain there, drew a picture of the barracks; it matched perfectly with what we saw in the field, and we found nails, pane glass and plenty of other evidence of sophisticated construction.
Something wasn’t right…this wasn’t what we expected.
During a decade of excavations at the site, the picture that emerged was of an army that got its act together, an army doing a great job of emulating its British cousin, the most potent military force in the world. At Pluckemin, Knox and Washington built an academy (the nation’s first – sorry, West Point!) and trained officers. The workshops repaired arms, and the Continental Army was resupplied out of the Pluckemin warehouses. It’s a great story, a success story that we don’t often hear. But it certainly explains our eventual victory more convincingly than resorting to “divine providence” (and of course the French had a small hand in it, too!).
In 1989, I left the area and took a job at the University of Maryland (tenure track positions for archaeologists were hard to find then, too). Unfortunately, the amazing collection of artifacts we amassed over the 1980s sat in limbo. Nobody wanted them to leave New Jersey, but there was no-one there to pursue the work.
Fast forward to 2008. Knowing that the archaeological collection still has much to tell us, we formed a partnership to rejuvenate the project. Working on the analysis of this amazing collection are Washington College, Monmouth University, and a Trenton-based cultural resource management company, Hunter Research. Coordinating the effort is the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House, in Bedminster, New Jersey. That’s the house that Knox lived in for the winter, with his family. The first phase of the work was funded by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission. We’ve been chipping away at the artifact collection, building a database, creating a modern GIS, and Washington College students have created a first-generation, three-dimensional model of the camp based on the archaeology.
I’m tasked with writing up what we’ve learned so far. And time traveling.
Stay tuned as we continue this project and post our reports on line. You can learn more, and fly over the reconstructed sites, via the following web sites:
J. Vanderveer House
A short history of the site
A teaser for the 3-D project
A fly-over of the camp as we've reconstructed it
A short demo on how the barracks were built in the computer
WC Archaeology Lab
WC GIS Lab
Dr. John L. Seidel is the Director of the Center for Environment & Society. When he’s not time traveling, he teaches at Washington College and works with Center staff, students, faculty and the community on the sustainability issues of the present.
What blows my mind is that they built all of this in only two months! How did they do it? What were they thinking? What was life like for these people, men, women, and children?
 |
A South West Perspective View of the Artillery Barracks, Pluckemin N. Jersey 1779 – by Capt. John Lillie (Courtesy of Morristown National Historical Park) |
In my schizoid, time traveling world, I’m also flitting back to the 1980s, when I led a team of archaeologists and historians in uncovering the archaeological remains of Knox’s military city. We mapped stone mounds that held the remnants of fireplaces and chimneys, as well as lines of stone where walls once stood. We plotted artifacts, such as nails, refuse, and gun parts that showed us what went on inside the buildings. Initially, we were simply trying to save this forested slope and its historical remains from residential development. But the project quickly grew into a major mystery story.
• Why was so little known about this winter, which was overshadowed by the previous winter at Valley Forge? Crack open any history of the war, and you’ll find no more than a passing mention of the winter of 1778-1779.
• Why did the soldiers seem so well-supplied and well-fed? The perpetual image is of shivering starving soldiers, huddled in make-shift cabins. But in the Pluckemin barracks we found plenty of bone, shell, and the latest ceramics from England, so they weren’t eating their shoes.
• How is that officers were drinking tea from Chinese export porcelain and inviting the local ladies to visit, a dozen or more at a time? Hundreds of pieces of porcelain were found in a dump behind their barracks, along with broken wine bottles. It sure looks like they were having a good time! They also held a ball, with dancing and fireworks…a real disconnect with our images of bloody footprints in the snow.
• How is it that these men built timber-framed barracks, one of them more than 450 feet long, rather than the crude log cabins that we usually hear about? A guy named John Lillie, a captain there, drew a picture of the barracks; it matched perfectly with what we saw in the field, and we found nails, pane glass and plenty of other evidence of sophisticated construction.
 |
| Pluckemin refuse dump with oyster shell, bone, and porcelain |
 |
| Chinese porcelain – tea cup fragment |
 |
| Nails – framing, flooring, finishing |
 |
| Valley Forge |
During a decade of excavations at the site, the picture that emerged was of an army that got its act together, an army doing a great job of emulating its British cousin, the most potent military force in the world. At Pluckemin, Knox and Washington built an academy (the nation’s first – sorry, West Point!) and trained officers. The workshops repaired arms, and the Continental Army was resupplied out of the Pluckemin warehouses. It’s a great story, a success story that we don’t often hear. But it certainly explains our eventual victory more convincingly than resorting to “divine providence” (and of course the French had a small hand in it, too!).
 |
| Uniform button |
In 1989, I left the area and took a job at the University of Maryland (tenure track positions for archaeologists were hard to find then, too). Unfortunately, the amazing collection of artifacts we amassed over the 1980s sat in limbo. Nobody wanted them to leave New Jersey, but there was no-one there to pursue the work.
