Teens Work with the Office of State Archaeology
Student interns Mar)' Grayson Brook and Catherine Ambrose spent the 2010—201 1
school year and part of the summer processing artifacts excavated from what was possibly
the final resting place of Joel Lane, the “Father of Raleigh.” The girls, along with
Catherine’s grandmother, Judith Ambrose, were volunteers at the now-closed Office of
State Archaeology Research Center (OSARC), where artifacts from state historic sites,
N.C. Department of Transportation projects, the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, and
other agencies are carefully processed and stored. Last fall they were presented with five
boxes containing artifacts in need of cleaning, sorting, and processing according to current
archival standards. The artifacts were excavated in the late 1960s from an area of Raleigh
believed to have been the site of the Joel Lane family burials, now the parking lot of
Moonlight Pizza.
The collection included a total of 877 artifacts, some of which sparked their interest.
“There are four bricks that were put under coffins to pull the lowering ropes back up,”
Ambrose says. “There was a small interesting glass bead also.” “The hamionica plate was
interesting, though it was probably not Joel Lane’s,” Brook observes. “It was the front
plate of a harmonica with writing on it. It’s nice to pinpoint what something is.” Accord¬
ing to project director Amanda Bullman, the collection also included ceramics, glass, shells,
roofing tiles, nails, metal fragments, and even part of a vinyl record.
Even after hundreds of hours in the lab, at the library, the State Archives, and the
Office of State Archaeology, and after visits to the Raleigh City Cemetery and Joel Lane
House Museum, questions remain about whether this is the Lane family burial site. "Don’t
expect to find out anything definite,” advises Brook. And from Ambrose, “There’s evi¬
dence for and against.” While none of the artifacts in this collection could be directly
linked to Joel Lane, some of them, such as the vinyl record fragment and some of the nails,
could be excluded, having been manufactured after Lane’s death in 1795.
Judith Ambrose has looked at many artifacts over her years volunteering at OSARC,
but found this project particularly rewarding. “It’s interesting to pick up where someone
left off, and to wonder who’s continuing the work. We have a plot of where the earlier
archaeologists found the graves, with the different sizes and locations. One thing can lead
to more questions and raise more possibilities.” The artifacts are stored and labeled in the
OSARC lab, which is maintained by the Office of State Archaeology.
On August 5, 201 1, Catherine and Mary Grayson presented their findings during a
program sponsored by the Joel Lane House Museum followed by dinner at Moonlight
Pizza, the very spot from which the collection originated. The girls have since been asked
to speak at Archaeology Days and even to publish their story and findings in a local maga¬
zine. “It’s been humbling, wonderful and enriching to work with the girls,” Judith
Ambrose shares. "The future is in good hands.” Mary Grayson Brook is now a freshman at
UNC-Chapel Hill. Catherine Ambrose is a junior at Enloe High School in Raleigh. They
both say they will find ways to continue working with history or archaeology.
Catherine Ambrose is standing beside boxes
from the completely processed Joel Lane
House archaeological collection.
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