Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – On a brilliant autumn afternoon, a plain picket field made by a neighborhood cupboard store, containing skeletal stays, was returned to its ultimate resting place in Brentwood throughout an easy reburial ceremony.
For 2 years, researchers and college students from the College of New Hampshire’s Forensic Anthropology Identification and Restoration (F.A.I.R.) Lab collaborated with city officers and the New Hampshire state archaeologist to analyze and doc these stays.
The stays from the poor home had been buried in a easy worrdne field crafted by a neighborhood cupboard store that was inscribed with “Right here lies stays solely recognized to God, Brentwood Poor Farm, circa 1841–1968.” Credit score: Robbin Ray / UNH
Initially uncovered over 20 years in the past throughout development, the stays had been recognized as belonging to a mid-1800s farm for paupers, generally known as a poor farm.
“We analyzed the skeletal stays to find out their age and situation and assist remedy the thriller of why they had been buried within the distant space in an unmarked grave,” stated Alex Garcia-Putnam, co-director of UNH’s F.A.I.R. Lab.
“After a number of years of documenting the skeletal stays, we had been honored to not solely present worthwhile details about their lives, however to even have the uncommon alternative to be current on the reburial—to place these people at peace and provide all events some sense of closure.”
Historic Analysis And Skeletal Evaluation
The New Hampshire state archaeologist examined these stays and recognized them as historic primarily based on their age and situation. They had been then saved on the New Hampshire medical expert’s workplace for 23 years. In 2022, the stays had been moved to the College of New Hampshire (UNH), the place researchers started an in depth skeletal evaluation.
The F.A.I.R. Lab at UNH collaborates with regulation enforcement and the state’s medical expert’s workplace to help in figuring out human stays. On this explicit case, their work centered on historic analysis. The group analyzed the bones to ascertain their age and assess the well being circumstances of these people, whereas additionally inspecting city data and maps to know extra in regards to the historic context of the place these stays had been discovered.
The skeletal evaluation revealed indicators of hardship similar to poverty and exhausting labor, together with well being points like osteoarthritis, dental illness, and different physiological stresses. These stays had been initially found in an unmarked grave—additional proof of poverty—on land believed to have been a part of Brentwood Poor Farm from 1841 to 1868.
Poor farms functioned as welfare establishments in rural U.S. counties throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, offering shelter in change for labor however usually subjecting residents to exploitative remedy. These farms aimed to maintain marginalized teams—together with these affected by poverty, race, ethnicity, or psychological/bodily sickness—away from middle- and upper-class society’s view.
These Individuals Deserve A Respectful Burial
The city of Brentwood collaborated with the present landowners to rearrange a reinterment on the precise web site of the unique grave. Traditionally, paupers on the farm had been doubtless interred in shortly ready, unmarked graves. Over time, these burial websites had been forgotten because the poor farm mannequin for social welfare was phased out throughout the Nineteen Thirties and Forties, and subsequently, the land transitioned into non-public possession.
“All people deserve a respectful ultimate burial and we hope that this occasion exhibits that Brentwood cares about its residents,” stated Joyce Keegal, superintendent of cemeteries in Brentwood. “We’re so grateful for the work performed by UNH to not solely assist make clear the lives of those people however to additionally assist us advocate for them.”
“This has been a tremendous neighborhood collaboration by the city of Brentwood, the state, the owners and UNH to not solely present solutions and join the threads but additionally convey closure and significant resolutions for all concerned,” stated Amy Michael, co-director of UNH’s F.A.I.R. lab. “We work on every kind of investigations—prison to chilly circumstances—and it’s so fulfilling to maneuver somebody from a shelf in a medical expert’s workplace humanizing them by giving them a dignified burial. Right this moment was a superb day.”
The burial web site is on non-public property in an undisclosed space. Plans are in place by Brentwood city officers and historic society for a future exhibit in regards to the Brentwood Poor Farm.
The examine was printed within the journal American Antiquity
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Workers Author
