COLUMBUS, Ind. — Human and animal bones found at the construction site for Bartholomew County’s new court services center are being moved to the University of Indianapolis for further study.
“The remains could not be avoided by the project so they are being carefully removed by a qualified archaeological team for protection and analysis,” said Rachel Sharkey, a research archaeologist with the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
This team is from the University of Indianapolis, she said, which has been helping with the investigation.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is also involved in the investigation and has jurisdiction over remains that are found that are believed to pre-date 1939. DNR staff have also assisted with the removal process, which is still underway.
The next step is analysis at the university.
“They will determine how many individuals are represented, the ages and sex of those individuals if possible, and possibly be able to get a little more information on the date of the remains,” Sharkey said.
The human and animal bones will go through similar analysis, with species also being an area of focus for the latter.
For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
