Bones at Wall, NJ excavation came from ‘multiple individuals’

🔵 Bones were found during an excavation project in March

🔵 State Police anthropologists examined the bones to determine their origin

🔵 It will take more time to determine their precise age

WALL TOWNSHIP — The bones found during an excavation project for a new house in March likely belong to several individuals whose deaths were not suspicious, according to officials.

"A portion of skeletal remains" were found on Narrumson Road in Wall Township where a foundation was being dug on March 12, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago. After the discovery was made, county public works personnel brought in diggers and dump trucks to remove mounds of dirt and bring it to another location so it could be sifted and tested.

An anthropologist with the New Jersey State Police Forensic Anthropology Unit has concluded that the bones belonged to multiple individuals.

The age of the bones has not yet been determined but it is "strongly believed" they are "of an advanced age," according to Santiago.

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A burial ground uncovered?

Given the names of the streets in the neighborhood like Minnehaha Trail, Lenape Trail and Algonkin Trail, neighbors told PIX 11 that the area may have included a burial ground. During past excavation projects, items such as tools and glass medicine vials have been dug up.

The land incorporated by the New Jersey Legislature in 1851 as Wall Township was inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, an Algonquian group of Native Americans who lived in loosely-knit family groups in the greater Delaware area, according to Township Historian Alyce Salmon.

Sand Hill Indians lived on the northern shores of Monmouth County in the 1700s, according to the Sand Hill Indian History website.

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