Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Funerary Hardware and Material Culture from the Historic Cemetery (ca. 1702–1859) of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia

The historic burial ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia was uncovered in the winter of 2016–2017 during development of an urban lot in downtown Philadelphia. Burial records indicate its use from ca. 1702 to 1859. In 1860 the cemetery was contracted to be relocated. The skeletal remains of approximately 500 individuals, along with associated funerary goods, including coffins and coffin furniture (hardware and handles or fittings), were recovered during the archaeological excavations. This represents a large portion of the original cemetery and provides important information about colonial and postcolonial funerary practice in early Philadelphia. This article introduces the project and provides a preliminary description of associated artifacts, thus offering details of 18th- and 19th-century funerary practices from an integrated burial ground in Philadelphia. The uniquely varied hardware assemblage is perhaps consequent of the burial ground’s ideological or ancestral diversity.