{"id":94957,"date":"2014-07-15T08:36:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T12:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=94957"},"modified":"2014-07-21T09:05:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T13:05:21","slug":"from-forgotten-graves-to-foreign-dictators-and-vampires-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/07\/from-forgotten-graves-to-foreign-dictators-and-vampires-too\/","title":{"rendered":"From Forgotten Graves to Foreign Dictators (and Vampires, Too)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"State<\/a>
State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni at the site of an archaeological dig. (Photo supplied by the State Museum of Natural History at UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As State Archaeologist with the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 1987 and a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology, Nicholas Bellantoni has been one of the most prominent faces of science in the state, tirelessly advocating for the preservation of historically important sites and speaking to schools, community groups, and the media about the blend of forensic science, history, and detective work that go into his job description.<\/p>\n

Now, as he prepares for his retirement this summer (\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to actually writing some of this down,\u201d he jokes), Bellantoni took some time in his office \u2013 half archaeologist\u2019s nest, half shrine to Frank Sinatra \u2013 to reflect on some of his most memorable projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to narrow down everything I\u2019ve had a chance to work on into a few highlights,\u201d he says. \u201cSooner or later, though, everyone asks about Hitler and the vampires.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vampires: of course. But there\u2019s much more to the work of a state archaeologist than creatures of the night, as Bellantoni explains:<\/p>\n

The Repatriation of Albert Afraid of Hawk<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bellantoni<\/a>
State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni discusses skeletal remains with students at an archaeology field school session. (UConn File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Nicholas Bellantoni came to the University of Connecticut in 1979 as a graduate student, he didn\u2019t imagine he\u2019d spend the next 35 years here, let alone that his research would lead to projects that ranged from the repatriation of Native American remains to the examination of a skull fragment supposedly belonging to Adolf Hitler, and countless stops in between.<\/p>\n

A 20-year-old Lakota Sioux who performed in Buffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West Show, Albert Afraid of Hawk, died from botulism poisoning in Danbury in 1900, where the famous traveling exhibition was performing. Afraid of Hawk was left in an unmarked grave for over a century, until local historian Robert Young identified the burial location.<\/p>\n

Young contacted Afraid of Hawk\u2019s family, who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, but it wasn\u2019t until the dead man\u2019s grandniece, Marlis, had a dream about her ancestor that the family decided it was time for Albert to come home.<\/p>\n

As State Archaeologist, Bellantoni was called in to exhume the remains in 2012<\/a>. While family members looked on, he found skeletal remains remarkably preserved despite the acidic soil, which were reinterred during a ceremony at Pine Ridge that September. Before the delegation from the reservation left, they bestowed the Lakota name Tapu wan Waste Okile on Bellantoni, which means \u201cHe Who Finds Good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat made that so special is that we worked so closely with his family,\u201d Bellantoni says. \u201cArchaeology isn\u2019t just ancient history, it\u2019s contemporary people, and their hopes and expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Story of Venture Smith, \u2018The Black Paul Bunyan\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Connecticut<\/a>
Connecticut State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni, left, works with students at the site of a dig. (Howard Eckels for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in what is now Ghana, Smith was kidnapped and sold into slavery in New England in the 18th century. Eventually purchasing his own freedom as well as the freedom of his wife and children, Smith went on to become a wealthy landowner, with holdings that included a Long Island boat yard, land in Africa, and a 300-acre farm in East Haddam.<\/p>\n

But it was his autobiography, dictated to a local schoolteacher and published in 1798, that secured his place in American history. One of the earliest pieces of writing by a black American, the memoir has been a valuable tool for researchers ever since its publication, but no one has been entirely sure what to make of the folklore-like tales that sprang up about Smith\u2019s vast size and strength.<\/p>\n

In 2006, after UConn researcher Linda Strausbaugh began doing DNA work with Smith\u2019s descendants, Bellantoni and a team of international researchers worked with Smith\u2019s descendants to exhume some of the graves in the burial plot<\/a>. While not much remained, they were able to fill in some likely details about the family\u2019s high status in the community at the time, along with Smith\u2019s size \u2013 the one-time lumberjack was likely 6\u20192\u201d and over 300 pounds, practically a giant by 18th-century standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t work to protect artifacts and sites, I work to protect heritage,\u201d Bellantoni says. \u201cWorking with living family members really shows you that the past has a profound impact on how people think of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Unearthing of a Jewish Ritual Bath in Eastern Connecticut<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Nicholas<\/a>
Nicholas Bellantoni, State Archaeologist, left, and Stuart Miller, professor of Hebrew, history, and Judaic studies, lift off the cover at the site of a former mikveh. (Peter Morenus\/UConn File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with Stuart Miller, academic director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University, Bellantoni excavated a forgotten mikveh, or ritual bath house, in an abandoned settlement that had once been a thriving Jewish community in early 20th–<\/sup>century Connecticut.<\/p>\n

