The sum of their parts: reconstituting individuality from atypical mixed burials at the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Summary

Excavations in 2013 at the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds cemetery recovered 650 burials from one of four locations used by Milwaukee County officials for burial of more than 7000 individuals from the mid-1800s through 1925. Of those recovered during the 2013 excavations, at least 25% have been identified as multiple interments. The diverse depositional contexts of several of these burials are indicative of a variety of mortuary behaviors atypical for a historic cemetery during this period. The interment of partial human remains, medical waste, and presence of secondary burials suggest a deliberate departure from mortuary norms exhibited elsewhere at the site and have resulted in a loss of individuality for the deceased. Examination of the burial assemblages, associated historical documentation, and skeletal analyses will shed light on the society that conducted these atypical interments and allow us to retrieve a degree of individuality for those interred.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• People that no one had use for, had nothing to give to, no place to offer: The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Keywords

Spatial Coverage