The excavation at the site of the original St. Ferdinand Church in Florissant,
Missouri, is now at the halfway point. Here's a summary of the first week's
events.

Although the stormy weather of the past few days posed a bit of a challenge for
the excavators, but even the hailstorm Thursday afternoon didn't slow them down
very much. The site has a gentle slope which encourages drainage and the crew's
had enough advance warning on the storms that they've been able to get
everything covered up in time to avoid any harm to the units.

The first six excavation units, each measuring one meter by two meters, were
opened up along an 18 meter line running from east to west. Before the
excavators had gone down even three meters, three of those units revealed
full-sized caskets. Two of the caskets have iron sides and one is wood, probably
cedar. One of the iron caskets has small lead rosettes attached in regular
intervals around the top edge. The caskets are all laid out with head toward the
north. The manufacturing styles are typical of mid-19th century Victorian
America.

There is also evidence of three other burial shafts; mostly denoted by changes
in soil coloration, plus fragments of pottery that seem to indicate that each
area has been dug up and refilled some time in the distant past.

The caskets aren't a complete surprise, since there is substantial historical
documentation that the cemetery was in use for about 40 years after the church
burned in 1836. It's conceivable that at some point, possibly years after time
and the elements had erased all above-ground traces of the church, parishoners
may have started burying their loved ones in the area once occupied by the
church. The surprising thing is the shallowness of the caskets; the deepest of
the three little less than one meter deep. Although erosion could be one
explanation for this, it would not explain the deeper shafts. A more likely
theory is that there may be multiple caskets within the same burial shaft, one
on top of the other.

That, however, is a question that must remain unanswered. The purpose of this
project is to learn as much as we can about the original St. Ferdinand Church,
NOT disturb the people who are buried there. As archaeologists, professional and
amateur, we have the utmost respect for these remains and have no intention of
disrupting them. Only the top few centimeters of the caskets have been exposed
BS Rhe units will remain open long enough to adequately record their locations
and details, then they will be recovered, the contents of the burials intact and
untouched.

In an attempt to avoid more burials, the archaeologists moved several meters to
the north and opened a seventh unit. Less than 25 centimeters down, however,
they uncovered the top of a fourth casket. This one is oriented like the others
with the foot to the south and is also made of iron. It may have been originally
painted white and is only about a meter long, so it is quite likely holds the
remains of a small child.

Although sad, a child's casket is also not surpising; research at the local
library has turned up a five-page list of burials in the cemetery from 1792 to
1840. A quick scan down the list shows several infants and children -- a clear
indication of the period's higher infant mortality rate.

As an excavation proceeds, archaeologists often have to make adjustments to
their original plans. As a result, the eighth and ninth units have been placed a
few meters south of the original row of units, closer to what used to be Rue de
St. Louis. Almost immediately, these units yielded several fist-sized chunks of
limestone, a few square nails, some burnt glass, and lots of pottery fragments.
The limestone may have been used as chinking between the logs of a building and
a number of the pottery fragments have details that place their manufacture
around the late 18th to early 19th centuries. All these are encouraging signs
that a structure of some kind (hopefully, the church) once stood there.

The web page for this project is still under construction, but it's vey close to
coming online and will contain numerous photos of the excavation.

The excavation will resume this Wednesday, June 2, and will be open to the
public from 9am to 5pm through Sunday, June 6. The turnout so far has been
wonderful and, if you haven't yet been able to do so, I do hope you'll find time
to visit the site yourself. The professionals and volunteers are working very
well together, although after only one full day in the field, I feel more like
an ache-ologist than an archaeologist (even my hat is sore), but in my personal
opinion, the experience of working on this project has made each and every
little ache and pain worth it.

The excavation is located on the St. Ferdinand Street side of the Park, just a
few blocks away from the St. Ferdinand Shrine (for those of you who know the
area, St. Ferdinand Street turns into Graham Road a few blocks to the south).
There's no parking on St. Ferdinand Street, but there should be plenty of space
available along St. Charles Street, just one short block to the west (not to the
east as I mis-stated in my last message -- I'm not dyslexic, by the way, just
"navigationally challenged").

For more information about the St. Ferdinand Excavation project, please contact
me (info below) or Gretchen Crank at gdcrank@..., 838-5085 or 795-6306.
We've decided to set aside ten or fifteen minutes between Tuesday night's
business meeting and lecture at the History Museum in Forest Park for Joe Harl
to give us another update and answer a few questions. The business meeting will
still start at 6:30pm and will finish before 7pm. The lecture, featuring
professor of archaeology and fellow Mound Citizen Dr. Tim Baumann, has been
pushed back just a few minutes to make room for Joe's report.

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

Greg

Greg Paulus
President, Mound City Archaeological Society
bgpaulus@... or greg@...
(314) 704-3507