BELL, Edward L. 1963-

PERSONAL: Born 1963. Ethnicity: "Lithuanian-American." Education: Simon's Rock Early College, A.A., 1982; Boston University, B.A., 1985, M.A., 1987.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—c/o Massachusetts Historical Commission, 220 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Massachusetts Historical Commission, Boston, staff archaelogist and preservation planner, 1989-94, senior archaelogist, 1994—.

WRITINGS:

"Our Homestead and Field": Documentary Research on the Balch House, Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts, Beverly Historical Society (Beverly, MA), 1985.

Historical Archaeology at the Hudson Poor FarmCemetery, Hudson, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Commission (Boston, MA), 1993.

Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ), 1994.

Also contributor to numerous books on archeological perspectives. Contributor of articles and essays to publications, including Provincetown Magazine, Northeast Historical Archaeology, and World Archaeology.

SIDELIGHTS: Edward L. Bell is a senior archeologist at Boston's Massachusetts Historical Commission. He provides technical assistance in archaelogy and historic preservation. His research and fieldwork focus on the cultures and history of Northeastern North America from ancient to historical times. His scholarly writings attempt to link the history and archaelogy of local places to broader historical and social themes.

Bell's archaeological field training began in 1974 when he was allowed to join avocational archaeologists conducting controlled salvage excavations at the well-known Rockelein site. Bell told CA: "My mentors at the time included former Fordham University philosophy professor Elizabeth M. Kraus (Dumont). In 1980, I received a research grant from the Youthgrants program of the National Endowment for the Humanities for archaeological study of a nineteenth-century iron mining settlement." He completed a 300-page research report before graduating from high school.

According to professionals in his field, Bell's reference book Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries is a welcome addition to available material on cemeteries. Comprising over 1,900 citations, an introductory essay providing an overview of scholarly trends and prospects in the field, and an extensive index, the book has been described as a useful reference. Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance contains scholarly research on cemetery sites from as early as the fifteenth century to the latter part of the twentieth century. The bibliographic sections are divided into five parts: Archaeological Survey and Excavation Reports; Biological, Physical, and Forensic Anthropology and Historical Demography; Deathway, Ethnography, and Theoretical Perspectives; Grave Markers and Cemetery Landscapes; Repatriation; Curation; and Law.

Alan Swedlund, writing for American Journal of Physical Anthropology, found the various sections of Bell's book to be "logical and useful." They facilitate "browsing in those areas where one is most focused at the moment, and the key words [provided] give one a clearer sense of the contents of each work," Swedlund wrote. Bell's references include not only citations of books and journals but also a listing of technical reports and manuscripts. His work, as stated by Jeff Wanser in American Reference Books Annual, is geared "toward aiding archaeologists and planners with the interpretation of historical burial sites."

Bell's work is seen as a benefit not only to archeologists, but also to physical, forensic, and cultural anthropologists, historians, cultural resource managers, museums, Native American tribes, and other groups involved in the debate of repatriation of curated human remains and funerary material.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Leveillee, Alan, An Old Place, Safe and Quiet: ABlackstone River Valley Cremation Burial Site, Begrin and & Garvey (Westport, CT), 2002.

Tarlow, Sarah, Bereavement and Commemoration: AnArchaeology of Mortality, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, England), 1999.

periodicals

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, May, 1996, Alan Swedlund, review of Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries, pp. 151-152.

American Reference Books Annual, 1995, Jeff Wanser, review of Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries, p. 229.

Antiquity, December, 1994, Cyprian Broodbank, review of Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries, pp. 861-862.

Choice, March, 1995, M. R. Dittemore, review of Vestiges of Mortality and Remembrance: A Bibliography on the Historical Archaeology of Cemeteries, pp. 1073-1074.

Historical Archaelogy, 1995, Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood, review of Historical Archaeology at the Hudson Poor Farm Cemetery, Hudson, Massachusetts, pp. 100-102.