Mount Calvert's archaeological resources span more than 10,000 years of human culture. Evidence uncovered by archaeologists show that American Indians exploited the rich resources of the Patuxent River and lived in villages along its shores for millennia. When the English arrived and forcibly displaced the Native people, they established a trading port that later became the first Prince George’s County seat in 1696. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of taverns, shops, and dwellings from this “Charles Town” period that were torn down by the mid-1700s. From 1770 until the Civil War, Mount Calvert was a typical Southern Maryland tobacco plantation based on enslaved labor and we have found several places throughout the property where these men, women, and children were quartered.  

The 1780s plantation house is the only historic building remaining on the landscape and the first floor was converted into a museum featuring the archaeological exhibit A Confluence of Three Cultures". In the 1990s, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission purchased the property, which now serves as the principal research site for the Natural and Historic Resources Division Archaeology Office.