Have you seen this month's "Archaeology" magazine and the article about New
York City's "City Hall Park" and the accusation of a cover-up? If you have
you might be interested in what was found there in light of a problem in
archaeology.
I worked there from the beginning of May to the end of August. I have worked
on the original research done 10+ years prior in the vicinity (within 50
yards) with Grossman & Associates with Joel W. Grossman, Ph.D., the PI, and
worked in the vicinity (within 50 yards) a couple of years ago with Linda
Stone, MA, the PI. I have some knowledge of the site and only offer here a
problem to continue my previous thread about "digger" versus the accepted
history and interpretation.
A very mean man, Major Cunningham, ran the nearby prison, during the British
occupation of NYC, (also within 50 yards, prison became one of NYC's "Hall of
Records." The "modern" one, ca. 1903, is where unfortunately my uncle in a
wheelchair with polio died in the elevator shaft after a malfunction, on the
day my father was to go overseas in W.W.II. He worked with my grandfather as
a real estate reporter.) This was reported in the New York Times of 1903
when they razed the old prison where Patriots, i.e., Ethan Allen, and others
were tortured. This prison was reported to be darker than any proverbial
"Black Hole" and possibly Nathan Hale was held there and hung nearby. Some of
the burials found this year may have been part of that prison population, or
multiple burials of those associated with the American cause of Independence.
Another mystery goes back to the original occupation of New Amsterdam by the
British whose, Governor Slaughter, hung Jacob Leisler originally of
Frankfurt, mistakenly held to be treasonous to William (of Orange) and Mary.
I still think, though exonerated and dug up ceremoniously and reburied, he
was once or now buried in NYC's City Hall Park and would like clarification
if anyone knows the final resting place of Jacob Leisler if they know where
he was first buried.
Unfortunately, the mixture of bones reburied in some parts of the site could
be interpreted as evidence of cannibalism (the man eating myth) and there
will be a lot of analysis of some till it is understood whether they were
taken from disturbed burials as the park was built and reburied in another
area, i.e., disturbed by digging or other processes. There was once a scandal
involving NYC medical students digging up cadavers in the 18th century to
pass "Anatomy" when Columbia was at Trinity Church neighborhood.
I apologize to those involved for bringing this up here, never asked to sign
a nondisclosure agreement so I suppose it's not a big problem. I was never
threatened with a $1000 "contract" fine. A forensic anthropologist, both from
the Smithsonian, were always present.
Cholera, in that clothing is taken and burned (and sometimes whole villages)
is also one of the hypotheses for some or all of the burials. Not all were
excavated, all pit outlines documented and the general extent of the
"Almshouse" burial ground delineated.
Just a short note.
George J. Myers, Jr.
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