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Maryland's National Register Properties



Photo credit: MHT File Photo, 05/1978 		Nolands Ferry I Archeological Site
Inventory No.:
Date Listed: 10/17/1985
Location: Frederick County
Category: Site
Period/Date of Construction: c. 8500 B.C.-A.D. 1800; (c. A.D. 1350-1450)
The nomination is marked Not for Public Access. Qualified Medusa accountholders should please contact the MHT Librarian for a copy.
Description: Nolands Ferry I is a prehistoric occupation site located in the Monocacy region of southern Frederick County, Maryland. A controlled surface collection and test excavations were conducted in the Spring of 1978. Diagnostic artifacts indicate that the site was almost continuously occupied from the Paleo-Indian period (c. 8500 B.C.) to the Historic period (A.D. 1800), with the most intensive occupation occurring during the Late Woodland period, specifically during a cultural phase represented by limestone-tempered pottery (A.D. 1350-1450). The major component of the site represents a Late Woodland village, with a circular pattern of trash pits and burials ringing an open plaza. The site remains relatively undisturbed and culturally unmixed. Significance: The Nolands Ferry I site is significant as the only undisturbed and culturally unmixed component known in the Monocacy region of a Late Woodland cultural phase represented by limestone-tempered pottery (A.D. 1350-1450). Because of the purity of the site, and the excellent preservation of artifacts and faunal remains within it, the Nolands Ferry I site has outstanding potential to yield information about the village structure, subsistence patterns, and activities of the people of this cultural phase, and about the interrelationships of this phase with similar phases in adjacent regions.

 

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