Fast forward to 2008. Knowing that the archaeological collection still has much to tell us, we formed a partnership to rejuvenate the project. Working on the analysis of this amazing collection are Washington College, Monmouth University, and a Trenton-based cultural resource management company, Hunter Research. Coordinating the effort is the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House, in Bedminster, New Jersey. That’s the house that Knox lived in for the winter, with his family. The first phase of the work was funded by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission. We’ve been chipping away at the artifact collection, building a database, creating a modern GIS, and Washington College students have created a first-generation, three-dimensional model of the camp based on the archaeology.
I’m tasked with writing up what we’ve learned so far. And time traveling.
Stay tuned as we continue this project and post our reports on line. You can learn more, and fly over the reconstructed sites, via the following web sites:
J. Vanderveer House
A short history of the site
A teaser for the 3-D project
A fly-over of the camp as we've reconstructed it
A short demo on how the barracks were built in the computer
WC Archaeology Lab
WC GIS Lab
Dr. John L. Seidel is the Director of the Center for Environment & Society. When he’s not time traveling, he teaches at Washington College and works with Center staff, students, faculty and the community on the sustainability issues of the present.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Boats, Buoys, and Underwater Robots- Oh My..
“Okay, we’re almost on station. Will, get your team in gear,” I offered as Captain Mike eased back on the throttle of the Research Vessel Callinectes. On this third day of the CES GIS Marine Exploration Camp (June 25-29) the students were already in gear. Grab the GPS, the ponar, the clipboard. The Callinectes sidles up to a point selected by the participant team. The captain moves to the back deck pilot station. Dan opens the transom door. Scott (age 17) arms the spring loaded ponar with the jaws open. Jackie (15) notes and records the GPS position from her handheld device and compares it to the boat gps. Will (age 13) lowers the pressure transducer to the bottom and verifies the 24ft depth noted on the ship’s echosounder. Kelsey (15) writes fervently, recording on paper, all of the goings-on and takes pictures of each sample.
Scott lowers the ponar to the Bay floor. He jerks the line a little and feels the jaws of the sampler close. With help from others he hoists the sampler back to the deck, up and over the transom and into the waiting plastic tray. He pushes down on the contraption, the jaws open, and oodles of sediment and stuff pour out. “Rangia,” he exclaims, “I love these Atlantic Rangia.” Will, Jackie, Kelsey, and Scott drop to their knees. Scott describes: “Sandy silt with frequent disarticulated Rangia shells.” He notes that “disarticulated” means that he sees a whole “half” of a clam. It’s not fragmented. Articulated would mean that he’s got both halves, connected as a whole clam, in hand. Sandy-silt means that there is more silt than sand. The Marine Exploration team completes this dance of bottom sampling ten more times up the Chester River from the mouth all the way to Crumpton.
The results of this mapping exercise, along with other day’s experiences building buoys and underwater robots were shared with the entire GIS camp the Saturday after the week-long experience. “This was the best camp experience I’ll have this summer,” exclaimed Will, the team leader of “Will Power” the Camp’s Marine Exploration Team Leader.
GIS Lab
Callinectes
Doug Levin is the Associate Director of the Center for Environment & Society.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Stewart Bruce, GIS Coordinator, Washington College, Discusses the Role of GIS in Academia
Think Spatial Podcast: Stewart Bruce, GIS Coordinator, Washington College, Discusses the Role of GIS in Academia
Stewart Bruce, GIS Coordinator, talks about the many exciting projects going on in the GIS lab and how they relate to academic programming. The GIS lab is a part of the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.
Stewart Bruce, GIS Coordinator, talks about the many exciting projects going on in the GIS lab and how they relate to academic programming. The GIS lab is a part of the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.
Students and Staff From GIS Program Join Defense Personnel at Conference
CHESTERTOWN, MD—Students and staff from Washington College’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program joined top national-security partners from government and industry at the GEOINT 2010 Symposium in New Orleans, November 1-4. GEOINT is government-speak for geospatial intelligence, which is playing an ever more prevalent role in the nation’s defense.
Read the full article.
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