After nearly a decade of arguing that an African burial ground dating back to the original Harlem settlement was buried beneath the site of the 126th Street Bus Depot in Upper Manhattan, a team of local historians have finally discovered remains that prove they were right all along.
According to the New York Times, city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Rev. Dr. Patricia A. Singletary of Elmendorf Reformed Church, speaking on behalf of the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force, announced Wednesday that archaeologists had uncovered more than 140 bones and bone fragments while working at the site last summer.
The discovery, which included a skull with an intact cranium likely belonging to an adult African female, backs up historical documents indicating the bus depot had been built on the same grounds as a Reformed Dutch church where New Yorkers of African descent were buried during the 17th through 19th centuries.
Discovery sheds new light on the region’s ‘overlooked’ history
Mark-Viverito told the newspaper that there were “very excited” to discover the remains, and that it was “a way of affirming a part of Manhattan history that has been overlooked.” The next step, she added, was to create a new memorial to honor those who were buried at the site.
The skull, which belong to a woman Dr. Singletary has named Nana – “the African term of respect for an elderly woman,” she explained – was found along with the rest of the bones and bone fragments in a layer of soil deposited outside the known cemetery boundaries, according to A. Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist at AKRF, the firm which completed the work.
Pappalardo told the Times that the bones were “disarticulated,” or separated at the joints. He also emphasized that “no intact burials were encountered or disturbed,” and that they did not find any funerary objects, although some glass, ceramics, and other household objects were discovered.
While the discovery was made last summer, AKRF and the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force decided to wait to make a public announcement so they could do so in a ”coordinated” and “respectful” way, the newspaper noted. In light of these revelations, Anthony Hogrebe from the New York Economic Development Corporation, said that any future renovations at the bus depot “must include a memorial” to those interred at the burial ground.
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Image credit: Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force
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