Maryland

Rare armor unearthed at site of 17th-century fort in Maryland

Published

7 months ago

February 18, 2024

Rare armor unearthed at site of 17th-century fort in Maryland

The slab of metal came out of the ground dirty and corroded after more than 300 years in the soil of rural Maryland.

It was slightly concave, about the size of a cafeteria tray, and didn’t look like much. But the archaeologists at Historic St. Mary’s City thought they knew what it might be. And an X-ray — which saw through the surface grit — proved them right.

What they found late last year was a rare piece of 17th-century armor called a tasset, which was designed to hang from a breastplate and protect one of the wearer’s thighs during battle.

It had been brought by the first European colonists who arrived in the mid-1600s to establish one of the earliest settlements in what would become the United States.

“The X-ray, everybody went nuts over that,” said Travis Parno, director of research and collections at Historic St. Mary’s City, this month. “… It really just brought the whole thing to life.”

It was one of a series of recent discoveries to come out of a major archaeological project that in 2021 discovered the outlines of the long-lost palisaded fort erected in Maryland by the first White settlers in 1634.

In March, the project unearthed the skeleton of a teenager with leg fractures who may have been among the first arrivals.

The archaeologists have also dug up, among other things, a pair of 17th-century scissors, a decorative braid made of metal thread that may have been on a glove or a coat, and the outline of a large building the settlers erected shortly after they landed.

The structure outline marks “one of the largest buildings from this early colonial period that we’ve ever found,” Parno said. “And given the time period, that it’s 1630s, absolutely one of the earliest and largest buildings ever built in colonial Maryland.”

“But the question of ‘what is it?’” has been a mystery, he said in a telephone interview. “Was it somebody’s home? Was it a public building? Did it have a religious function? A civic function? A military function?”

Early accounts say the colonists started building the fort’s storehouse and guardhouse while they were still living aboard the Ark and the Dove, the ships that brought them from Britain across the Atlantic Ocean and up the St. Mary’s River in March 1634.

Parno said that early in the dig the archaeologists spotted what looked like the imprint of a cellar, which they think was used for storage and later for refuse.

They started excavating and realized that the cellar was attached to a large building — indicated by the pattern of stains in the earth left by timber posts.

It had several rooms, and because the timbers seemed to have been large and sturdy, it may have been a story and a half in height, he said.

But it had no fireplace, so it probably wasn’t a home or a guardhouse, which would need heat. Musket parts and 1,200 pieces of lead shot were found in two rooms that may have housed armaments.

But most of the shot was buckshot or smaller, for hunting not combat, he said.

There were also numerous glass and stone trade beads from Europe and Asia that were probably used for commerce with local Native Americans.

Parno said all of this suggested a storehouse for the first 150 colonists, who included many English Catholics fleeing Protestant persecution back home.

Its discovery is important, he said: “This is one of the first things the colonists did when they got off the boat.”

The tasset was found in the excavation of the cellar, which became a trash pit later, after the demise of the storehouse.

It was decorated with rivets making the shapes of three hearts and was probably part of a set of armor that included a second tasset — there was one for each leg — a metal breastplate and a helmet, Parno said.

No other pieces have turned up, but a fragment of a tasset was found elsewhere at St. Mary’s about 40 years ago. Metal helmets and breastplates have been found at the 17th-century colonial site of Jamestown, Va.

The colonists brought many things on their journey: food, tools, weapons, armor. As they experienced life in southern Maryland, they adjusted. Archaeologists think tassets may have been items the colonists found were no longer useful.

Finding the tasset “tells us there was body armor here in the colony,” Parno said. “It also tells us [the colonists] were adapting to the environment. The tassets may have been something that were discarded because they were deemed unnecessary.”

“They’re heavy,” he said. “It’s a hot, humid environment. So you get rid of the tassets. … You keep your breastplate, though, because that’s protecting your core.”

As for the other artifacts, the metal braid was probably made with silver thread, a very rare find, he said. “This is incredibly, incredibly fine silver-like thread that has been wound into this kind of braid.”

“We found about six or seven clusters of metallic fiber,” he said. “Somebody at some point threw away at least one, possibly two, articles of clothing” decorated with the braid. It could have been on a pair of gloves or a saddle or a uniform.

St. Mary’s became Maryland’s first capital and was home to the first State House.

But the fort did not last long. It was built in 1634, but after 1642, mentions of it in the records all but vanish, Parno said. “We know at least by [1645] but apparently as early as 1642 the fort’s not there anymore.”

The original settlement at St. Mary’s was later abandoned, too. The capital moved to Annapolis in the 1690s, and the site was left undisturbed and ripe for archaeology.

Parno said there could be a dozen or more structures still to be found within the perimeter of the fort.

“We’re scratching the surface,” he said. “We’ve got years ahead of us to dig into this time period.”

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Maryland

Maryland elections officials deal with threats of violence, turnover concerns ahead of presidential election

Published

5 hours ago

September 9, 2024

Press Room

Maryland elections officials deal with threats of violence, turnover concerns ahead of presidential election

BALTIMORE Since the last presidential election, Maryland has seen a concerning rise in turnover among our state’s election officials—with almost half new to their positions—according to research from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

As of January 2024, Maryland saw turnover in 11 voting jurisdictions.

Turnover is also on the rise nationally according to a CBS News investigation.

What is driving the exodus? Some blame an increasingly hostile environment, fueled by citizens who do not trust the election system.

Documenting Threats in Harford County

Stephanie Taylor oversees elections in Harford County.

“Love and Not So Much Love Notes”

Mike Hellgren

She gets a lot of correspondence from the public—and keeps all of it in a binder with the title “Love and Not So Much Love Notes” on the cover.

