Skeleton From 1660s Found Stuffed in Basement Grave

March 31, 2005 - 6:37am

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Archaeologists working at a site near Annapolis say they've found what may be the region's first discovery of a 17th-century basement burial.

The well-preserved remains of a teenager were found in a small grave beneath some rubbish along a basement wall of a Puritan house dating from the 1660s.

Experts aren't sure why the body was placed in a cellar grave.

A forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History, Douglas Owsley, says the young man was about 16 and was 5-foot-5. He suffered from tuberculosis and worked so hard that he had herniated discs and other back injuries.

An infection in his rotting teeth might have caused his death. He had 19 cavities.

The well-preserved remains point to an indentured servant whose master owned the house in the 1660s, experts say.

The Public Broadcasting Service's TV series "History Detectives" plans to feature a segment on the skeleton in a Sept. 27 show.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Archaeologists working at a site near Annapolis say they've found what may be the region's first discovery of a 17th-century basement burial.

The well-preserved remains of a teenager were found in a small grave beneath some rubbish along a basement wall of a Puritan house dating from the 1660s.

Experts aren't sure why the body was placed in a cellar grave.

An infection in his rotting teeth might have caused his death. He had 19 cavities.

The well-preserved remains point to an indentured servant whose master owned the house in the 1660s, experts say.

The Public Broadcasting Service's TV series "History Detectives" plans to feature a segment on the skeleton in a Sept. 27 show.

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