Zekiah Fort!

Ok, so you may never have heard of Zekiah Fort, but it has merited at least a sentence in every one of the dozens of "historical background" sections I have written for projects in Maryland. Now, after 80 years of searching, it has been found:

The fort was established in 1680 by Gov. Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, for the protection of the Piscataway people and other Maryland Indian groups that were the targets of raids by "foreign" Susquehannock and Seneca warriors from the north.

Five weeks of digging this spring and summer, led by St. Mary's College of Maryland anthropologist Julia King, have turned up Indian pottery mixed with glass trade beads, arrowheads fashioned from English brass, gun parts and a silver belt hanger for an English sword.

The artifacts, the hilltop position, a nearby spring and rich soils to support an Indian settlement of 90 to 300 people - it all signaled that the search was over.

"I have no doubt this is the site of Zekiah Fort," King said. A formal announcement was planned for Thursday.

Anne Arundel County archaeologist Al Luckenbach, who visited the site with his crew to assist in the dig, said there's little doubt about the discovery.

"I think she's found it," he said. "The location is nothing but defensive. It's hidden; it's away from the water where we normally find (Indian) sites; it's away from the road (Route 5, once an Indian trail), back in the interior there, sitting on top of this hill. ... The only reason for being here is if you're trying to hide."