ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702030004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press GLOUCESTER
ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARE continuing excavation work inadvertently begun by a gopher. The yield so far: 60 graves and evidence of an early plantation.
A major excavation will be conducted at a long-forgotten Gloucester County graveyard that was discovered when a gopher was cleaning out its burrow.
``We didn't have to dig,'' said Alain Outlaw, chief archaeologist for the company that found the graveyard in 1993 while surveying a 516-acre site purchased for a commercial landfill.
Outlaw is studying the site under contract with Waste Management Disposal Services of Virginia, which operates the landfill.
According to Outlaw, the gopher carried some human bones to the surface. The bones, plus an unusually large cluster of day lilies that often mark former cemeteries, prompted archaeologists to probe beneath the topsoil.
There they found about 60 graves, some of which may date back to the late 1600s, Outlaw said.
Evidence of an early plantation also turned up around the graveyard. Outlaw estimated the area where traces of buildings have been found is several hundred square feet.
Archaeologists are still removing pieces of artifacts and mapping the area to be excavated. The human remains are being examined by bone experts at the Smithsonian Institution.
Outlaw said the bones will be reinterred this summer at a new location on the property, where a monument will be erected.
Greg A. Enterline, Waste Management's division president and general manager of the landfill, said the company hopes to develop a permanent exhibit about the findings, which include earthenware shards, pieces of arch-topped coffins and other artifacts.
Traces of buildings, some possibly slaves' quarters, and other features such as a brick-making circle, a kiln and a trash pit lead Outlaw to believe the site offers ``a rare opportunity to fully study in detail a changing rural landscape.''
Outlaw said the site has been relatively undisturbed since it was bought by Chesapeake Forest Products Co. in 1954. Chesapeake harvested timber from the property but didn't disturb the land beneath the topsoil, he said.
Land records show that about 200 acres, including a plantation and cemetery, were owned by Joseph and Elizabeth Thrift in 1825.
Wendell L. Johnston Sr., 76, a Thrift descendant who has done research of the family's roots, has visited the site.
``I'm real excited about it,'' he said of the planned excavation. ``Of course it's sad that they had to open the graves, but they're handling it very considerately.''
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