Stories From the Grave: The Ridgefield Skeletons

Описание: This week's speakers included Glenda Rose and Scott Brady of FOSA (current and past Presidents); CT State Archaeologist Sarah Sportman; CT State Historian Walt Woodward; emeritus CT State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni; and Fiona Jones, daughter of previous CT State Archaeologist Brian Jones, who, among other things, works as a field technician for AHS.

The Battle of Ridgefield occurred in 1777, a British victory, but for which they paid a heavy price in casualties. In 2019, work on lowering the cellar basement of a home in Ridgefield uncovered human skeletal remains. Police were called, and it was determined that the person had not died recently, so Nick Bellantoni was called, who determined the person was an adult male, 25-40 years old, with no signs of trauma.

Excavations were begun to retrieve the skeleton for forensic analysis, when a second, then a third, and then a fourth skeleton were also found. Interment seemed haphazard: no coffins or coffin nails, and the skeletons seemed to be arranged haphazardly, more or less on top of each other. Speculation was that these men were part of the Battle who had perished and been subsequently buried there. Cloth at the time being mostly re-used rather than buried with its owner, 2 of the skeletons appeared to have been buried without clothing, but the other 2 had evidence of buttons for clothing (suggesting officers rather than infantrymen?).

The skeletons were carefully removed for analysis, a difficult task as it required going in from the side rather than from the top of a burial, as is normally the case. Surgical gloves were used in order to prevent DNA contamination (any pathogens from the burials themselves would have been long gone. Considerable interdisciplinary evaluation of the skeletons themselves and the clay/earth in which they were interred remains to be done, on the bones, teeth, buttons, and so forth, to try to determine whether they were British or American, what diseases they may have had, etc.

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