“They Are Ours”: Bringing Together Past and Present Church through Burial Excavations at the First Baptist Church Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Individuals Known and Unknown: Case Studies from Two Burial Contexts at Colonial Williamsburg" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

At the request of the descendant community, Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists in 2022 excavated three burials from among 62 discovered on the site of the First Baptist Church. Despite poor preservation and a dearth of identifying information, archaeological evidence recovered from these burials speaks clearly to aspects of the lived experience of the interred. Coffin construction, burial clothing, and dietary pollen are among lines of evidence that have contributed valuable details to an emerging picture of this early nineteenth-century congregation. Combined with osteological and DNA analysis, the archaeological evidence has helped to humanize anonymous burials, and to build connections between a living church community and its founding members. ***Images of human remains will be included in this presentation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Individuals Known and Unknown: Case Studies from Two Burial Contexts at Colonial Williamsburg   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39216.0