Workers upgrading old water mains under a popular New York City park made a bone-chilling discovery this week just a few days after Halloween.
Officials with the city’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) say that beneath Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village was buried a 20-foot-long vault with the skeletal remains of around a dozen people.
DNA Info reports that the vault is believed to date back to the 19th century but further investigation by archaeologists and anthropologists is needed to determine the significance of the findings.Department of Design and Construction commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora said in a statement that his agency is working with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to 'evaluate the extent and significance of the vault and its contents'.
'Working together with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, DDC will evaluate the extent and significance of the vault and its contents,' commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora said in a statement.
DNA Info reports that the park is actually built on top of an old burial ground for the poor called a 'potter's field'.
The builders who made the fascinating discovery are working on a project that involves the installation of new sewer manholes and traffic lights.
The city will continue work on the project south of the burial vault at Washington Square East near Waverly Place.
The vault will be blocked off until the archaeologists and anthropologists complete their study.The findings, just steps from the prestigious New York University had locals in awe.
'It is a little creepy,' one resident told CBS.
'It doesn’t creep me as much as it just intrigues me,' said Julia Gouny of Greenwich Village.
'If it were more recent it might be creepy; if it were from, like, the 1980s,' she added.
'It would be interesting to figure out who they are,' Gouny said.
'You would think that they wouldn’t have been preserved that long, so it’s really fascinating.'
This is not the first time that bones have been discovered at the old burial ground.
In the course of conducting soil testing during the renovation of Washington Square Park, archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains of four people back in 2008.
Gothamist reported in 2008 that the burial site for the indigent of New York was a burial site between 1797 and 1826.
A lawsuit was filed back in 2005 asking the city to halt any changes to the square, claiming that it was disrespectful to the 20,000 plus people buried there.
The lawsuit was overruled since the city turned the graveyard into a public park back in 1827.
Human bones were found during at least four prior excavations of the area including during the installation of the arch during a Con Ed project in the 1960s.
In addition to a potter's field, legend has it that the area was also a site of public executions.
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