---Excerpted from Society of Historical Archaeology Blog
A few times each year, the SHA Technology Committee hosts Tech
Week, an entire week devoted to certain technologies used in historical
archaeology. This week, archaeologist Duane Quates was asked to gather
blog posts about the use of technology in mortuary analysis.
Fort Drum, New York has a surprisingly rich history and the 13
historic cemeteries of Fort Drum are a profound reminder of the
communities that existed prior to the Army’s acquisition of the now
107,000 acre military reservation in 1941. Current technologies such as
LiDAR, GIS, database management software, and geophysical technologies,
such as ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, and electrical soil
resistivity are providing the base archaeologists with innovative tools
to understand and mange these resources responsibly.
Figure 1: The grave of William Anderson and his wife Elizabeth
One of the many aspects of the cemeteries that I found interesting is
that there are only two known African American gravestones out of 1802
known burials. One grave is that of William Anderson and his wife
Elizabeth located in the Gates Cemetery near Historic Sterlingville. The
second is that of Rachel, a former slave of James Leray, in the
Sheepfold Cemetery. The graves in both of these cemeteries are very
similar in that they are alone in the back of the cemetery, segregated
from the rest of the burials.
Unfortunately the archaeological record of the base is very similar
in its representation of the African American community. To date, the
Cultural Resources Program at Fort Drum has identified 962 sites on the
107,000 acre military reservation. Over 65% of the recorded sites are
historic. However, only two known sites are considered to have an
African American component; the LeRay Mansion Slave Quarters and the
Whitney Farmstead. The first is associated with James LeRay de Chaumont,
a French capitalist and land speculator, whose family fortune was
acquired largely from the transatlantic slave trade. The second is
associated with a 19th century farmstead that, unfortunately, is poorly
understood. This assemblage includes trade beads from Gambia, West
Africa, as well as Lamoka points from the late Archaic Period.
The Fort Drum Cultural Resources Program manages and maintains the
cemeteries of the post.
Rachel’s marker is one that has given us the
most concern. It is made of a poor quality marble that has frost
fractured several times. Each time the Fort Drum Cultural Resources
Program has repaired it with epoxy but unfortunately time and weather
has taken its toll on the stone.
The epitaph is no longer fully legible.
Figure 2: The grave of Rachel
In April 2010 at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in
Sacramento, CA, while perusing the book room, I met Bill Mongon of
Accurex, Inc. in the technology section of the book room. He was
demonstrating a multi-lens camera that was capable of building a 3D
model of almost any object. What I found fascinating was the system’s
capability of finding minute details on objects that were not detectable
by the naked eye. I asked if there were any field applications for the
device. Bill suggested that he travel to Fort Drum and provide a
demonstration by scanning Rachel’s grave stone. The demonstration at
Rachel’s grave site went beautifully. The system performed perfectly in
spite of a continual rain that drenched us.
Fortunately, scanning
Rachel’s grave stone took only 2 hours.
Figure 3: 3D scan of Rachel’s grave stone
In figure 3 the epitaph is very clear, which reads: “Rachel A good
& faithful nurse. Died Jan. 10 1834.” The lower epitaph reads “This
monument was placed in her memory by her loving children Vincent &
Alexander LeRay de Chaumont & Therese de Gouvello.” I
ronically, one
year after this scan was done, while giving a tour of the cemetery I
found the grave stone broken into several pieces by a large oak tree
that had come down in a wind storm. Fortunately, we have the 3D scan of
the stone allowing us to replicate it.
In 2010, the Cultural Resources Program at Fort Drum embarked on a
new project to answer several pressing concerns about the cemeteries.
First, we suspected that there were unmarked graves surrounding the two
known African American grave markers. Military training had the
potential to encroach upon the boundaries of the Sheepfold Cemetery
where Rachel lies, with the new development and expansion of nearby
training course. It was necessary to know, with absolute certainty,
whether the boundary of the cemetery was accurate or if there were
burials outside of the fence. Second, we also wanted to make a concerted
effort to find whether there were other African American graves in the
other cemeteries on the base.
To answer these questions, an inventory of our cemeteries was
necessary and then the attributes could be compared. Once that was
completed and the African American graves identified, geophysical
surveys would be conducted in the vivinity. Unfortunately, the staff did
not have the expertise or training needed to perform the geophysical
surveys. Fortunately, I was able to acquire funding to hire an intern,
Mike Sprowles, through the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education
(ORISE) to complete the project.
Mike started the project by creating a database and developing the
attributes that he intended to record. The database became something
more than what was originally intended. His database can compare
attributes of all 1802 burials and search for similarities. It also has
the capability of tracking the conditions of each stone and is a perfect
tool to manage the cemeteries. Finally, it is searchable by name and
can be used by any member of the public for genealogical research. He
finished the inventory in just 10 months and we publicly launched the
database as a genealogy tool in October of 2012. He has surveyed both
the Gates cemetery and the Sheepfold cemetery and found several
anomalies consistent with unmarked burials near Rachel’s grave stone.
But I digress. I will let
Mike explain this project in his own words in his blog post. Also, the Tech Week Blog will feature Dr. Michael Heilen of Statistical Research Inc.,
discussing the Alameda-Stone Cemetery in Tucson, AZ, as well as Katy Meyers, PhD. Candidate at Michigan State University,
with her post on the spatial analysis of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Livingston County, New York.
These posts have several things in common. All discuss the use of GIS
and databases in their analyses. However, each is unique in how they
demonstrate the advantages of these technologies in cemetery studies.
The thing that excites me about archaeology’s use of technology is the
surprising results one gets when applying various techniques to a
particular problem. Technology has a way of finding answers to questions
that you never intended to ask.
