Arent they supposed to leave remains alone when they discover they are building a new building on a cemetery??? YEs, have heard of gently relocating small cemeteries, with permission, prior to some construction, but this?? Unearthing 105 sets of remains?? And several are expected to be slave remains? Sorry, but having a “Respectful re-interment” seems insufficient. http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2017-03-20/uga-ceremony-honors-likely-slave-remains-removed-campus-construction-site
UGA has a lot of land. Couldn’t they have explored another option?
Honestly, I don’t know what the best thing is to do in such circumstances. Research into their lives, absolutely. (They may be able to trace descendents through the DNA.) Definitely respectful reinterrment, but where? It’s not clear to me whether they realized the building was going to be on top of a graveyard.
I am curious about the presence of people of European and Asian descent in the same graveyard.
It does not sound like it was a surprise. And inadvertently unearthing a few… maybe that’s understandable. But 105? And where were these remains kept for the year and a half between their being unearthed and re-interred? Auditing classes?
(sorry-- just trying to find some way to lighten this up. Its pretty disturbing, IMO.)
you know it is just bones. what is the big deal? they have been there for 150-160 or more years? the university can not just stop evolving. is it .of historic interest sure, should the bones just be tossed in the trash?(no) but what do you actually want? in most of asia, africia, rthe middle east if every time they found remains they did not finish a project large areas would just be bone yards.
unless you are a religious person, surely you understand their is nothing more than remnants of former living beings. what more do you want? perhaps because I do not believe in religion I do not attach extra emphasis on bone fragments but I think the university did more than it’s obligation. I do not even know the names of my great grandparents and never met them. let alone ancestors from 150-160-200 or more years ago. if you knocked on my door and said we have DNA proof that some person buried at a certain place is your great great great great great great grandfather…I would ask you how you have my DNA …I would not suddenly feel some connection to the person who died prior to the civil war. make no mistake I am not against preserving historic buildings and artifacts but I also think the school needs to keep moving forward.
@zobroward That’s disrespectful! Maybe you don’t know your great grandparents but plenty of us especially of African descent do. My oldest great grandmother was born in 1898 she died the year I had my first child in the nineties. I knew all four of my great grandmothers, the last one passing when I was 30. My last great grandfather didn’t pass until I was in my late thirties so my kids actually knew their great great granddad. They still have one great grandma living, and my kids are grown. My point being is that southern blacks often were married very early so our great and great great grandparents were not just some history we actually knew them.
the fact that there are remnants left is of historic interest(buried prior to 1855) but they are not living…(if these were living people and the school tried to seize their land with Eminent domain… .I would 100% disagree with the school) if you are religious or spiritual ok fine, but I am not. I know people who have passed away and I think of them everyday, but I do not think that remains are now and forever sacred. when I go they can use me as a med school cadaver and when they are done…toss me in the recycling bin(not literally that would be a bio hazard) when people are alive we should do everything to keep them healthy , happy and safe. but I do not subscribe to remains as being somehow sacred or that their will be a poltergeist or something. I know many people do not see things the same way. but to each his own.IMO the school reburying them is sufficient.
I fail to see what is wrong with moving the bones to a cemetery when the graves were unmarked. It’s not as if there relocated a cemetery for a building project.
The graves were unmarked because the people were not valued by anyone other than their immediate relatives.
They were disinterred in a building project. I don’t know why this parcel was selected for the building project.
There are some prime parcels in Boston that could be built on if it weren’t for those pesky colonial ancestors. Somehow it seems wrong to move them. How is the case in Georgia different?
also “The graves were unmarked because the people were not valued by anyone other than their immediate relatives.”
what are you basing that on? a cemetery that closed 5 years before the civil war could have easily had marked graves and after not being maintained for 160 years no longer be marked. there are many formerly marked and now unknown graves all over the unites states and the world. it is not because somebody who passed away 200 years ago is of any more or less value.
I read elsewhere that any resident of Athens could be buried there for free, and that the monuments ranged from none to elaborate marble. Very egalitarian. It was eventually closed for lack of space.
I was surprised that black and white people were buried in the same cemetary. How common was this in antebellum Georgia?
An interesting discussion. If archaeologist from another country were excavating the grave site, would we have a problem? I say this as we in the west do this to other cultures and in other countries without regard or as we would say, to further our knowledge.
@zobroward - the article you linked says the Boston church will not give permission to remove/relocate remains
There is a big difference, IMO, between a planned archeological dig, and piling 105 remains in some storage unit or what have you for a year and a half or so while a university builds an expansion on a KNOWN cemetery. UGA owns 39,723 acres, with 762 located at the main campus. Surely they could have managed to build elsewhere and allow the cemetery to remain intact.
IMO, @ zobroward, your perspective seems heartless. Allowing your remains to serve as a cadaver for some med school might devoid some students of part of their cardiovascular training.