Speaker Series: Coffin Hardware and Burial Identification - Case Studies from the Bethel Cemetery Relocation Project

Coffin Hardware and Burial Identification: Case Studies from the Bethel Cemetery Relocation Project

Despite its immense potential for temporal, stylistic, and socioeconomic data, coffin hardware analyses have been inconsistently utilized in archaeological cemetery relocations. This is partially due to the dearth of primary resources for this particular type of material culture. However, the largest hurdle has been the lack of marked and robustly dated burials that provide archaeologists the context needed to better understand hardware usage through time. The Bethel Cemetery Relocation Project, which included over a hundred burials associated with extant grave markers, provided an opportunity for a more comprehensive analysis of coffin hardware types and stylistic trends, which in turn allowed the archaeological team to identify over a dozen unmarked internments. During this talk, Dr. Drew will discuss the different types of coffin hardware found at Bethel Cemetery, explain how she was able to identify and date them, and provide several case studies from the excavation.  

Brooke L. Drew, Ph.D. (she/her)

NAGPRA Coordinator

Anthropology Collections Manager

Affiliate Faculty

Earth and Environmental Systems

Indiana State University

Tickets are $10. Speaker Series is held in our Gothic Chapel, reached through our 34th Street Gothic Gate entrance at 3402 Blvd. Place, Indpls.