http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/03/30/bones.discovered.ap/index.html

Dozens of human skeletal remains found in Kentucky
March 30, 2002 Posted: 2:22 PM EST (1922 GMT)

FRANKFORT, Kentucky (AP) -- Nearly 70 sets of skeletal remains have been found at the construction site of the state Transportation Cabinet complex in the three weeks since the first bones were spotted in a dump truck.

David Pollack, an archaeologist with the Kentucky Heritage Council, which is overseeing the recovery, said the body count of 66 is much higher than had been expected after the first week of digging.

Officials at first thought the site could have been a cemetery used by the old state penitentiary, which was torn down following the flood of 1937. However, several more children's skeletal remains were found Wednesday, "which makes me think this may not be an old prison cemetery," Pollack said. "But we haven't discounted anything."

Archaeologists believe the people may have been buried between 1800 and 1850. Along with the human bones, archaeologists have found rings, coins and brass coffin handles in the excavation area, which is about the size of a football field.

The bodies will be taken to an archaeology lab at the University of Kentucky, where the bones will be cleaned and analyzed to determine gender and age.

"We'll look for pathologies, diseases and any evidence of trauma they may have had," Pollack said. It has not been determined where the bodies will be taken for reburial.

A worker first saw bones in a dump truck at a dumpsite March 11. Franklin County coroner Mike Harrod and the state medical examiner's office determined the truck came from the government construction site.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.

Hi, I accidentally ran across your site and it piqued my interest as I excavated a cemetery from Roanoke, VA in 1997 (and many others in other southeastern states). Check out the Georgia cemetery laws. Along with residents in Roanoke, we attempted to get similar laws passed in VA in 1998. In Georgia, an archaeologist must be present in any burial removal. Some states require a physical anthropologist, too. We are usually hired to do the excavations as well. In every case in my experience, funeral homes do an incomplete job in removing remains and often miss entire graves (particularly unmarked ones). I found six graves completely missed by a funeral home just last month in a historic cemetery in Georgia that was "moved" before the cemetery laws went into effect. Our work includes genealogy, historic research, notifying and working with descendants, careful, complete and sensitive excavation, identification of individuals interred in the grave, a full report, and, often, talks for the interested public regarding the findings, historic context, and osteological analysis. Of course, we attempt to preserve cemeteries in every case, but sometimes local governing bodies grant developers requests to move the graves (I've written many more preservation plans than disinterment reports). It is far better to have a professional archaeologist remove the graves completely and sensitively, than to have funeral home employees (with no formal training in recognizing human remains or excavating archaeological features) attempt to move the graves. As you know, funeral homes and related industries have strong lobbies.

I encourage interested residents of VA to contact their local and state legislators about changing the VA cemetery laws to make them more sensitive to the excavation of cemeteries and human remains. The GA Department of Natural Resources Office of the State Archaeologist keeps a list of the GA cemetery laws, which may serve as a nice model. Often, when developers discover the cost of moving a cemetery archaeologically, they opt to preserve the cemetery instead. Kristin Wilson, M.A., Registered Professional Archaeologist, Physical Anthropologist

Kristin--
Thank you for your very informative post! It would have made much more sense to have seen these two particular graveyards handled by a Registered Professional Archaeologist &/or Physical Anthropologist, however the developer, in this case, side-stepped the Department of Historic Resources THIS time around with these two particular pieces of property since they had been threatened with a lawsuit (see file CL2000-102-Hanover records)for the very two same pieces of property and a stop-order was issued then by the Dept.of Historic Resources. The judge who recused himself then is the VERY same judge who signed the court order. It's all in the records.

I ran across this article today from the Roanoke Times, Monday, Feb. 9, 1998:

Bill broaches human remains issue

" The unearthing of 10 bodies at a Roanoke city industrial park last year has led state officials to question the adequacy of state laws designed to protect human remains.

Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, has introduced a bill requesting a study of state laws governing the disturbance of cemeteries. The bill has already been approved by a subcommittee of the House Rules Committee and will be boted on by the full committee this month.

Woodrum introduced the bill at the request of officials with the Roanoke Preservation Foundation.

George Kegley, a member of the foundation's board of directors, said he believes Virginia should require a permit for anyone wishing to disinter and relocate bodies.

The foundation becomae concerned after members of the Oliver family, who lived in Roanoke during the 18th and 19th centuries, were discovered on land the city had purchased for its Centre for Industry and Technology.

One body had been moved several years earlier when the land was originally sold to the city, but no further research had been done to make sure that no others remained.

"It wasn't handled very well," Kegley said. "There should have been more study." Kegley noted that Georgia requires a permit for disinterment, and archaeological experts must participate in moving the remains.

If approved, the study would be done by the Department of Historic Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Their recommendations would be submitted to the 1999 session of the General Assembly - Christina Nuckols"

Perhaps people in your community can get this law or a similar bill passed so that cemeteries in VA will be afforded the same protection as Georgia's.

Kristin Wilson

http://cnn.usnews.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=717948417

Perhaps CNN would like to come to Hanover County & cover this story since our local newspaper in Mechanicsville doesn't seem to want to.