‘Skeletons can tell you a lot.’ Exhuming remains at 18th-century fort
LOUISBURG, N.S. — The former residents of a massive 18th-century fort in Cape Breton have long since died, but David Ebert says they still have plenty to tell us.
Ebert, a strategic adviser with Parks Canada, is part of a team exhuming human remains from a large graveyard outside the gates of the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site.
“We have uncovered five sets of skeletal remains already and we’ve found a number of artifacts to go with them,” Ebert said in an interview.
“One of the skeletons had eight buttons that were lying on top of it. Clearly, somebody had been buried in a fancy coat … When you see someone buried in a fine piece of clothing, it obviously shows some love and respect for that individual.”