Nick Bellantoni, state archaeologist emeritus of the Connecticut Museum of Natural History, will discuss his preliminary findings on the human skeletal remains recently found in Ridgefield when he presents the talk, “Excavation and Imaging of Possible Revolutionary War Soldiers from the Battle of Ridgefield,” from 6-7 p.m. on Monday, March 2, in the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, MNH 101, at Quinnipiac University, 370 Bassett Rd. This talk is free and open to the public.
Bellantoni will discuss the history of the battle, the excavation process and the results of the early stages of the X-ray analysis of the bones, which were first discovered last December during a home renovation project in Ridgefield. They are believed to be from four Revolutionary War soldiers.
In early January, the first set of remains was brought to Quinnipiac, where a team of researchers and students from the Bioanthropology Research Institute examined them, using the university’s imaging technology and anthropological expertise. The Quinnipiac research team recently examined the other sets of remains as well.
“The team’s expertise in interpreting the images will provide more scientific information from the skeletal remains and material culture than we could ever possibly derive from simple gross morphology,” said Bellantoni. “They may represent the first American Revolutionary War battlefield graves ever uncovered by archaeologists in situ, that is, without having been previously disturbed.”
For more information, call 203-582-8652.