Cracking the code: Identity of woman buried in 150-year-old iron coffin in New York revealed
The secret identity of the 150-year-old female body found buried in an iron coffin in an abandoned lot in New York City has finally been revealed.
In 2011, construction workers were shocked when they discovered human remains buried under an abandoned lot in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York.
The body, which was dressed in a white robe and knee-high socks, was in such good condition that 911 was called, concerned that it might be a recent homicide.
The identity of a perfectly preserved black woman found in New York buried in an iron coffin wearing knee-high socks has been identified as Martha Peterson, daughter of John and Jane Peterson, leading figures in the newly formed free black community of Newtown (pictured, an artist’s recreation).
The secret identity of the body of a 150-year-old woman found buried in an iron coffin in an abandoned lot in New York City has finally been revealed (her face is pictured).
Scott Warnasch, then chief forensic archaeologist at the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office (pictured with the coffin), said: “It was recorded as a crime scene.” A body buried in an abandoned lot sounds straightforward enough.
But when forensic scientists took a closer look, they discovered that the body actually belonged to a young African-American woman born before the Civil War who died of smallpox just years after New York abolished slavery.
She was buried on the grounds of a church founded in 1830 by the first generation of free African Americans after the state abolished slavery in 1827.
Now the woman’s identity has finally been revealed as Martha Peterson.
Scans revealed the surprisingly intact state of the body which appeared to have died only a week ago when it was discovered.
A geochemist who analyzed data from her teeth and hair found that she had lived for years in the Northeast and ate a balanced diet.
According to the 1850 New York City census, the first to enumerate all residents of the city by name, age, sex, and race, Martha worked and lived in the home of white coffin maker William Raymond, who had abolitionist leanings.
He was a partner in the iron coffin manufacturer Fisk & Raymond, the same company that made Martha’s iron coffin.
She was the daughter of John and Jane Peterson, leading figures in the newly formed African-American community of Newtown, where she was found buried 150 years later.
Martha was 26 years old when she died of smallpox and the iron coffin kept her in such an excellent state of preservation that the smallpox lesions were still evident.
“The body was so well preserved that I wouldn’t have been surprised if the smallpox virus had survived,” Warnasch said. Fortunately, scientists confirmed that the virus had degraded.
In 2011, construction workers were shocked when they discovered human remains (pictured) buried under an abandoned lot in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York.
Martha was 26 years old when she died of smallpox, and the iron coffin kept her in such an excellent state of preservation that the smallpox lesions were still evident.
For years, her name was listed as unknown until experts were able to track down records that matched her age and location as Martha Peterson.
Martha Peterson is the woman in the iron coffin. On the evening of October 4, 2011, a backhoe dug into an excavation pit in Elmhurst, Queens.
She was dressed in a long white nightgown, a knitted hat and thick knee-high socks. She was also buried with a handmade comb.
A geochemist who analyzed data from her teeth and hair found that she had lived for years in the Northeast and ate a balanced diet.
A CT scan of her skull allowed experts to create a recreation of what Martha would have looked like when she was still alive.
His remains were given a proper second burial by St. Mark’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jackson Heights in 2016.
The iron coffin that kept it so perfectly preserved until construction workers accidentally ran a backhoe through it was used in the 19th century to allow corpses to be transported sanitary by train and ship for burial, with the bodies remaining in almost pristine condition.
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