The significance of the find was twofold<\/a>: first, for showing that Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the late 19th century were more religious than historians had believed, and second for the unlikely fact of the mikveh itself, an example of which had never been found outside a major U.S. city before.<\/p>\n

Working once again with descendants \u2013 in this case, the New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society \u2013 Bellantoni was able to secure the site\u2019s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest mistakes people make is they think there\u2019s no archaeology to be done in Connecticut,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not ancient Rome, you know, that kind of thing. But what I\u2019ve found in my career is the incredible diversity, as well as the richness, of archaeological sites here. I\u2019ve learned to expect the unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Remains \u2013 or Not \u2013 of Adolf Hitler<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cranial<\/a>
Cranial vault fragments analyzed by State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni during an investigation into Hitler’s remains. (Photo supplied by Nicholas Bellantoni)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although Bellantoni works primarily in Connecticut, his role as State Archaeologist has given him expertise in forensic science that can be applied anywhere human remains are found. The most dramatic illustration of this was when he \u2013 along with UConn faculty members Linda Strausbaugh and Dawn Pettinelli \u2013 were enlisted by the History Channel in a documentary about the remains of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n

As World War II drew to a close, the Soviet Red Army reached the location of Hitler\u2019s bunker after his suicide. While the Soviets always officially denied they had found Hitler\u2019s remains, a skull fragment with a bullet wound sent back to the Russian national archives in Moscow had long been believed to be that of the dictator. Bellantoni conducted an exploratory dig in Germany, and gained access to a wealth of evidence in Moscow, including DNA from bone and blood fragments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DNA testing by Strausbaugh and soil testing by Pettinelli established definitively that the remains in Moscow don\u2019t belong to Hitler, although Bellantoni is quick to dismiss any theories that suggest Hitler didn\u2019t die in his Berlin bunker in 1945.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a good example of taking skills I had developed here and transplanting them to a new environment,\u201d Bellantoni says. \u201cI\u2019m not an expert on the Third Reich, but I know how to put a shovel in the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Vampires<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"State<\/a>
State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni teaches his craft to a student at a summer science camp. (UConn File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They weren\u2019t actually vampires, of course. Along with Rhode Island folklorist Michael Bell, Bellantoni peeled back the curtain on a forgotten folk belief that once gripped New England rural communities struggling with tuberculosis in the 18th and 19th centuries.<\/p>\n

In eastern Connecticut, western Rhode Island, and parts of southern Vermont settled by Connecticut residents, some people believed that the first member of a family to die from the illness then called \u201cconsumption\u201d was returning, after death, to infect other family members.<\/p>\n

To thwart this, people exhumed the bodies of the supposed revenant and enacted a grisly variety of procedures to prevent their returning from the grave: some were beheaded, some had their hearts removed and burned, some had femur bones broken and crossed over their chests.<\/p>\n

A chance discovery by children in Griswold of bones from a forgotten cemetery is what led Bellantoni onto the path that has been discussed in films, books, newspaper articles, and television shows all over the world. Almost 25 years after that Griswold discovery, he still gets phone calls and emails about the vampires<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use it as a way to teach history and forensics,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople really believed this, and they acted on their beliefs. It wasn\u2019t that long ago, either \u2013 Michael Bell has started to find cases from the early 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"State<\/a>
State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni at the Human’s Nature exhibit at the State Museum of Natural History in 2007. (Dolly Harvey\/UConn File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although he\u2019ll be retired as State Archaeologist, with Brian Jones \u201998 Ph.D. joining the museum as his successor, Bellantoni will still be involved in the work of the museum, and plans to teach a class or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the unexpected benefits of this job is that I know somebody in every town in the state of Connecticut,\u201d he says, \u201cwhether it\u2019s a former student, a museum volunteer, someone we worked with on a project, or a local official involved in preservation efforts. That\u2019s really been a great joy, and it\u2019s one of the many reasons I\u2019m tremendously grateful to have done this job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retiring State Archaeologist and UConn professor Nicholas Bellantoni looks back on some highlights of a memorable career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":94991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[131],"class_list":["post-94957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 01:58:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94957"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95018,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94957\/revisions\/95018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/94991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94957"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=94957"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=94957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}