Indian Burial Excavated and Removed at Sasqua Hill Site, East Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA

(…reprinted from Pennsylvania Archaeologist, 1965, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 25-33)

On the Recovery of Burial Number Two at the
Sasqua Hill Site, East Norwalk, Connecticut

By Bernard W. Powell*

Abstract

The primary, flexed, adult inhumation considered here was removed in toto during the final phase of fieldwork at the coastal Connecticut site called Sasqua Hill. The specimen was excavated and prepared as exhibit material. It is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in New York. Field techniques and methods of preparation are reviewed as a guide to future recovery of such specimens.

ONE OF THE MOST challenging subjects to the "dirt archaeologist" is the proper exposure and recording of human burials. Sites, of course, vary widely in the degree to which burials may be associated with them. Equally variable can be the physical condition of skeletal remains. Good field archaeologists, however, are always alert to the possible occurrence of burials, and they must be prepared to deal seriously with them when they occur. A familiarity with the rudiments of human osteology is a vital necessity.

Many site reports relative to Eastern archaeology contain references to burials but unfortunately these are usually poorly illustrated. Equally unfortunate, perhaps, are the relatively few instances where excavators take time and trouble to reclaim and permanently stabilize skeletal remains in their entirety even though almost every region has a museum, university, or other institution which will accept and display such material. Perhaps this paper may be of assistance to those wishing to undertake such recovery in the future.

During fieldwork on the Sasqua Hill Site, East Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut, in July 1964, an adult human burial was discovered. Actually some six or more burials are believed to have been found here (and destroyed) by uninformed persons over the past fifty years.¹ While our investigation was underway the land was sold and a bulldozer was moved in to strip off the top 18 inches of soil. Removal of this soil exposed a light tan, sandy silt (either wind- or water-laid fines over a buried Pleistocene drift). Aboriginal evidences were primarily associated with the dark overlying soil removed by the dozer. However, the early inhabitants of the site occasionally dug pits from this level down into the subsoil and these ancient pits now showed as dark ovoid stains against the lighter subsoil. Several pits proved to be refuse, possibly storage pits. One, however, contained the burial recorded here - Burial Number Two. This individual, probably a middle-aged male, had been buried in a flexed or contracted position. He had been placed (see Fig. 1) in the bottom of a bowl-shaped pit about30 inches in diameter at the top, and about 30 inches deep. His legs, bent double, lay more or less flat on their sides against the bottom of the pit, but his spine was rotated on its axis in such a way that his chest was down. His right arm passed under the chest and up past his left shoulder. His left arm was doubled on itself at his side. The skull was bent back so severely as to actually bear against the cervical vertebrae and was thus face up. This unceremonious position surely reflects efforts of the burial party to make the corpse fit the small grave pit, and it certainly necessitated breaking the neck.

Fig. 1. Disposition of Burial Two based on excavation data.

The bulldozer, in scraping over the pit, missed the skull by no more than an inch or so (see Fig. 1). In fact, the plane of the bulldozer pass removed the right hand of the burial, which was at its highest point. Indeed, the distal ends of the radius and the ulna sticking up through the soil were the first clues I had that a burial lay below. The burial was exposed following accepted procedures as closely as conditions allowed. Hands and feet were therefore cleared as the last operation- and overall exposure was from the middle portions of the burial outward to prevent scraping across previously cleaned areas. A contracted burial is more difficult to expose than an extended burial, since bones may intermingle, and it is more difficult to guess the orientation of the unseen skeleton. In exposing this burial, for instance, I first cleared the facial portion of the skull enough to determine skull orientation. I then estimated that the postcranial skeleton lay north of the skull (not suspecting the unusual bent-back position of the skull, nor knowing that the burial was flexed!). Only after the exasperating removal of much dirt, and failure to contact further bones, did the real orientation of the burial become apparent.

At a point when about three-quarters of the burial had been cleared, having considered the fineness of the matrix and the relatively good condition of the bones, I decided to attempt an in toto removal. If possible, such decisions are better made prior to exposure because the burial may then be removed in block fashion still protected by its dirt cover. In that event final exposure can subsequently be accomplished under controlled conditions. This always poses an archaeological dilemma however, since an unexposed burial remains a “pig in a poke” and may be a disappointment when finally revealed, not having warranted the difficulty of complete removal.

In the case at hand, having begun, we decided to completely remove the dirt cover and finish exposure. This would allow us to photograph the burial. But it also meant, of course, that we would be faced with the risky business of removing a dirt block surmounted by a delicate mass of fragile, unsupported bones, a situation to be avoided under ordinary circumstances. The risk seemed warranted, however, because regardless of ultimate results it enabled us to secure a photographic record of in situ appearance which is not possible if the burial remains unexposed and shielded over with dirt for block removal, sight unseen.

Simultaneously with the clearing of the burial proper, a large trench was excavated around all sides of the grave. This was done in order to isolate the burial on top of a square pedestal of dirt (Fig. 2). The trick here is to dig the surrounding trench wide enough and deep enough to accommodate the activities necessary to prepare and remove the pedestal. This is a must, even though it may involve a great deal of extra digging. Once the surrounding trench is in place, drainage is much improved when ground moisture is a problem, and air circulation on all sides is provided which hastens drying the materials in the pedestal. Generally the pedestal must be quite dry to properly receive the hardening solution. The bones, by contrast, must not be allowed to dry too rapidly since this causes crazing and checking. Occasionally it is best to temporarily cover over some of the bones with soil if there is any likelihood that they may be exposed for any time to a hot sun.

Fig. 2. Burial Two in situ, and cleared of
overburden.

