On Monday, archaeologists testing the soil for new utility lines in NYC’s Washington Square Park made an increasingly humdrum discovery: they found a bunch of human bones—enough, reportedly, to comprise two full skeletons. The Parks Department says that bones were also unearthed on one of three previous excavations. This comes as little surprise—an estimated 20,000 bodies repose beneath the park.
In the late 1700’s, long before the park became the ultimate destination to mobilize for various political rallies, cop nickel bags of oregano or engage in a round of ghetto chess, it functioned as a mass burial ground as the yellow fever epidemic (as well as other diseases) decimated the city’s burgeoning population. The park would go on to have a long and morbid affiliation with death: throughout the turn of the 19th century it was the sight of a public gallows where a great many African slaves, indentured Irish, highwaymen and assorted unfortunates saw their demise. It was also a designated dueling ground, before the practice was outlawed in 1828.
Park officials say that the bones will be subject to a forensic investigation before proper reburial. If finding bones in the heart of NYC hasn’t caused much of a stir, it’s because one can often find much more macabre things on the city’s streets (and still not be very shocked).
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