Walker Prehistoric Village Archeological Site is an archeological site located near Poolesville

Poolesville, Maryland

Poolesville is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland United States with a population of approximately 5000 people. It is surrounded by the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve, and is considered a distant bedroom community for commuters to Washington, DC.The name of the town comes from the...

, Montgomery County, Maryland

Montgomery County, Maryland

Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...

. The site is a large Late Woodland

Woodland period

The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...

 village located on Selden Island

Selden Island

Selden Island is a 408-acre island in the Potomac River, located about WNW of Washington, DC. It is about 4 km long and 0.4–0.5 km wide...

 in the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

. Excavations carried out in the 1930s and 1940s revealed a 40-foot section of a palisade, circular house patterns, shallow oval pits and cylindrical pits, and flexed burials interred in the floors of the houses.

The island lends its name to a characteristic Early Woodland period ceramic ware

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 known as Selden Island ware, dating from 1000 – 750 BCE and distributed from Virginia to Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania including Maryland's piedmont and coastal plain.

The archaeological site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1975.

External links

• Walker Prehistoric Village Archeological Site, Montgomery County, Inventory No.: M: 16-9, including photo in 1980, at Maryland Historical Trust website