Ethical and Legal Considerations in the Bioarchaeological Triage at Cypress Grove Cemetery #1, New Orleans, Louisiana

In this report, we detail the disentombment of hundreds of individuals from Cypress Grove Cemetery #1, a historic middle-class burial ground in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cypress Grove began operations in 1840 and is still active today. Before archaeological or osteological consultancy, cemetery staff removed the remains during the course of demolition and renovations to a series of wall vaults along the eastern wall of the cemetery (2023–2024). Here, we detail the pertinent state laws that allowed this disentombment, and we approach the ethical obligations and descendant community engagement integrated into this project before scientific inquiry began. This report also details our triage-focused field and laboratory methodologies and provides some preliminary results of the aggregate analyses of these individuals’ remains. This work models salvage bioarchaeology and how it can progress in an engaged and ethically focused way.