Quartz Crystal from Ritual Cache (VCU_3D_1884)

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This natural quartz crystal was recovered archaeologically from a pit feature associated with a post-Civil War house occupied by an African American family on what is today Manassas National Battlefield Park. The 1880 census indicates that Philip and Sarah Nash, as well as their five children lived in this house at that time. The pit feature also contained five other unmodified quartz crystals, a quartz point, and a fragment of galena. Archaeologists interpret this as a ritual cache that resembles African spirit bundles (see Laura Galke, 2000, Free Within Ourselves. In “Archaeological Perspectives on the American Civil War,” edited by Clarence R. Geier and Stephen R. Potter, pages 253-269, University Press of Florida, Tallahassee). Object creation: This artifact was scanned at the National Park Services Museum Resource Center, located in Lanham, Maryland, using a NextEngine Desktop 3D scanner. Courtesy of the National Park Service-National Capital Region, Washington, D.C.