AN OSTEOBIOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FOSCUE PLANTATION BURIAL VAULT, POLLOCKSVILLE, JONES COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

Abstract

In 2010, an early nineteenth-century vault was excavated on Foscue Plantation in eastern North Carolina as part an of ongoing archaeological research project. According to historical records, three individuals were interred in the vault, Simon Foscue, Sr., Simon Foscue, Jr., and his wife Christiana "Kitty" Rhem Foscue. The lack of research on elite nineteenth-century rural populations in eastern North Carolina meant that remains recovered from the vault could provide valuable information on their life histories beyond historical documents, including health, diet, disease, and burial practices. Excavation of the vault in fact revealed nine individuals: 1 adult male and 4 adult females, a 3 year (± 12 months) old child, and three preterm fetuses, two of which likely were twins. The estimated age of the fetuses suggests that one of the young females interred may have died eight months pregnant. With the use of historical sources and biological data, three of these individuals have been tentatively identified. The absence of some individuals in the vault could have been the result of later internment in the vault during a period of poor record-keeping or undiscovered records. Initial paleopathology analysis indicates that the childhood and adult health of these individuals is notably better when compared to slave and free landowning individuals in other areas of the Eastern seaboard. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis provide further insight into rural antebellum diets. The detailed osteobiographies presented in this study, along with the historical documents, provide a renewed picture of a cross-section of a rural plantation-owning family in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century eastern North Carolina.