Studies in Funerary Archaeology 19 - Vampires and Gallstones

Explores unusual burial cases, revealing archaeological insights into New England death practices and history. This book, as a companion to "And So the Tomb Remained" proposes to tell the stories of nine cemetery case studies where the Connecticut State Archaeologist was summoned to investigate human burials impacted by economic development projects, natural disasters, suspected crime scenes and family request. In each instance, archaeological excavations uncovered a few surprises, including the burial of a suspected vampire; gallstones that survived over 165 years in the ground; a burial’s missing arm; a mysterious man dressed in a blue suit enclosed in a cast-iron coffin; skeletons under a hospital emergency room expansion; 18th-century burials discovered under the grass of a baseball field; and unmarked burials and an unknown time capsule hidden under a city green for over 100 years containing memorabilia from the American Civil War along with copies of New Haven newspapers published on 12 February 1909. The book begins with an overview of the history of New England burying grounds from the earliest Puritans into the 21st century, including changing social and religious attitudes toward death, monuments and treatments of the dead; a review of the disinterment of the dead by 18th- and 19th-century medical students searching for cadavers and skeletal remains for their anatomical studies and the outrage of local citizens at envisioning their loved ones' graves uprooted; a discussion of current archaeological methods and preservation ethics, including the role of the Connecticut State Archaeologist in burial investigations and Indigenous repatriations. Each chapter then delves into discovery stories, archaeological fieldwork, genealogical history and bioanthropological…