Most scientific fields have an image problem. Archeology has two of them.
Some of us think it’s unrealistically thrilling; that’s the Indiana Jones syndrome. And some of us think it’s staggeringly dull; that’s the boring-bits-of-pottery syndrome.
As you’ll learn if you attend Science Cafe N.H. in Concord this Wednesday, the reality is sort of a mashup of both.
(Note: If you want to attend this free event, you must make an advance reservation because of overcrowding. Call Makris Lobster and Steak House at 225-7665.)
A surprising amount of time, being an archeologist in New Hampshire involves human bodies. Not stealing them from crypts guarded by cobras, however; often it’s protected them from excavators.
“We get a couple calls a year where they find human remains on job sites,” Jesse Cofelice said.
Cofelice is a principal investigator with Independent Archeological Consulting in Portsmouth – an industry that you probably didn’t even know exists – and will be one of three working archeologists on hand to take our questions at Science Cafe.
Here’s something not to ask: How many T-rexes have you found?
“The most common misconception is how often do we find dinosaur bones, and how often do we find gold,” Cofelice said.
There are, of course, no dinosaur fossils in New Hampshire. Our geology is igneous or metamorphic rock that gets melted, along with any bones, rather than the sedimentary rock where fossils are preserved. So far as I know there isn’t any gold, either.
But there certainly are human bodies. Where do they come from?
“New Hampshire is covered with historic homestead sites and most of them had small burial sites,” Cofelice said. “Sometimes they were unmarked, sometimes stones have been removed, sometimes walls were added later so the wall doesn’t encompass the whole site.”
I’ve run into this as a member of my town’s historical society, actually. We found a tombstone lying in the bottom of a long-abandoned cellar hole and had to decide whether there was a body somewhere underneath.
There were various technology methods we could have used that I’m sure will be discussed Wednesday but we didn’t have the budget. Fortunately, it turns out the family had a group plot in the town cemetery and the name found on the tombstone was also listed there.
So it seems the 15-year-old died before the family plot was purchased. He was buried on the homestead – this was long before state laws made home burial difficult – and eventually his body was moved to the family plot in our cemetery.
The tombstone was kept around because it’s a good flat piece of rock, useful for flooring and other things. Old tombstones are sometimes found in stone walls for that reason.
Anyway, back to Cofelice. She said that when human remains are found at a construction site, the state’s forensic laboratory checks to make sure the excavator hasn’t stumbled onto a crime scene. (Last month’s Science Cafe N.H. in Concord included one of the lab’s researchers, by coincidence.)
If there’s nothing shady to investigate, archeologists are called in. Figuring things out requires a mix of field-work skills – maybe including dusting off some bones with a dainty little broom – and analysis and knowledge of history and documentation.
Similar skills are involved when the time comes to move cemeteries for development. This happens more than you might think: “Just because you’re buried there once doesn’t mean it’s going to be forever,” Cofelice said.
Also as panelists will be Peter Leach, a forensic archeologist with Geophysical Survey Systems of Nashua, which makes the ground-penetrating radar equipment often used in the field, and Tonya Largy, whose work has included preparing skeletons for the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.
None of these folks carry a whip – at least, I don’t think they do – but all of them will have interesting insights. I hope to see you there.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
IF YOU GO
What: Science Cafe N.H. in Concord – ” Radar, burials and skeletons – not your average archaeology,” free question-and-answer session with three working archeologists about what the field actually entails in New Hampshire. Reservations are required; call 225-7665 in advance.
Where: Makris Lobster and Steak House, Rt. 106, Concord. Free but if you want to eat, you must buy the buffet for $15; cash bar.
When: Wednesday, April 24, 6 to 8 p.m.
For more information: ScienceCafeNH.org.
