Not Forgotten: Personal Touches in Mortuary Treatment at Asylum Hill

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

From 1855 to 1935, the Mississippi State Asylum occupied a tract of land north of downtown Jackson. Graves discovered during construction in 1992 and 2012 on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus represent a burial ground established for patients who died in the asylum. The current cemetery excavation has found ample evidence of the uniform burial practices expected in an institutional cemetery. Patients were dressed in simple garments fastened with pins and placed in coffins constructed in the asylum carpentry shop. However, the presence of manufactured coffins; the inclusion of personal items, clothing, and jewelry in asylum-made coffins; and the discovery of ceramics in some grave shafts all point to the involvement of family members, staff, and perhaps fellow patients in funerary preparations. This paper will review evidence of mortuary variation at Asylum Hill and present interpretations based on information gleaned from institutional records.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow