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Southampton Road Bridge Replacement Harford County, Maryland
Historic Photograph Analysis, Location of Graveyard and Phase I Archaeological Survey
for Harford County Government Department of Public Works, Bel Air, Maryland

A Phase I archeological investigation was conducted within the construction impact area to be affected by the proposed replacement of the Southampton Road Bridge and realignment of Southampton Road in Harford County, Maryland. A total of 122 shovel test pits were excavated in a twenty foot grid along the new road alignment and within the proposed sediment traps. Eight artifacts were recovered. Three of these were prehistoric and five were historic. These isolated artifacts did not constitute a site and so were given the designation X48. These scattered artifacts were probably washed from the top of the nearby knoll into the lower area. The two recovered quartzite prehistoric flakes and the single quartzite tool were classified as possible artifacts. Their temporal period could not be determined and they may be associated with the high probability area on the nearby knoll. The historic artifacts: 3 glass fragments, one redware ceramic fragment, and one metal fragment, were typically domestic and may have been associated with debris from Southampton Farm. They appear to date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A nineteenth century mill race, associated with the Moores Mill, bisects the proposed alignment. As a part of the Phase I archaeological investigation, the mill race was profiled at the point that the proposed road will intersect it.
Extensive documentary research, oral history research, and historic aerial photographic research was undertaken in the project area in order to determine the location of a historic family cemetery. This cemetery is believed to be on the top of the knoll to the east of the proposed alignment. The location of the cemetery was avoided and the alignment moved down the hill and away from the knoll based on the results of the research. The archaeological resources within the proposed alignment of Southampton Road are not eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. No further archeological work is recommended for the alignment of the Southampton Road.

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