Echoes of Memory: Ground-Truthing a Cemetery Geophysical Survey and Reclaiming a Forgotten Burial Ground of Mount Vernon’s Enslaved Community.

Summary

This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 1: A Focus on Cultures, Populations, and Ethnic Groups" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This poster examines the results of a 1985 geophysical survey and compares them to the findings of an extensive archaeological excavation of the Slave Cemetery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia. While practical limitations often make it difficult for archaeologists to test the findings of geophysical investigations, the archaeological survey of Mount Vernon’s Slave Cemetery offers a rare case study into the accuracy and reliability of this method of below-ground detection. By using both GPR and archaeology, Mount Vernon has been able to help shine a light on this once forgotten, sacred place, so that visitors to Washington’s impressive plantation may learn of, know, and remember the people that truly built it. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• POSTER Session 1: A Focus on Cultures, Populations, and Ethnic Groups   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 435