Since we had decided to use wax-and-gasoline hardener, it was necessary to have the soil especially dry, otherwise the gasoline would not penetrate well and it would have difficulty in carrying the dissolved wax into the pedestal. Therefore a gallon of denatured alcohol was poured over the burial pedestal to quicken its drying (alcohol mixes well with water, and the resulting mix evaporates much faster than water alone). It was a hot day and the temperature was well up in the nineties. Even so, the necessary evaporation of every last bit of visible moisture took a long time.

Meanwhile we shaved about four pounds of paraffin (regular home canning wax) into about six gallons of gasoline solvent. (We had to use red or leaded gasoline, but white is probably to be preferred because it is less likely to stain or discolor the soil, although we had no real problem in this connection.) The wax is very slow to dissolve, therefore the solution must be stirred continuously. We shaved it up with knives, but a regular kitchen cheese grater might have accomplished the job better in producing smaller bits of wax for easier entry into solution. Naturally great care must be exercised when using gasoline in this way and a strict "no smoking" rule is obvious.

While these steps were being accomplished, we constructed a four-sided wooden jacket, nailed together so as to fit snugly around the sides of the pedestal and protect them during removal. When completed, this was slid gently into place (Fig. 3). A sheet of one-quarter inch plywood was all that we had available with which to undercut the pedestal. It was far too light, but we bad no alternative other than to use it. The wax-and-gasoline solution was poured over the burial until the block would absorb no more (Fig. 4). Six gallons proved sufficient for our 30"x 30" x 18" high pedestal which weighed about 300 pounds. The gasoline evaporated much more slowly than we anticipated. Following this, we began the ticklish job of undercutting the pedestal.
	Fig. 3. Placing the wooden jacket around the cleared burial.

	We had hoped to seesaw the plywood sheet beneath it. But trouble developed due to the fact that we were not pushing the sheet through the soft fines of the burial matrix, but rather a stratum of rocks and pebbles. Actually what had happened was that in preparing the grave, the Indians had dug down until they hit a pebbly, sandy loam in the upper part of the drift. The bed of stones stopped their excavation downward and consequently the very bottom of the pit rested on these stones (Fig. 1). Since we wanted to drive through a few inches below the bottom of the burial pit, it meant we were hitting these stones. We tried probing with machetes, and sawing with carpenter's saws but to no avail; we were unable to undercut a bit further with the plywood sheet as it was.
Fig. 4. Soaking the exposed matrix with a gasoline and paraffin mix.

Then I had an inspiration. We shored up one of the outer faces of the trench and braced the base of an automobile bumper jack against it so that the jack upright ran parallel to the floor of the excavation. The lift itself was engaged against the edge of the plywood sheet. With this arrangement we were able to bring far more driving force to bear on the sheet (Fig. 5). It worked. Actually one jack did the trick, but two or more could be closely aligned in this same way if more power should be needed in a different situation.

Slowly we drove through. A sharp watch was kept and whenever a crack appeared or the jacket began to ride up, we stopped and secured before inching on. At last we broke through the opposite side. There were problems, of course. The soft, gasoline-soaked dirt

developed cracks, and frictional drag on the following edge of the board tended to compress the burial in the direction of movement.

Fig. 5. Using a car jack braced horizontally against the
excavation sidewalls to drive a sheet of plywood beneath
the pedestal.

However the solvent-damp soil was easily pressed back to shape and the cracks were closed. All in all, we managed quite well and only minor dislocations occurred.

The next step was routine. Two-by-four runners were worked into place in under the plywood sheet. Three or four “volunteers" in the neighborhood were drafted to help, and at a signal all laid on to the runners and lifted. Up came the entire pedestal and without further ado the complete burial block was slid into the back of a station wagon for removal from the site.

Upon delivery at home, the burial was slid onto a sturdy outdoors table. Subsequently, a tarpaulin was rigged above it to prevent any harm by rain but so as not to interfere with air circulation. To our surprise, full evaporation of the gasoline took six weeks or more; the burial was left outdoors during this time. It was then moved into an unused garage which afforded better protection and permitted work on the block during inclement weather.


Fig. 6. Later removal of wooden jacket from the en bloc.	Fig. 7. Stabilized skeleton and matrix, with poured-in- place plaster-of-Paris retainer.

The first action that was undertaken was removal of the wooden jacket built to surround the burial in the field. This was "opened out" by the insertion of short vertical runners at the joints which were then replaced by boards around three sides (Fig. 6). This left a gap of about one and a half inches between the sides of the pedestal and the boards. The gap was filled with plaster-of-Paris. The resulting hard plaster support materially strengthened the reclamation and tidied up its appearance (Fig. 7). The wooden sides were now discarded.


Fig. 8. In profile, and showing the delineated contact between burial pit and subsoil.	Fig.9. Hardening exposed surfaces with aerosol acrylic.

The remaining or fourth side was deliberately left open. It was shaved to a clean face that showed quite clearly the demarcation between the fill of the grave pit and the sterile soil into which it had originally been dug. This line was traced and emphasized very carefully by using the sharp point of an 8-penny nail (Fig. 8). This face was then specially hardened by using an aerosol acrylic spray bomb (available in any hardware store) and a clear lacquer solution reduced with acetone (Fig. 9). Vertical sections through worm burrows, flecks of charcoal and marine shell, and other interesting, and to the archaeologist significant, aspects could now easily be observed. The advantages of being able to work on such material, conveniently placed at waist height and under dry, well-lit conditions as compared to the same work in the field, can hardly be overstated.

(Cont’d.)