PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – Archaeologists have unearthed five wooden coffins at a site found by a crew putting in a new sewer line.
State Archaeologist Richard Boisvert said he does not know yet what will be done with the remains, as they could prove hard to identify.
“We are, in essence, still in the middle of it,” Boisvert said.
State law requires that the remains be exhumed and identified, then reburied or treated according to the wishes of any surviving relatives or descendants.
An old map identifies the site as possibly part of a large burial ground used for blacks in the 1700s.
Ellen Marlatt, senior researcher at Independent Archaeological Consulting, the Portsmouth company supervising the recovery, said that so far, no grave markers or headstones have been found.
The coffins are hexagonal. The heavy clay soil has preserved the wood well, but not the bones of the five adults buried there, Marlatt said.
Boisvert said experts could use information from artifacts found with the remains and forensic techniques to identify the dead or to learn how they died and when they lived.
AP-ES-10-12-03 1232EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
