It took Anne Arundel County archaeologist Al Luckenbach and his crew five years to dig their way through the treasure trove of preserved trash from where Rumney's Tavern once stood, plucking Colonial-era artifacts from each layer.
When they hit the dirt-floor bottom, Luckenbach planned to fill in the garbage cellar, one of several excavation sites at London Town, which was a busy seaport on the banks of South River nearly 300 years ago. But Greg Stiverson, executive director of London Town Foundation, couldn't bear the idea of dumping sand over the archaeological site.
"Thousands of school kids had gotten to see this excavation in slow-motion, but one day it was empty," Luckenbach said. "I told Greg we were going to fill it in, and he said he got goose bumps every time he stood on the cellar floor."
FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's Maryland section incorrectly reported the dimensions of a bathtub in an Ellicott City mansion. The oval tub is 5 feet long. The Sun regrets the error.
The trash is gone but not forgotten: A new exhibit at London Town opens to the public tomorrow.
In place of the garbage is a 14-foot-long photomural that depicts the site at different stages of the excavation. Standing on the cellar floor, it looks as if one could touch the animal bones, wine bottle shards and oyster shells jutting from the terra cotta-colored silt.
Archaeologists have been slowly uncovering bits and pieces of London Town since 1995, excavating sites at the county-owned park in Edgewater. The project is part of the county's Lost Towns of Anne Arundel Project, headed by Luckenbach, who oversees the volunteers who do much of the digging at the sites.
More than 25,000 people visited London Town last year, including 5,000 schoolchildren, Stiverson said. The park gives visitors a firsthand look at an archaeological excavation in progress.
London Town thrived from the late 1600s to the mid-1700s as a tobacco inspection station and a stop for travelers taking the ferry across the South River, part of the main route through the Colonies.
Project researchers theorize that the town's fortunes began to decline in 1747 when it lost its designation as a tobacco inspection station. The only town building that remains is a Georgian mansion built in 1760 by cabinetmaker and ferry operator William Brown.
Close by is the site of Rumney's Tavern, which was located on the town's main road and catered to a wealthy clientele.
"It was a place where local plantation owners and ship captains from visiting tobacco fleets would meet," Luckenbach said.