“These are our nice letters, and these are our nasty letters,” she showed WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren

“There’s a lot of cursing. We’ve been called Nazis,” Taylor said. “We’ve been accused of cheating, changing voter turnouts, changing the results, which is very hurtful to us because we take great pride in our job that we do here.”

Hellgren asked her what that says about where Maryland stands right now. “There are a lot of angry people who do not trust the election process. I don’t know how to get through to them,” she said.

Since the 2020 presidential election, Maryland has seen a 46 percent turnover rate among election officials. That is larger than the 36 percent national average.

“Have you had people leave because they could not take it?” Hellgren asked.

“Yes,” Taylor admitted. “One person who was with the office for quite a long time. She had a key role in this office. Just the stress of it—she’s just like, ‘I’m done.’ And she quit.”

To make sure her staff members feel safe, Taylor has used grants to dramatically increase security at their office and warehouse in Forest Hill.

“This is one thing everyone in the office said we needed to enclose this after all the craziness started happening after January 6th,” Taylor said as she showed WJZ the public entrance area.

Taylor and Hellgren in office vestibule

Mike Hellgren

She had bullet- and bomb-deflecting glass installed that will not shatter.

“We have changed the whole look of this office. We used to have an open reception area. We put walls up. We put glass in. It is not bulletproof glass, but it will change the direction of a bullet. We have coating on our windows that if someone were to put a bomb outside, this coating would catch it and it would just drop it so there wouldn’t be shards,” Taylor said.

There are also new cameras and stronger locks.

“Now, if it’s unlocked, it has a high-powered magnet and you have to be buzzed in,” she said at a secondary door to the board room.

“We have our own FBI contact. I never in my life thought I would say that I have my own FBI contact. It just never even crossed my mind,” Taylor told Hellgren.

“They were being disruptive, calling us names. We got a threat in one of the meetings that we got on tape. I did turn that in to the FBI and the sheriff’s department. It’s just the way the world looks at us now. It’s so different,” she said.

New Law Means Stiffer Penalties

Earlier this year in Annapolis, the General Assembly took action to protect poll workers, election judges and their families from threats which have been on the rise across the country.

Citing the turnover, Governor Wes Moore’s administration advocated for and and won changes to the law. There are now tougher penalties against those convicted of threatening election workers, with fines increasing from $1,000 to $2,500.

“It is becoming harder to recruit election judges. It is becoming harder to recruit elections administrators, and we need to respond to that,” said Eric Luedtke, the governor’s chief legislative officer at a hearing on February 21st.

Violators could also get up to three years behind bars.

During that hearing about the legislation, Baltimore County’s elections director revealed she, too, had been threatened.

“After receiving a threat firsthand, I was overwhelmingly thankful for the protection from my county, the FBI and homeland security,” Ruie Lavoie, the director of Baltimore County elections, told lawmakers.

WJZ asked Maryland’s state elections administrator Jared DeMarinis whether the new law does enough to deter people from threatening election workers. “I hope so. I think time will tell on that, but I think you have to have the first step and I think this was a great first step,” DeMarinis said.

State Safeguards the Vote

DeMarinis took over as elections administrator from Linda Lamone last year.

She had served in that position for more than 35 years, but DeMarinis also worked in that office for almost two decades.

“Yes, I’m a new person, but it’s not like I don’t know the electoral process,” DeMarinis told Hellgren.

On the threats, DeMarinis acknowledged “those types of incidents really shake you to the core.”

He said, “This is really trying to take it to a new level where you’re trying to inflict bodily harm or even death upon you know a person just doing their job and making sure that our democracy works.”

He made it a priority to stamp out misinformation and added a “rumor control” section to the state elections website.

“Before, there was a trust. There was an understanding in the process here, and there’s a segment of the population now that just doesn’t believe in any of that,” DeMarinis said.

DeMarinis is also pushing young people to get involved as election judges and poll workers.

He is aware that when elections officials leave, so does their experience and knowledge of the process. That is why he is partnering more experienced elections officials with newer ones to lessen the impact of any turnover.

And DeMarinis believes that turnover is not always a negative.

“Turnover brings new blood, new ideas, new points of view to the process. It helps streamline things. But yes, there is a concern about losing a lot of institutional knowledge,” he said.

A Veteran in Charge in Baltimore City

“I just don’t want to believe that people are not interested in an important process as this,” said Armstead Jones, Baltimore City’s election director

Baltimore has one of the longest-serving elections directors in the state.

Armstead Jones said in the city, the problem is not threats, but getting enough people motivated to staff the polls.

“At one time, we’d have as many as 3,200 election judges working Election Day and those numbers have dropped over the years,” Jones said. “I believe in this last election, we may have had about 1,500 judges to work. Maybe 2,100 trained, 600 did not show so those numbers are getting lower each time.”

The state remains committed to smooth and transparent elections, despite the challenges.

“Having that full confidence in the system is the underpinning of everything that we do with good, solid elections,” DeMarinis said.

Staying Despite Challenges

“I love the job. I love the people I work with,” said Taylor of her Harford County position. “If you’re in a polling location, it’s so much fun to be there and you see people coming in and taking part in democracy.”

She told Hellgren she has no plans to leave and be part of the turnover despite uncertainty about the future.

“Do you see it getting any better?” Hellgren asked. “I’ll let you know after this election. It depends on what happens after this election,” she said.

Mike Hellgren

WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren came to WJZ in the spring of 2004. Solid reporting credentials and a reputation for breaking important news stories have characterized Mike’s work. Mike holds a B.S. degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and grew up partly in both Chicago and Louisiana.

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