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Chicora Works with City of Columbia to Clean Up Lower Cemetery

Late late year Chicora completed its report on Lower Cemetery -- Columbia's public cemetery from the second half of the 19th century through much of the 20th century -- and forwarded a copy to the City of Columbia.

Lower Cemetery before the City's cleaning

We were excited that Columbia's City Manager Steve Gantt quickly contacted the Foundation and wanted to set up a meeting to ensure the cemetery -- which few in the City realized existed -- was cleaned up and appropriately cared for. In early 2010 we met with Amy Moore in the City's Historic Preservation Office as well as Melissa Smith Gentry, Director of Public Works, Sara Hollar, Superintendent of Forestry and Beautification, and Capt. E.T. Young, who is in charge of the North District (which includes Lower Cemetery).  A plan was put together to clean up Lower Cemetery and in matter of about a month and a half the wooded section went from wilderness to nearly park-like.

Part of Lower Cemetery during the cleaning efforts.

Efforts are now underway by Chicora to map the cemetery and ensure that all of the newly discovered stones are appropriately recorded and transcribed. The City of Columbia is still working to help ensure that a plan is implemented to prevent the return of jungle-like vegetation and to help keep the cemetery safe.

If you'd like to read the complete Chicora report on Lower Cemetery, it is available here as a pdf document.

If you'd like to see the WOLO TV's Hidden Columbia episode on Lower Cemetery, there are two available: one before the City's cleaning of the cemetery and one after the cemetery was cleaned up.


Chicora Publishes work at the Old Shoolbred Plantation on Kiawah Island

Chicora archaeologists have just released their report on the excavations at what is known as the Shoolbred Old Settlement on Kiawah Island in Charleston County, South Carolina. Found during the excavations were the remains of six different slave structures in five different areas of the site. Settlement in this area dates from the first quarter of the eighteenth century and continued through perhaps the first quarter of the nineteenth century, providing an exceptional view of the lives of Kiawah's enslaved African Americans.

The study included detailed faunal analysis of the collection, as well as extensive information on the artifacts recovered from the slave settlements. Discussion includes the range of artifacts that are best explained as part of the slaves' magio-religious world, such as bits of glass, fragments of brass, and beads. These allow us to glimpse a part of the hidden dimension of slavery that is rarely discussed in archaeological investigations.

Read the conclusions of the study here.


Chicora Conducts Treatments at Family Cemetery in Colonial Heights, Virginia

While many box tombs are large, with massive ledgers, some were designed for infants, such as this monument in a Colonial Heights family cemetery. Chicora conservators found the monument as little more than rubble, with the box entirely collapsed and the ledger broken into six different fragments. To make the repair more difficult, a misguided earlier repair had used ordinary Portland cement mortar. Some of these earlier repairs had failed, but many were still clinging tenaciously to the marble. Here are a series of photographs showing the repair in progress.

 


Newest Issue of Monumental Issues, Chicora's Cemetery Conservation Newsletter Now Available

This issue includes articles on recent conservation work at the National Park Service Kings Mountain National Military Park, why conservation costs are increasing, new information VA military markers (including who may order them), and a quick review of wood cemetery markers. Check it today.


Chicora Quoted in Boston Globe Article

Chicora's Director, Michael Trinkley was quoted in the Sunday, November 15 Boston Globe article, "A Race Against Time to Save History: Tens of Thousands of Gravestones in New England are Crumbling" by Brian MacQuarrie. Read the full article here.


Chicora Assists in the Removal of Burials from St. Johannes Cemetery, Bensenville, Illinois

Chicora archaeologists and osteologists spent two weeks in Bensenville, Illinois -- just west of Chicago -- working on the removal of several graves from the St. Johannes Cemetery.

This cemetery has been in the news for the past several years as the local community and church fights efforts by the City of Chicago to acquire the property for the extension of the O'Hare International Airport runways.

While the efforts are still being fought in court, Chicora was retained by the Geils Funeral Home of Bensenville to assist them in the removal of four burials -- two infants, one 15-year old, and one adult. While the funeral home was removing a number of other burials in vaults, it was known that these four were not. Therefore, the funeral home and the families they represented wanted to be certain that the removal was done with care, dignity, and respect.

As airplanes landed immediately north of the cemetery and construction continued within yards to the west, Chicora archaeologists identified the graves of four individuals -- two infants, one adolescent, and one adult. Each grave was exposed by a backhoe being expertly operated by the firm Stark & Son. Then hand excavation began to slowly remove the fill and expose the human remains.

With the permission of the families, it was possible to conduct very brief metric and non-metric analysis of the remains prior to their removal, as well as examine and photograph the casket hardware and trimmings.

The investigations at St. Johannes provided an exceptional opportunity to examine the skeletal remains of a late 19th and early 20th century German farming community. Skeletal remains were found to be in very good condition, although burial depths were quite deep. In addition, each of the burials included an interesting assortment of casket hardware, including short-bar handles, studs, casket plates and decorations, and even viewing glass. Each of the caskets was found to be cloth covered Eastern white pine.

The associated report provides detailed information on the skeletal remains, clothing items, and casket hardware.

 

 

 


Chicora Provides Forensic Archaeology Program to SC IAI

Chicora provided a two-day forensic archaeology program for the annual meeting of the SC Chapter of the International Association of Identification. The IAI is the world's oldest and largest forensic organization. The SC Chapter was organized in 1969. This year's conference, in Columbia, included a three-day program. The first day, on forensic anthropology, was provided by Bill Stevens with the Richland County Coroner's Office. The remaining two days explored how archaeology can be of critical importance to forensics.

Field exercises were held on the surface recovery of human remains, as well as the use of proper archaeological excavation techniques for the recovery of buried remains. Additional segments were held on the use of the Sokkia total station, simple forensic entomology, and setting up grids for simple mapping. Other information ranged from how Munsel Soil Color books can be used in forensic work, to understanding how declination can affect the use of a compass.

Over 50 people attended the 3-day event and Chicora prepared a 75-page manual on the application of forensic archaeology to crime scenes.


 

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