Tree cutting at North Carolina church uncovers centuries-old artifacts

CNN
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When he's not preaching, Pastor Daniel Cenci is quite the history buff.

Cenci's two passions came together when a trove of centuries-old items was discovered on June 20 in the grounds of Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where he has served as pastor since 2019.

He said construction workers for the church were digging up a 100-year-old magnolia tree when the routine suddenly turned erratic around lunchtime: The workers were digging a drainage hole under the stump when they bumped into something.

Cenci said he saw the almost dome-like shape of the building where the troops collided and, given that there was a lot of fighting in eastern North Carolina during the Civil War, he assumed it was a catacomb or an unmarked soldier's grave.

Cenci enlisted the help of a nearby parishioner to explore inside, and soon the pair had pulled out an 8-inch-long bone.

“I thought, 'Oh, maybe it's a catacomb after all,'” Cenci told CNN.

After construction workers were told to go home for the day, artefacts including pottery, old and broken plates, glassware, bottles and even more bones were unearthed from the loose sandy area, which had been filled with bricks.

With the guidance and testing of a local museum and an expert in dating early porcelain, the items were determined to date from approximately the early 1700s to the mid-1800s. The bones were not human but animal, including what appeared to be a boar jawbone.

“Our current speculation is that this site is probably either an underground cellar associated with an earlier settlement or a water tank associated with another early settlement in the city,” Cinci said.

The Raleigh and Greenville offices of the North Carolina Department of State Archaeology were called in to help further identify and date the remains, and the ground was excavated five days later, according to CNN affiliate WTKR.

After state officials agreed with the original dating estimate for the artifacts, they were labeled and placed on a plate in the church kitchen until they could be sent to a state conservation lab for testing.

Cenci was told his options were to have a team from the Raleigh or Greenville archaeology offices return to the site, to have graduate students from a local university continue the excavation, or for the church to hire an outside archaeology firm.

CNN has reached out to the State Archaeology Office in Raleigh for comment.

Christ Episcopal Church was founded in 1825, but the building it is currently in wasn't built until 1856, Cenci said.

When church parishioners Ian Lawrie, Robin Nix and Sam Mankura researched deeds, wills and property documents at the Pasquotank County Courthouse, they discovered that two of the city's most exclusive parcels on which the church stands were owned in the early 1800s by a black man named George Davis.

According to church records and a Facebook post from Lawrie, Davis' daughter, Charlotte, was married in the Episcopal Church in 1833. Although nothing has been confirmed yet, some of the belongings are thought to have belonged to Davis, Cenci explained.

“Judging by the items that came out of the excavation, Davis did very well,” Cenci said. “We also found bottles of French wine and porcelain imported from China. I think it's very interesting because it seems to shed light on the history of some fairly influential and fairly wealthy early African-Americans in this town.”

Cenci said all he did was stop construction, but that Lawrie, Nix and Mancura “are the real heroes of this story in finding out what was there and why it matters.”

The church was founded in 1825, so the discovery comes just in time for its 200th anniversary.

“As a Christian, I believe it is God's providence that this happened right at the time of the 200th anniversary,” Cenci said. “We have this, like a time capsule, going back to the founding of the church.”