Artifacts of Mourning: Archaeology of the Historic Burial Ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia

In 2016, a construction project along Arch Street in Philadelphia accidentally uncovered human remains. Following this discovery, a volunteer group undertook the task of documenting the disturbed burials, as the site was not protected under existing legislation. Ultimately, a professional Cultural Resource Management firm was brought in to complete excavations. Several hundred burials were documented as a result, providing a wealth of data regarding mortuary practices and material culture for the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century congregants and neighbors of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia.The focus of this book is on the artifacts recovered from the excavations at this eighteenth- and nineteenth-century burial ground rather than the skeletal remains and is organized as follows. Chapter 1 presents a general overview of the circumstances leading to the documentation of this burial ground as well as a breakdown of the following chapters. Chapter 2 provides the historic context and setting for the site, through an overview of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia and its associated burial ground. The excavations and subsequent laboratory analyses are discussed in chapter 3, followed by an overview of the religious views of death and mourning during the period of use of the burial ground in chapter 4. Chapters 5 through 8 discuss the artifacts recovered from the site, including textiles, coffins and coffin hardware, and other cultural materials (likely unassociated with the burials themselves). Chapter 9 offers closing thoughts on both the physical evidence of mourning as well as the limitations of archaeological research, particularly with regard to the lack of temporal data from the assemblage.The author indicates that the intended audience of the book is both the academic and avocational reader, a difficult task but well executed in this work. Although the discussions on material culture, excavations, and interpretations do not reach the depth typically found in scholarly articles, the book offers ample context and historical background suitable for both casual readers and professional archaeologists. In particular, the illustrations and photographs provide an invaluable reference for future research and document both the intentional symbolism of death and mourning (coffin handle plates and plaques) as well as the incidental artifacts of daily life that found their way into the burial ground through deliberate disposal or by chance.In addition to a description of the artifacts recovered and the contextual history of the church and views toward death and mourning at the time, this book provides a fascinating (if not frustrating) account of the circumstances leading to the data recovery. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the history of the excavations, detailing the initial discovery and the developer’s attempts to proceed with construction, despite the frequent uncovering of skeletal remains by the backhoe. While initial efforts to document the site were focused on collecting displaced human remains as the construction was actively disturbing the burials, the developers eventually agreed to pause construction and allow a single week for volunteers to document the cemetery and remove intact coffins from the site. While certainly not an ideal timeline, the salvage of nearly eighty coffins allowed a more methodical analysis and documentation off site in a controlled laboratory setting.As continued construction uncovered additional graves, the developer was ultimately obligated to hire a professional Cultural Resource Management firm (AECOM) to continue work at the site. A total of 325 additional burials were excavated. In total, 496 individual sets of remains were documented and recovered at the site, with untold numbers destroyed prior to the initiation of the investigations. As a professional archaeologist, I could empathize with the author’s frustration at the repeated attempts to halt construction and convince the developer to take the ethical course of action. While the destruction of archaeological sites is unfortunately a somewhat common occurrence, it seems unimaginable that there remain such gaps in cultural resource legislation that human remains could be thoughtlessly disregarded during construction.Working with human skeletal remains is a complicated and often contentious process due to archaeology’s long history of disregarding descendent communities and “collecting” human remains and associated funerary artifacts in the name of science without the permission of these communities. While initiated as an archaeological salvage project, it is noted throughout the book that the remains and cultural materials recovered from the site were studied with the permission and support from the current First Baptist Church of Philadelphia.Chapters 5 through 8 provide an account of the artifacts recovered from the site. These sections are well illustrated, with each chapter providing a relevant historical background as well as a discussion of the significance and meaning of the objects (which is particularly important for the nonprofessional reader to understand the meaning beyond the mere recovery of a physical artifact). The rarely encountered and often poorly preserved textiles and funerary dress are explored in chapter 5. Coffins and coffin hardware recorded at the site are discussed in chapters 6 and 8. An under-studied aspect of archaeology, these burial vessels provide insight into the craft and expertise of the builder as well as the status conveyed by the coffin adornment. While the artifacts discussed in chapter 7 (“Miscellaneous Artifacts from the Burial Ground”) are not necessarily materials directly associated with the burials themselves, they do provide an overview of the lives of the nearby occupants during that general time period and, unfortunately, again demonstrate the damage to the site done by the construction.In summary, this book provides a fascinating account of the often-frustrating process of salvaging an archaeological site from the blade of the backhoe, as well as a remarkable reference collection for mortuary artifacts.