Join us for a virtual presentation by Nick Bellantoni, Emeritus CT State Archaeologist about his new book, “And So The Tomb Remained”: Exploring Archaeology and Forensic Science Within Connecticut’s Historical Mausolea.

Stone and brick tombs were repositories for the physical remains of many of Connecticut’s wealthiest and influential families. The desire to be interred within burial vaults, rather than have their wooden coffins laid into the earth in direct contact with crushing soil burden, led many prominent families to construct large above-ground and semi-subterranean tombs, usually burrowed into the sides of hills as places of internment for their dead.

Included are the tombs of Elisha Pitkin, Center Cemetery, East Hartford; Gershom Bulkeley, Ancient Burying Ground, Colchester; Samuel Huntington, Norwichtown Burying Ground, Norwich, Henry Chauncey, Indian Hill Cemetery, Middletown; and, Edwin Denison Morgan, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford.
This presentation is based on the new book “And So The Tomb Remains…” telling of the former state archaeologist’s investigations into five 18/19th-century sepulchers while delving into family histories and genealogies, as well as archaeological and forensic sciences that helped identify the entombed.

Co-sponsored by the Avon Historical Society and Avon Library.