Descendants of people believed to have been enslaved in Crownsville, Md., hold pieces of clay pipes that archaeologist Julie Schablitsky found on the site of a former slave cabin. By Michael E.
Ruane Michael E. Ruane Reporter covering local news, Washington institutions and historical topics Email Bio Follow March 15 at 7:02 PM One day about 200 years ago, a woman enslaved on a tobacco plantation near Annapolis tossed aside the broken stem of the clay pipe she was smoking in the slave quarters where she lived.
It was “a mind blower,” said Julie M. Schablitsky, chief archaeologist with the Maryland Transportation Department’s State Highway Administration. She helped lead the research. Archaeologists often think about recovering DNA when they find a personal artifact that could have come into contact with saliva or blood, she said.
Malhi said it was rare for a nonhuman artifact to have human DNA on it “when it’s over 100 years old, and if there was DNA on it, it’s probably too degraded to analyze.”In late 2017, the stems were tested, and two of them seemed to have DNA, but only one had enough for further analysis.Schablitsky was informed.“That turns the stereotype of smoking in the 19th century on its ear,” she said. But remember the context: “You’re in a slave quarter ...
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