Investigating Cedar Key’s African American Burial Ground

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Cedar Key is located two hours north of Tampa along Florida’s Gulf Coast. While the town is overwhelmingly White today, it was home to a vibrant African American community between Reconstruction the early 20th century. This poster discusses a mixed methods project combining archival research, field mapping, ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey, and photogrammetry to document the presence of African American burials in the Cedar Key Cemetery. A combination of total station and highly accurate global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers supported the rapid mapping of visible features. The GPR survey initially focused in a spatially separate area of the cemetery assumed to house racially segregated Black burials. A single marker in this area provided important clues regarding a larger presence of African American graves in other areas, requiring an expanded GPR survey. Photogrammetry of Black grave markers and an online interactive map supports various forms of public outreach.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• 2024 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow