Anthropologist Pete Killoran's work to be featured in documentary
Released: July 15, 2008
Anthropology, forensics and archaeology probably wouldn’t be near the top of the list if you asked an average teenager what they’re interested in. However, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater anthropologist Pete Killoran is part of a documentary trying to change all that.
The documentary, which will take six months to produce, focuses on Killoran’s work at the Old Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Ky. The documentary will be aimed at middle-school students to pique their interest in archaeology and forensics. "The documentary will be shown in schools in Kentucky, but it'll still be made in a way that very complicated things are talked about, just worded at the basic level," he said.
Killoran already conducts much of his research in Kentucky. The state hires many specialists like him because the state is expanding and building roads and other amenities and Killoran’s job is to ensure that they don’t build over any cemeteries or any other gravesites. This is a problem because up until the 1870s people wouldn’t mark the burial sites of their loved ones or if they did they would mark them with a rock.
"Before the 1870s, people had more of an ashes-to-ashes, dust-to-dust mentality," Killoran said. "After that, the beautification of death movement took hold and that’s when people started being buried with gravestones and other grave markers." Kentucky also has the problem of people burying their family members on their own farmland because there were no laws prohibiting that.
Also, if they do run into a cemetery, Killoran has to examine the remains of people buried there. He does this to determine the true cause of death and because of the mass grave looting in the past.
Why does a professor in Wisconsin get work in Kentucky? "It’s not because Kentucky doesn’t have their own anthropologists," Killoran said. "It’s because they’re busy with their research and teaching so they have people like me come down and help with the work."
Killoran also gets a lot of research done down there as well. "It works out well, I go down there and get paid for my work, at the same time I get to conduct my research of which I’ve written essays about," he said.
Killoran specializes in forensics, but not the brand that was popularized by the television show "CSI." He specializes in ancient forensics, which is all about gathering evidence about the past. His has made major discoveries in Kentucky before; in 2002 he discovered a pauper cemetery in Frankfort, which housed many of the workers that built the capitol building. That cemetery was unknown before Killoran found it, essentially lost to history.
The documentary, which will be finished in six months, will be sent to teachers all over Kentucky. It will be another episode in the "Kentucky Archaeological Series" produced by the Kentucky Heritage Council.
- Tom Applegarth,applegartg17@uww.edu
