Much of what separates the good historic sites from the bad is an approach of stewardship rather than social justice. Do the leadership, staff, donors, and partners of a historic site desire to educate citizens on their nation’s past, or transform visitors and the country through activism? How Colonial Williamsburg, the world’s largest living history museum, answers this question will determine its course.
Image: Jack Gary
Despite the amount of history that sits atop its soil, plenty of stories remain buried below Colonial Williamsburg. One of those stories is that of the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, an early Black church that stood until the 1950s on the historic site, on which excavations began last fall. Now, archaeologists have found human remains on the site; further assurance that the team was digging in the right place, and a step towards being able to connect those interred residents of the past with today’s descendant community.
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Announced in a community meeting this week, the found remains include a human tooth and probable finger bone, alongside a trove of other fragmentary bones that are harder to attribute to any one species. Animal bones were also found on the site, which is currently an approximately 400-square-foot (37-square-meter) area on the west side of Colonial Williamsburg, at the intersection of Francis
Human Remains Unearthed Where Colonial Williamsburg s First Black Church Once Stood gizmodo.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gizmodo.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.