Excavation continues at the possible site of the Bray School on the Virginia campus of the College of William and Mary. The school was founded in 1760 for the education of African-American children. Archaeologists have uncovered a brick-lined well and evidence of a structure that may have been the school’s kitchen. Slate pencils and marbles have also been recovered. “What fascinates me is how this could have been forgotten. William and Mary is the first college or university in America to concern itself with educating blacks,” said English professor Terry Meyers.

Connecticut’s state archaeologist Nicholas F. Bellantoni unearthed the remains of Albert Afraid of Hawk, a Sioux Indian from South Dakota who died of botulism poisoning at Danbury Hospital while traveling with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1900. Bob Young of the Danbury Historical Society recently found a record of his burial and contacted his descendants in South Dakota. Mr. Afraid of Hawk’s remains will be reburied at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Low water levels in the Missouri River revealed The Montana, a wooden steamboat that was built in 1882. The Montanawas the largest vessel to travel the Missouri River until in sank in 1884 after striking an underwater tree.

A year after wildfires burned 93,000 acres in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wildness, Forest Service archaeologists are finding stone tools that could be 9,000 years old on the vegetation-free ground. “It’s interesting because you see that landscape similar to what it was like after the glaciers receded; really open landscape and you can imagine what it looked like as tundra,” said archaeologist Lee Johnson.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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