In the 1950’s, the vast majority of graves were not exhumed to be moved because those responsible deemed it impossible, or at least prohibitively expensive, and there were no agencies in a position to hold them accountable. They moved a few hundred headstones but claimed that the whole cemetery had been moved.

In our archaeological excavation in the 2010s, our only goal was to identify the presence and condition of existing graves, and not to fully exhume or disturb the burials.

We first utilized historic maps to identify the boundaries of the burial ground. Then, in areas that we still had access to, excavated small pits at first, and then expanded them when they appeared to contain grave shafts. We also used a technique called Ground Penetrating Radar to detect grave shafts across large parts of the site without having to excavate at all.

Aside from modern debris that was encountered at the top of the excavations, we recovered mostly fragments of hardware from coffins. The excavations came down on the side of the burial shafts when possible, which meant that handles, nails, and hinges were the main artifacts recovered.

The artifacts are currently being curated in the archaeology laboratory at the University of Baltimore.