Graves likely present at planned dorm site, but excavation is needed to confirm, CofC survey says By Kailey Cota 4 hrs ago CHARLESTON — A radar survey of the site where the College of Charleston plans to build a freshman residence hall indicated that graves are likely present underground, even though no “obvious grave shafts” were identified.
The goal of the survey was to learn more about what’s under 106 Coming St., though all findings are speculative until the area is excavated and the ground is physically examined.
The survey was conducted before the former YWCA building on the site was demolished, so it could not collect data where the building was, or where other objects, like walls, vegetation or concrete car stops were located. It will take a site excavation to confirm whether anomalies are graves and if there is even more than the radar could pick up on.
The site is where a municipal cemetery operated during the final years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The college plans to remove the asphalt parking lot that covers the majority of the site sometime after Oct. 25, a spokesperson confirmed. It will then conduct another radar survey before beginning excavation.
Survey findings Associate professor M. Scott Harris used radar technology to survey the ground below 106 Coming St. in February. The results were made public this fall.
Harris found more than 175 anomalies, including two dozen he interpreted to be possible graves, according to a findings report. Other anomalies are likely utilities, historic structures, cisterns and wells, according to the report.
The portion of the report that was posted publicly is partially redacted to exclude specific information about where the possible human remains are located. The college said that is in accordance with the state’s permit conditions.
“This standard practice protects the dignity of the site, prevents unauthorized disturbance or looting and maintains the scientific integrity of the ongoing archaeological process,” spokesperson Christine Mahoney said.
This was the second time experts have deployed radar technology from above the ground to try to learn more about what is under the site. The first survey couldn’t discern if the anomalies it found were graves.
It’s to be expected that these scans, which are done through pavement and compacted soil, would produce inconclusive results, according to a statement director of public affairs, Sam Spence, provided on behalf of the Preservation Society of Charleston. More than 70 skeletal remains were discovered on King Street last year after a similar scan had also been inconclusive, the preservation organization noted.
“Given that this project is virtually unprecedented in the sheer scale of human remains proposed for displacement, it is appropriate for the community to continue to ask critical questions of the college and other public officials about the process,” the Preservation Society of Charleston said.
Historians have estimated that thousands of people, including transient visitors, poor residents, orphaned children and enslaved and free people of African descent, could have been buried at the site.
Even though it was redeveloped since the cemetery closed in the early 1800s, historical records indicate some, if not all, of the graves could have remained undisturbed.
The “unknown but not forgotten” people buried there will be honored during a commemorative gathering Oct. 24.
Time for prayer and private reflections will begin at 10 a.m. before the ceremony commences at 11 a.m. It will include libation, drumming, singing and dancing, according to a social media post shared online.
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