March 12th Quarterly Meeting

Time: 1:30pm

Location: St. John's Episcopal Church 76 Market Street in Salem, New Jersey

At the March 12th meeting Kimberlee Moran returns and will discuss Forensic Archaeology, anthropology, and The First Baptist Church of Philadelphia’s Burial Ground.

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In November of 2016, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about bones found at a construction site on Arch Street.  The Mutter Institute, as a collaborative research organization associated with the study of historic human remains, approached the property developer with an interest to learn more about the bones found at the site.  What ensued was a race-against-time excavation at 218 Arch Street, part of the First Baptist Church cemetery supposedly moved in 1860, and a continuing analysis of the people buried there between 1707 and 1859.  This presentation will provide an overview of the project, what is currently known about the site and the recovered human remains, and how techniques commonly used by forensic archaeologists and anthropologist have aided the work of our multi-disciplinary team.

Kimberlee Sue Moran has been a practicing forensic archaeologist since 2002. She holds an undergraduate degree in Classical and Near Eastern archaeology from Bryn Mawr College and a Master’s of Science in forensic archaeological science from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.   Her doctoral research is in the field of ancient fingerprints.  Kimberlee worked as a contract archaeologist for a CRM firm based in Trenton, NJ, prior to moving to the UK.  She moved back to New Jersey in 2010 and now works at Rutgers-Camden.  She is an active member of the Society for American Archaeology and is a member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA).