Thanks to Carolyn for sending this to me so many months ago... Sorry I
didn't share it before now!
Christi
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-----Original Message-----
From: Carolyn Joy [mailto:Carolyn.Joy@dvn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 3:03 PM
To: christib(a)satx.rr.com
Subject: Philip Calvert
I thought this was interesting
This was an article I had clipped out of the news paper Thursday, April 7,
1994. Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Scientists paint picture through coffins, By Lauran Neergaard Associated
Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) Remarkable preserved 300-year old skeletal remains paint a
vivid picture of Maryland's founding family, from what they looked like to
what they ate and the kinds of illnesses they suffered.
Scientists on Tuesday said Philip Calvert, Maryland's fourth colonial
governor, and his wife, Anne Wolsley, were the mystery occupants of lead
coffins buried in the 1690's in St. Mary's City, Maryland's 17th century
capital.
The finding not only fills great gaps in what historians know about the
influential couple, but it illustrates the colonial life of the wealthy
along the Chesapeake Bay. And scientists say the techniques used to
identify the couple will enhance archaeology worldwide.
"This is a very important new piece of science," project director Dr. Henry
Miller said of a new method that used nuclear isotopes to detect evidence of
the couple's diet hidden deep in their bones.
Archaeologists unearthed three lead coffins in 1992. They suspect the third
body, a baby girl, was Calvert's 6-month-old daughter from a second
marriage.
The lead made the bodies the best preserved of the fewer than 100 17th
century skeletons ever found, said Dr. Douglas Owsley, a forensic
anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution, where parts of the skeletons
were displayed Tuesday.
"We know how his hair was trimmed, how his beard was shaved . . information
you simply cannot find in any historical record." Owsley said. "The 17th
century has been almost like a black hole. This was an opportunity to
examine the bones and learn from the people themselves.:
The experts still have a lot to learn from the coffins, however. Pollen and
insects are giving clues on colonial climate and history, and red blood
cells in Mrs. Calvert's skull could prove whether malaria was present along
the Chesapeake three centuries ago.
Scientists had suspected the adults were the Calvert's, but it took 16
months of painstaking research to prove, a task made harder because so
little is known about the pair.
Calvert was sent to Maryland from England by the second Lord Baltimore to
re-establish a Catholic government after radical Protestants sized the
colony in the 1650's. He was governor from 1660-61 and the colony's
chancellor, second in command, for 25 years.
About his wife, all historians know is that her family suffered religious
persecution in England; her grandmother was burned to death. They don't
even know her birth date.
The scientists determined that Calvert stood 5 feet, 6 inches tall and was
portly and sedentary. He had flowing auburn hair, locks of which survived
the 300-year burial. He died in 1682, around age 55, with no signs of
long-term illness.
But someone apparently tried to embalm Calvert, because his bones are
crystallized from the waist up. So researchers couldn't get a picture of
him from his skull - a bitter disappointment to historians because no
painting exist of the man.