Archaeologists unearth musket balls and fort linked to the Battle of Bunker Hill
BOSTON — Generations of Boston families played and picnicked on the grassy, sloping lawns of the Bunker Hill Monument.Musket balls and other artifacts from one of the American Revolution’s most consequential battles were buried just below their feet the whole time.Inspired by a centuries-old map, archaeologists have been digging in the park that sits on the site where American patriots hastily constructed an earthen fort to slow advancing British forces at what became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.Ground-penetrating radar identified potential locations for the fort in Boston’s Charlestown section.Soon after digging the first trench, the team led by Joe Bagley, the city of Boston’s archaeologist, found definitive signs of a ditch constructed hours before the battle on June 17, 1775, one of the first of the American Revolution.“The part that’s really crazy to me is that we get to stand in the same ditch,” said Bagley, standing over one of the two dig sites, where soil is removed about 4 inches (10 centimeters) at a time, put in buckets and filtered through screens.
Any items found are bagged up and identified.So far, the dig has uncovered musket balls and parts of a musket from the battle.They also found objects likely left behind by British troops who occupied the area after the battle — including tea cups, tobacco pipes, sleeve buttons and a wig curler.
There were nearly 150 combatants who died there, but no human remains have been found, though a forensic archaeologist is on site to identify any bones.“Everything about the ditch is from 1775.You’ve got musket balls, gun flints.
It’s what you would expect to see,” Bagley said.“It’s pretty powerful because these things are being dropped in the middle of the battle.”The start of the American Revolution is often associated with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, skirmishes fought on April 19, 1775.
But many scholars cite Bunker Hill and June 17 as the war’s first significant...