Estimated 7,000 bodies may be buried at former asylum

[rangerrebew]

Estimated 7,000 bodies may be buried at former asylum
May 23, 2018
by Sarah Mearhoff
 

In this May 9, 2018 photo taken in Starkville, Miss., Mississippi State University anthropologist Molly Zuckerman holds a portion of a mandible extracted from one of the graves unearthed at what was the graveyard of the Mississippi State Asylum in Jackson, Miss. The jaw at left, is from another dig and is used for scale. Officials in Mississippi believe the remains of as many as 7,000 former patients at the asylum could be lying in an empty, grassy field on the university campus. In May 2016, university officials established a consortium to exhume the remains and study them. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Some of the boxes stacked inside anthropologist Molly Zuckerman's laboratory contain full bones—a skull, a jaw, or a leg. Others contain only plastic bags of bone fragments that Zuckerman describes as "grit."

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-05-bodies-asylum.html

[Sighlass]

Well that is depressing.

[TomSea]

7,000 is an estimate, I will be curious to see what the real number will be.

Also, there have been, unfortunately, similar finds in the past with institutions such as reform schools and prisons.  This is not the first time.

[Sanguine]

So far the exhumed remains of 66 people are housed at Zuckerman's lab. Zuckerman said the patients were laid to rest with respect in individual coffins. Their unmarked graves and lack of personal effects were common burial practices for the time, she said.

It was in operation for 80 years.