Excavation of the Indian Neck Ossuary - General Photos, September 1979, Wellfleet, MA

Creator(s): Francis McManamon

Year: 1979

Summary

These photos show general images related to the excavation of the Indian Neck ossuary, Wellfleet, MA in September, 1979. The ossuary site was discovered inadvertently when a backhoe operator digging a hole for a new septic tank for a resident noticed human skeletal remains in the dirt he had removed from the backhoe excavation. Each photo is described in the following list:

** Photo #1 [a1-caco_survey_19_bn_387.tif] shows the surface at the Indian Neck ossuary site prior to archaeological excavation in August or early September, 1979. The photo shows the concrete septic tank in the hole that was dug for it. It was during the backhoe excavation of this hole that the machine operator noticed human skeletal remains in the dirt from the hole. The investigation of these skeletal remains led to the discovery of the ossuary site.

** Photo #2 [a12-Indian Neck ossuary-last-day-hurricane.tif] shows the excavation area covered with hastely-rigged tarps to protect against wind and rain from a hurricane that passed over Cape Cod on the last day of the time available to excavate the ossuary site.

Cite this Record

Excavation of the Indian Neck Ossuary - General Photos, September 1979, Wellfleet, MA. Francis McManamon. 1979. Cape Cod National Seashore Curation Facility, Salt Pond Visitor Center, Eastham, MA ( tDAR id: 370022) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8B56HNG

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections


Keywords

Culture
Euroamerican • Historic • Late Woodland • Middle Woodland

Material
Chipped Stone • Dating Sample • Fire Cracked Rock • Human Remains • Metal • Shell

Site Name
Indian Neck ossuary, Wellfleet

Site Type
Human cremation • Ossuary • Settlements • Sheet Midden • Shell Midden • Trash Midden

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation • Systematic Survey

Geographic Keywords
Barnstable County • Cape Cod • Southeastern Massachusetts • Southern New England

Temporal Keywords
Contact Period • Historic Period • Prehistoric Period

Spatial Coverage

min long: -70.039; min lat: 41.896 ; max long: -70.004; max lat: 41.938 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Principal Investigator(s): Francis McManamon

Sponsor(s): Cape Cod National Seashore, National Park Service

Repository(s): Cape Cod National Seashore, National Park Service

Source Collections

Field records are at Cape Cod National Seashore, Curation Facility, Salt Pond Visitor Center, Eastham, MA Human remains were repatriated in the 1980s

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
a1-caco_survey_19_bn_387.tif 7.70mb Oct 26, 2011 12:45:16 PM Public
a12-indian-neck-ossuary-last-day-hurricane.tif 6.70mb Nov 23, 2011 9:33:25 PM Public