In case you missed the news… In September, archaeologists from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, in partnership with the College of Southern Maryland and a local businessman, announced the discovery of a long-sought fortification known as the Zekiah Fort. Built in 1680, the fort provided refuge to the Piscataways against raids by the Seneca and other more northerly Indian groups during the complex wars of the late 17th c. These wars involved different factions of Englishmen and their Indian allies. Locally, they were struggles for land and resources, and for political control of the Maryland colony. More broadly, they figured in the long-range struggle between religious and political factions in Britain. The Piscataways were allied with the Maryland colonists and Lord Baltimore who moved them to the Zekiah site in 1680. (For discussion of the wars leading up to 1680, see J. Frederick Fausz’ “Merging and Emerging Worlds,” on my Sources page for Native Americans in Early Maryland.) The site is near Marlborough. Read about it on Southern Maryland On Line.