Salvage archaeology, sometimes called rescue archaeology, occurs when an archaeological site would otherwise be destroyed by construction or natural processes such as flooding. In these situations, archaeologists recover what they can, sometimes electing to only excavate a portion of the site. In the case of Arch Street, it was the project team's goal to rescue all human remains so that construction could continue.
In March 2017, archaeologists worked with construction workers on... Read More
In the early months of the Arch Street project, burial remains were quickly removed from the construction site, rescued from further damage by construction machinery. These early collections are housed in numbered boxes at Rutgers University, Camden. Once cleaned, these commingled remains will be catalogued, assessed, and analyzed. Before cleaning the remains, inventory photographs need to be taken to create a full... Read More
The human body contains many types of soft tissue: skin, organs, muscles, etc. These tissues are made of cells and when a person dies their cells die, too. Cells undergo a process known as autolysis where enzymes within the cell are released and the cells break down. In addition, bacteria, fungi, insects, and scavengers also act upon the body to help break it down and recycle it back into the ecosystem. Even bone contains cells that decompose along with the rest of the body leaving... Read More
On June 29th, the same day that the Arch St Team was moving coffins from storage containers to their new facility in NJ, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "new" bones were being uncovered at 218 Arch St. The team was shocked and dismayed because is appears that bones had been appearing for some time and... Read More
This week the Arch St Project has had a special visitor: Dr. Jerry Conlogue and his students from Quinnipiac University. Jerry is a professor of diagnostic imaging. When he's not working on live patients, Jerry works on mummies and other archaeological assemblages, providing researchers with a non-destructive method to view remains. For the Arch St Project, Jerry is X-raying our coffins prior to our internal... Read More
