Excavations at the Harney Site slave cemetery, Montserrat, West Indies.

Abstract

An archaeological salvage project at the Harney site, Montserrat, recovered parts of ten human skeletons from burials exposed in trenches dug by construction workers during excavation of a house foundation. Osteological analysis of these skeletons and additional bones previously removed by construction workers identified 17 individuals. Several burial patterns were discernible despite the disturbed nature of the Hamey site and incomplete condition of its skeletons. The patterns include placement of bodies in graves dug to a rock stratum underlying the site, interment in a west-headed direction, and arrangement of the corpses on their backs with legs extended. The presence of nails in some graves provides suggestive but not conclusive evidence for the use of coffins or some other form of burial apparatus. Recovered artifacts indicate this unmarked and unrecorded cemetery was used at least in the latter eighteenth century and possibly longer. The most unusual artifact was an intact Turlington Balsam of Life phial dated OCT 29 1751.

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