Hi, my name is Bee Ann Explorer, welcome to my web site. I live in the Nation's Capital, Washington, D.C.. The National Parks in this area are just full of history and archeology. I know the parks very well and would like to share with you what I have learned from the archeologists and curators. However, I prefer "the road less taken", so don't expect to see the sites you have seen before. How will this be different? Well, do you know ......

• that people used to live where the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is located or that an important part of Washington's past is on Park Service land below the Whitehurst Freeway?
  
  
• that Manassas and Antietam battlefields, both sites of famous battles of the Civil War, contain the sites and histories of the people who lived there before, during, and after the war?
  
  
• that the past is preserved in the strangest places?

If you don't, then join me now and again as we go "park hopping" through some of the national parks around the Nation's Capital and see what archeology and history can tell us about the past. Later, we will be joined by some of my friends and we will visit other parks, out of the main-stream, that have hidden histories or interesting features not everyone knows about.

Today, my friend Arf T Fact and I are traveling to Manassas National Battlefield in Prince William County, Virginia. For the past several years, an archeological survey and inventory at Manassas resulted in the discovery of structural remains and a diversity of artifacts associated with nineteenth-century African-American life. The architectural features range from communal, antebellum-slave quarters to post-Civil War single family houses. The artifacts include an African heirloom - a carved, ebony finger ring - ceramic gaming pieces used in the African-derived game of Mancala, hand-built, low-fired earthenware bowls used and, perhaps made by African-Americans, blue glass beads worn or sewn on clothing to protect the wearer against "the evil eye" and quartz crystals possibly used to predict the future or in curing rites. Analysis of architectural features and artifacts provides new insights into the adaption of African slaves to their New World environment and to the survival of African-inspired customs and traditions in the post-Civil War period.

National Capital Region Archeology Program	Lost, Tossed & Found Manassas National Battlefield Park
Themes in Time: Playthings of the Past	Need Some Clues?

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