Strolling the manicured grounds of Rosalie today, it’s difficult to imagine that just weeks earlier this was the site of an important archaeological dig.

The quilted sod is the only evidence that just beneath the surface rests some of the first settlers on the Mississippi River.

Archaeological teams commissioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stumbled upon the cemetery over the summer as they searched for evidence of a tobacco factory connected with the 18th century French Fort Rosalie.

Though at least two years of laboratory research are still ahead, period maps and recovered evidence suggest the cemetery serviced the fort, probably between its construction in 1716 and a 1729 Natchez Indian uprising that left the fort largely unmanned.

Tad Britt, Corps project archaeologist, said the find is not only important from a historical standpoint, it also offers a glimpse into the cultural, political, and socioeconomic aspects of French colonial life.

&uot;The Mississippi River was their World Wide Web then,&uot; Britt said. &uot;(It) was the means of conveyance of goods, information, culture. Therefore, the fort was located on the river to control access of that information.&uot;

The find’s importance is multiplied by the fact that Fort Rosalie is considered to be the oldest continuing European settlement on the Mississippi River – two years older than New Orleans. Drainage work critical to bluff stabilization forced dig teams to exhume a few of the graves, but archaeologists chose to leave most of the burials intact.

&uot;The whole purpose of the Natchez bluff stabilization was preservation of historic property,&uot; Britt said.

&uot;And of course (the cemetery) is something we want to preserve.&uot;

Britt also pointed out that removing an artifact from its surroundings is not always the best way to study it. In fact, many times the artifact is destroyed in the process.

&uot;We’re not retrieving artifacts; we’re looking for information,&uot; he said. &uot;The artifacts are just pages in a book that give us another chapter in French colonial history.&uot;

Thurston Hahn, archaeologist for Coastal Environments Inc., which conducted the dig for the corps, said scientists will now try to glean as much information as possible from those graves they exhumed.

By examining even the smallest remains, scientists can often determine the deceased individual’s age, height, weight, sex and ethnicity.

And Britt said teeth can provide excellent insight into the deceased’s diet and even cause of death.

Over the course of three months, dig teams uncovered 25 burial pits, many of which are shaped like the distinctive &uot;toe-pincher&uot; coffins for which they were dug.

Tracing the pattern of &uot;stains&uot;- soil made dark by the rotting of wood – archaeologists estimate at least 10 to 15 more graves may be included in the cemetery.

When the teams uncovered the stains in early summer, researchers initially believed the stains to be sections of wall trenches dug for a cotton compress built on the site in the late 1800s. But, archaeologists realized they might be looking at a cemetery when a compass revealed the majority of the stains pointed east to west.

Christian tradition holds that at the end of time, Christ will return from the east, Hahn said. The Catholic French buried their dead so they would be facing the rising of the sun as they were resurrected. The sun’s seasonal positions account for the small differences in the graves’ angles.

Among the most interesting finds, researchers say, was one burial set apart from the larger grouping. Many times, people not of the Christian religion or those who had committed an unforgivable sin would be buried outside the cemetery boundaries, Hahn said.

Another burial contained preserved brass buttons, believed to be those of a French military officer. Hahn said the chemical reaction of the brass on the coffin actually preserved some of the wooden fragments.

Most of the burial pits were of average size, but one grave measured about nine-by-three feet – exceptionally large for the time period. Further study concluded that the burial is, in fact, one human.

Following public announcement of the discovery last week, the site was covered with dirt and returned to its former state, ready for the foot traffic of the Great Mississippi Balloon Race.

Britt said the find was kept secret until the dig was completed to prevent the site from being disturbed and to protect the Corps of Engineers from liability associated with the open pits.

Once Corps work on the bluffs is completed, Britt said he hopes to have a marker or monument placed on the site commemorating the cemetery.

The Mississippi Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which owns Rosalie, has expressed interest in displaying some of the information and artifacts gathered from the dig.

Britt said he anticipates close cooperation among the DAR, the Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and the City of Natchez – all of which were instrumental in the dig’s success.