Old Bones Found – And Nobody’s in Charge

In late 2016, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s article “Old bones found – and nobody’s in charge” (http://muttr.org/2o5THv7) revealed the discovery of human remains at the construction site of 218 Arch Street by PMC Property Group. At the time, the remains consisted of a large box of fragmented skeletal material. In response to this article the Mütter Research Institute contacted executives at PMC to offer expertise and guidance in the removal of the human remains. The building site had been designated for religious service and burial from at least 1692 to 1859, first as a Keithian Quaker meetinghouse, and then, from 1707 to 1855, as home of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, with burials dating from 1702. The site had been abandoned when the First Baptist Church moved to a new building on Broad and Arch Streets in 1855. In 1859, church trustees purchased a small plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery within which to reinter those not claimed by decedents. Most of the remains were not relocated.

On February 20, the construction crew reported the discovery of more burials. Between Feb 20 and March 7, the archaeologists and volunteers working with the Mütter Research Institute rescued co-mingled remains of over 80 individuals and discovered stacked coffins, the latter resulting in the negotiation of a week for further excavation. By March 13, over 70 coffins were successfully recovered from the construction by a team of volunteer forensics and archaeology professionals. By June 2017, the existence of even more coffins made the case for intervention clear. Under pressure from the City of Philadelphia, the PMC Property Group hired a private archaeology firm to make further excavations due to the hazardous nature of the construction site. The number of removals has exceeded all original expectations. The total number rescued from the building site now totals approximately 500 individuals.

This site provides us with a picture of Philadelphia’s evolution from a seventeenth-century colonial port, home to Lenape, Swedish, Dutch, English, and African peoples, to a world-class city existing precariously at the dawn of the US Civil War. Creating a biological profile of the skeletal remains provides unparalleled insights into the changing demography of its history and reveal insights about diet, disease and injury, the bodily stresses incident to manual labor, childbirth practices, and mortality. This project also reveals a fascinating snapshot of the public health crises faced during Philadelphia’s early years. Disasters like the 1793 yellow fever and 1849 cholera epidemics threatened the stability of the local and new federal governments who responded with changes—changes visible in their treatment of the dead as well as the living.

The long-term goal is to create public engagement through multiple platforms, including published papers, presentations at academic conferences, a digital exhibition, and perhaps an exhibition in collaboration with other interested institutions.

Project director: Kimberlee Moran