The Archaeological Site Preservation Initiative (ASPI) of the NYSAA is
asking for your help with regard to the Albany Almshouse Cemetery
excavations.  Attached is an article explaining the latest development in
this ongoing battle.  This is an adjacent site to the one posted earlier.

Please call or write to the Albany Mayor's office and voice your support
for the continuation of the archaeology at the site.  (Mayor Gerald D.
Jennings, City of Albany, City Hall Eagle Street, Albany NY 12207, (518)
434-5077).  These are our ancestors who will be destroyed unless we take a
step to protect and preserve them.

Marie-Lorraine Pipes
ASPI, State Coordinator
NYSAA

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Construction timetable halts cemetery research
Albany-- State archaeologists will cease analysis of 19th century graves at
site of new biomedical center By DINA CAPPIELLO, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, August 15, 2002 Faced with four times the number
of bodies originally estimated, the Charitable Leadership Foundation on
Wednesday said it will halt archaeological work at a former cemetery slated
to be the site of a $60 million biomedical research center in order to
stick to the construction schedule. Since February, archaeologists with the
State Museum have exhumed more than 700 bodies from the one-acre burial
ground off New Scotland Avenue, performing archaeological analysis on the
remains for clues of what life was like in late 19th-century Albany. Many
of the dead are believed to have been residents of the old Albany Almshouse
for the poor. The dig was supposed to be completed in June so the Center
for Medical Research, as it is to be called, could open on time in July
2003. But with an estimated 100 to 200 more bodies still buried at the
site, the Clifton Park-based nonprofit organization that is funding the
construction has decided to just exhume the bodies in the presence of a
funeral director and rebury them at the Albany Rural Cemetery. "It's no
longer going to be considered a hard-core archaeological dig," said Robert
P. Lindsay, spokesman for the foundation, which spent $1.3 million for the
museum to do the archaeological work. The museum scientists "have generated
far more data than they anticipated they would get." It took archaeologists
an average of two days to examine one body, according to Lindsay.
Archaeologists had originally estimated that 225 bodies were on the site in
graves stacked three deep. In many cases, the researchers were able to
determine from the skeletons the gender, approximate age, diseases and any
physical trauma the people may have suffered. The sped-up removal will
begin Monday and be completed by the end of the month, according to the
foundation. A state Education Department spokesman said there is much to be
learned from the forgotten burial ground about the condition and lives of
Albany's poor. "We would continue to do this work. It's important work,"
said spokesman Tom Dunn. But "the Charitable Leadership Foundation is not
required to continue it."