Baltimore Community Archaeology Lab
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The BCAL strengthens historic preservation in the greater Baltimore area.
06/23/2026
Day one of is in the books! Can't wait to have some extra hands on site tomorrow!
06/21/2026
We are so excited to kick off this year's workshop with tomorrow!
Day two at the McWilliams site had some great public volunteers, some fun wildlife, and lots of rocks and roots. Our new crew members learned how to trowel unit walls and got maybe too much practice identifying the difference between quartz that has evidence of human modification and quartz that is just quartz.
06/15/2026
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
Archaeology is a destructive science. Once we excavate a site, we can never put it back exactly the way we found it. Before we put shovels in the ground, we gotta document the ground. Our notes, maps, and photos will be the only way for us to reconstruct what this site was like before we disturbed it.
06/15/2026
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!
06/11/2026
We're honored to be one of the 2026 Heritage Fund recipients! This grant helps fund this year's workshop!
Meet the 2026 Heritage Fund Awardees - Preservation Maryland Preservation Maryland is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Heritage Fund grants, a cooperative effort between Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust. The Heritage Fund supports projects […]
06/11/2026
As part of our workshop this year, we're including a workshop for professional archaeologists to learn from K-12 teachers how to collaborate effectively with K-12 teachers! If you're a professional archaeologist, make sure to sign up for this great opportunity!
https://forms.gle/ut8qTVd2cEHmgE8G6
Sometimes archaeology doesn't go the way you plan. After two days of fruitless shovel testing at the VFW, we're talking to a local collector who has been finding artifacts on his property since he was a kid. And today we found some too! We shovel tested at 5 meter intervals to determine the soil stratigraphy and distribution of materials on the site. Tomorrow we'll clean things off in the lab and start interpreting what we have.
05/26/2026
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.
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Contact the university
Telephone
Address
8000 York Road
Towson, MD
21252