“They Even Threaten the Sick That They Will Not Be Buried in the Churchyard”: Salvage Archaeology of the Raritan-in-the-Hills Cemetery, Somerset County, New Jersey

Abstract

This article discusses the chance discovery and subsequent salvage archaeology of an early-18th-century German Lutheran burying ground in the mountains north of Pluckemin, somerset county, New Jersey. The project began purely as a salvage operation wrought by residential development; excavation techniques employed under less-than-ideal conditions and a description of the cemetery are presented. Documentary research revealed that the congregation had only lasted from ca. 1714 to 1756, during which time it endured a great deal of internal conflict. Osteological analysis permitted age/sex identification of most of the individuals interred in the cemetery, and the artifactual record provided an opportunity to explore some aspects of the burial practices employed. These data, together with observed variation in the location of individual graves within the cemetery, are used to formulate a possible interpretation that links the variations observed in the physical remnants of the cemetery with the historical record that speaks in detail about the social breakdown of the community during its brief 50-year existence. In brief, the interpretation offered here argues that the principal of social organization within Raritan-in-the-Hills shifted from one of corporate unity (Gemeinschaft) to individual survival (Geschellschaft) prior to its final dissolution.