You are standing in front of a graphic panel and artifact case titled “First Peoples.” To your left is the information desk. To your right is a graphic panel and artifact case titled “Shell Middens.”

The panel and case in front of you include text, a historic map, and four groups of artifacts. The main text reads:

First Peoples

Native Americans inhabited this land for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived.

Native Peoples visited this land seasonally to hunt, fish, and gather oysters. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of cultivated crops, local styles of pottery, and artifacts that hint at the rich cultural lives of these peoples. Descendants of these first inhabitants still live in the region today and continue to celebrate their cultures and traditions.

The image below the main text shows a map titled “Virginia,” showing the Chesapeake Bay region with depictions of Native Americans. There is a “You Are Here” marker indicating the location of SERC’s campus. The caption reads: When Captain John Smith sailed up the Chesapeake Bay in 1608, he encountered many Native Peoples. Smith published the first detailed map of the region in 1612.

The secondary text reads:

Who Lived Here?
Historians aren’t sure which Native Peoples occupied this particular area. It may have served as a shared transition zone among several tribes, including the Susquehannock, Massawomeck, Piscataway, Nanticoke, and Powhatan.

The case includes four groups of artifacts with labels:

The first group of artifacts are stone fragments. The label reads:

Signs of Fire
To cook food, Native Americans in this area heated rocks in fires, which they placed in clay pots and waterproof baskets to boil the contents. Repeated heating and cooling caused many of the rocks to explode in characteristic ways that archaeologists can identify.

Recovered from Mattawoman Creek in Charles County, MD:
1. Fire-cracked rocks, pre-1650

The second group of artifacts are pottery fragments. The label reads:

Pottery Sherds
Local Native Americans crafted pottery from clay, sand, crushed oyster shells, and crushed stone. They often decorated their pottery with incisions or impressions made by cords or nets.

Recovered from Woodlawn:
2. Potomac Creek cord-marked pottery sherd, ca. 1300 to 1700 CE

Recovered from Crofton, MD: 
3. Mockley pottery sherd, ca. 200 to 900 CE

The third group of artifacts are stone tools. The label reads:

Stone Tools
Local Native Americans used stone tools for a variety of tasks, including digging, cutting, scraping, chopping, piercing, carving, and hammering. Some of the stone used to make these tools comes from the Appalachian Mountains, indicating travel and/or trade with other peoples.

Recovered from Woodlawn:
4. Hammer stone, pre-1650
5. Biface tool (knife), pre-1650
6. Quartz biface tool (knife), pre-1650

The fourth group of artifacts are stone projectile points. The label reads:

Projectile Points
Early Native Americans in this area hunted using projectile points affixed to spears or wooden javelins. Some of these examples may be more than 10,000 years old.

Recovered from Crofton, MD:
12. Kirk Corner-Notched projectile point, ca. 8600 to 7550 BCE
11. Stanly projectile point, ca. 7000 to 6200 BCE
10. Savannah River projectile point, ca. 3300 to 2050 BCE
8. Jack’s Reef Pentagonal projectile point, ca. 500 to 1000 CE

Recovered from Woodlawn:
7. Projectile point, pre-1650
9. Projectile point, pre-1650