Bronx Archaeology, Fall 2000
Although history and literature
provide us with intimate details of the lives of our powerful and/or literate
ancestors, archaeology is unique among academic disciplines in that its findings
reveal the past lives of humans whether they were patricians or plebeians.
More often than not, archaeologists reveal the lives of common people whose
activities are documented nowhere except in the physical residues dug up under
layers of dirt and debris.
In 1985, Dr. Allan Gilbert,
an anthropology professor at Fordham, began digging near Collins Hall in hopes
of uncovering the remnants of the Rose Hill Manor House dating originally
from the 17th century. He and Dr. Roger Wines, a history professor, have spent
the last 15 years sorting and conserving the thousands of items recovered
from the site.
This semester the library
is exhibiting some of the results of their digs as well as artifacts from
other archaeological sites in The Bronx, chiefly from the Van Cortlandt Mansion
and the various sites worked by Dr. Theodore Kazimiroff, founder of The Bronx
Historical Society.
The farmhouse that eventually
became the Rose Hill Manor was built in 1694, serving as the main residence
of the various owners of Rose Hill Farm until 1839, when Archbishop Hughes
purchased the site for his new college and seminary. The house was well known
in the area and, according to a plaque placed near the site, was used by James
Fenimore Cooper as the setting for his 1821 novel, The Spy. Until it was razed
in 1896, it was used by St. John's College as an infirmary, a Jesuit novitiate,
and as a residence for Jesuit brothers and other college workers. The exhibition
contains examples of scholarly tools: pens, pencils, slates, ink bottles,
etc.; dishes and other tableware; toys and games such as marbles, dominoes,
dice, etc.; personal items: anti-lice combs, toothbrushes, medicine bottles,
and so on; religious medals; and hardware from the building itself.
Items from the aboriginal
and colonial Bronx have been borrowed for the exhibit from the New York City
Parks Department, which stores the bulk of the Kazimiroff collection. Kazimiroff
was a local area dentist and amateur archaeologist, who amassed an enormous
collection of finds from numerous Bronx locations. Though the artifacts are
uncataloged and their original sites uncertain, the collection was saved from
destruction at a time of vigorous development when nothing of historical interest
was being preserved. Much has changed since the 1940's and 50's when the likes
of Robert Moses tore through The Bronx obliterating the past with expressways
and housing projects. Since the 1960's, when legislation was passed mandating
exploration prior to destruction, large construction sites must be examined
for potential archaeological sites before construction begins.
In 1990-92, the Brooklyn
College Summer Archeological Field School, directed by Professor H. Arthur
Bankoff, excavated at the Van Cortlandt Mansion in Van Cortlandt Park, unearthing,
among other things, a spectacular cache of ceramic and glass objects. They
are valuable not only for their beauty but also for the sense of 18th and
19th century upper class life in The Bronx they conjure. These items have
been stored at Brooklyn College but are being returned to the Mansion. In
the meantime, Laura Correa, the Van Cortlandt Mansion curator, has agreed
to lend a selection of items to Fordham for this exhibit. Professors Gilbert
and Wines have organized this exhibit in the hopes of raising public awareness
of the importance of maintaining the integrity of archaeological sites. Amateurs
who remove objects from their context reduce their value and erase any knowledge
they could have supplied us of our own history.
Article by: James P. McCabe,
University Librarian
