The Making of the 1928 Hurricane Victims 1 and 2: Excavating Identity in an Unknowable Legacy Collection

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In traditional bioarchaeological practice, the first scientific identities fixed to skeletal remains are the labels given to them when they are excavated. From there, the basic information about the remains is built from those first identifying features associated with the site. But what happens if the remains are encountered for the first time long after that process, when the meaning of those first identifiers is lost? How can we rectify an identity that is absent any context, yet permanently inked on cardboard? This case study will examine the two commingled skeletal individuals labeled 1928 Hurricane Victims 1 and 2 Belle Glade, first encountered in the storage space at Florida Atlantic University by the presenter in 2016. There is no paper trail for these individuals, and skeletal preservation is extremely poor. Thus, the only way of “knowing” these individuals is through the markings on the Motts Apple Cider boxes in which they were found. How do our research projects change when these assumed, but unprovable, identities drive the questions that are being asked? The 1928 Hurricane Victims 1 and 2 illustrate both the limits of bioarchaeology and also the power of scientific naming processes to structure entire programs of research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39332.0