A hole in Baker Street has become an archeological dig.
Three archeologists from Stantec’s London, ON office arrived at the site Friday morning and began sifting through the gravel near the mouth of the hole.
Two fragments of a human skull were found on Oct. 17 inside a historic brick tunnel under the street. The location had been dug up by a city to crew to access and disconnect a water pipe connected to the parking booth at the Baker Street parking lot. The structure is slated for demolition.
Whenever human remains are found in Ontario, a police investigation and an archeological assessment is required by law.
The Stantec archeologists – Arthur Figura, Lorelyn Giese, and Valerie Wolfkamp – expect to be on the site for about a week.
Other digging is expected soon in the lead-up to the demolition of the structure.
The Baker Street parking lot is the former site of Guelph’s first cemetery. While remains were disinterred and moved to other cemeteries in former times, some clearly remained buried at the site. Human bones have previously been unearthed at the location.
Friday morning, the archeologists set up a pair of simple screening structures and were sifting through material from several small piles of gravel. They were searching for other human remains or other significant historical materials. Nothing of significance had been found in the morning.
According to the City of Guelph, the assessment will determine the presence or absence of further unmarked grave shafts, or more human remains or cultural material at the site. The gravel is being meticulously sifted using a fine filtering process.
Only after the archaeological assessment and a forensic examination of the discovered fragments is complete, will the city declare the nature of the site, a city press release states. If it is deemed a burial ground, steps will be taken to reinter the remains, most likely at Woodlawn Memorial Park.
The demolition of the parking booth will proceed once the archeological work is finished, and the site cleared by the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, according to the city.
There was no police presence on the scene Friday morning, nor were city officials present.
With major excavation work likely on the Baker Street parking lot in the future, many in Guelph have expressed an expectation that more archeological work might be necessary on the site. The property is the planned location of a new downtown branch of the Guelph Public Library, but no timeline is set for that project.
The city has previously found human remains in the same area on two separate occasions. It was a public burial ground from 1827-1853, before a bylaw was passed banning burials within town limits.
Back in 2005, the city unearthed the remains of one male, one female, nine infants and 36 incomplete remains at the site. All were subsequently buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in 2008.
In 2010, a sink hole on Baker Street exposed the remains of an infant, which were also reinterred at Woodlawn.
The city has stated it will not take or share photographs of any remains discovered, to ensure they are treated with respect and dignity. The media and the public have been asked to make the same consideration.
