Grand Bahama
Archaeological testing of Freetown Cemetery & Reconnaissance of Freetown
By Daniel T. Elliott
Aug 20, 2008 - 4:34:44 AM

LAMAR Institute photos. Test Unit from Cemetery

In September, 2007, the LAMAR Institute dispatched a team (Dan and Rita Elliott) to Grand Bahama Island to conduct archaeological work on the Freetown Cemetery and Freetown settlement. This project was divided into two phases. The primary goal was to “ground truth” the results from an earlier Ground Penetrating Radar survey of the Freetown cemetery and its surroundings that was conducted in July, 2007 by Dean Goodman and Kent Schneider. 

This phase consisted of creating a detailed topographic map of the site and all above-ground cultural features and excavation of nine 2 m by 1 m test units on a variety of features and non-feature areas.  The second phase of the project was a brief reconnaissance of the Freetown settlement, which is an abandoned settlement located west of the cemetery. This village, which is thought to date to the 1830s and lasting into the 1960s, consists of a series of ruins and archaeological deposits now vegetated in jungle.

Editor's Note: this study was found on a blog written by Daniel Elliott.

The LAMAR Institute technical report on these investigations is available in .pdf format by clicking below:

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