Connecticut College is doing a geophysical study on part of its campus to search for Indigenous settlement remains.
In 1981, a burial ground was uncovered at the school’s lower athletic field, located on the banks of the River Thames.
Dr. David Leslie is from a company called TerraSearch Geophysical, and has been using high tech tools to scan the area.
“We don’t know if any other Indigenous sites or activity or burials exist on this landform and so Connecticut College has been working with the Connecticut State Preservation Office to find a way to at least invasively map these remains to see if they’re here,” Leslie said. “That’s what we’re doing, using geophysical methods including ground penetrating radar and magnetometry, two different but complementary methods that allow us to see beneath the soil.”
The project is led by the college’s associate professor of anthropology and college archaeologist along with a team of undergraduate students, including archeology major Francis Sesenaya.
Sesenaya said archeology has come a long way from just digging things up.
“Archaeology can sometimes be kind of destructive,” Sesenaya said. “And with this it allows us to be less destructive and allows us to really do the things that we want to do, or need to do, without potentially harming somebody's culture and leaving another harmful lasting impact.”
The school will use the results from the survey to map any sacred areas and avoid future building or maintenance in the area.
