NEW LONDON -- After archaeologist Anthony Graesch started teaching at Connecticut College in 2010, he heard a repeated question: "Where is the Ancestor?"
The Ancestor, as he was known, was a reference to an Indigenous man whose remains had been unearthed from a grave in 198 during construction of a soccer field on the Thames River campus. Bones were retrieved, loaned to a scientist at the University of Rhode Island, then shelved and seemingly lost for decades.
Those remains that date back three to four centuries, however, have been rediscovered. They have since prompted geophysical surveys of the riverside campus this summer and last fall, revealing the likelihood of more graves. At the same time, the repatriation of the unearthed remains by the Mohegan and Mashuntucket Pequot tribes highlights what Graesch and tribal representatives say is a more respectful way of treating the cultures of Southeastern Connecticut's natives and their dead.
"The goal is to have these ancestors returned," Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Michael Johnson said in a statement. "I'll be careful with the way I frame this, but it's almost a celebration when they come home because now at least we know where they are, we know they're safe and that they were put to rest properly and respectfully."
Because the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans share a common ancestry, they took joint custody of the remains, which were re-interred in a ceremony last fall at an undisclosed place on campus. At about the same time, a survey of the area where the bones were found showed at least nine more suspected Indigenous burials, according to David Leslie, principal for the survey company TerraSearch Geophysical, LLC. The Berlin-based company did additional surveying of the surrounding areas this summer. Results are pending, but Graesch said "I can hypothesize that there are more burial features in the area."
The surveys were done with ground penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry. GPR uses electromagnetic pulses sent into the ground. A receiver interprets the signals bouncing back. Major changes in soil composition, boundaries between soil and rock and the presence of large objects return unique signals to reveal anomalies. A magnetometer measures changes in magnetic properties underground and has been used across the nation in concert with GPR to investigate sites of historic and cultural significance.
Other evidence from the Connecticut College site, including shells and animal bones, shows Indigenous people lived there by the riverside, where 17th and 18th century Quakers, the Rogers family, also buried some of their dead. Archaeologists can differentiate native and unmarked colonist graves primarily because Indigenous burials are rounded or oval, while settlers from Europe dug the familiar rectangular shaped shafts, Leslie said.
Scientists also learned that the Native man unearthed in 1981 was buried between 1550 and 1690 and had tuberculosis. But Graesch said there are no plans for excavations at the site to find more bones and artifacts to study. Asked if that means knowledge will be lost, he said, "The short answer is, 'No.'" Much can be revealed with non-invasive methods, he said, and tribe members "don't wish their ancestors to be poked and prodded anymore. Ethically, I'm opposed to it."
In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which says human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects or "objects of cultural patrimony" determined to be of Native American or Native Hawaiian origin must be returned to the tribe or organization from which they originate, if that can be determined.
The University of Rhode Island's NAGPRA coordinator, Fiona Jones, was working to repatriate objects and remains from URI's collection in November 2022, when she noticed a box labeled "CC7" and wondered if "CC" referred to Connecticut College.
It turned out that Harold Juli, an assistant professor in Connecticut College's anthropology department, was called to the scene when the bones were unearthed. As was customary at the time, Juli began a three-day salvage excavation to remove the remains before construction resumed. During or after 1982 (no records have been found) Juli transferred the remains to Marc Kelley, a biological anthropologist specializing in the study of human bones at URI, according to a report by national NAGPRA manager Melanie O'Brien.
Juli and Kelley published a report on the discovery, but when both professors died in 2007, knowledge of the remains was lost until Jones found the box and contacted Graesch, reporter Melissa Johnson wrote on Connecticut College's news site. The two compared the description of the box's contents with Juli's lab notes and confirmed Jones's hunch.
As College Archaeologist, a position created in 2022, Graesch said he is collaborating with area tribes and the college's Office of the Arboretum to oversee the conservation, management and study of cultural heritage resources on the 750-acre campus. Those resources include numerous archaeological sites and represent at least 5,000 years of human interaction with local landscapes and ecosystems, he said.
In late May, Graesch organized a summit for ambassadors from the tribes along with college administrators, faculty and staff and archaeologists from the State Historic Preservation Office. The care of ancestors discovered at the campus waterfront was the focus of discussion, but how the college stewards Indigenous cultural heritage also was addressed, Graesch said.
"The repatriation of Indigenous North American human remains and objects of cultural patrimony held by museums and higher education institutions around the world is a matter of social and racial justice," he said. "Throughout settler-colonial history in North America, the burials of Indigenous ancestors have been disturbed, looted and excavated without consent. This practice was carried out by settlers, scientists and museums alike."
"We want to be better stewards of this cultural heritage," Graesch said, "and good stewardship starts with respect."