Archaeologists find musket balls and fort linked to Battle of Bunker Hill

Generations of Boston families played and picnicked on the grassy, sloping lawns of the Bunker Hill Monument. Musket balls and other artifacts from one of the American Revolution’s most consequential battles were buried just below their feet the whole time. Inspired by a centuries-old map, archaeologists have been digging in the park that sits on the site where American patriots hastily constructed an earthen fort to slow advancing British forces at what became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. Ground-penetrating radar identified potential locations for the fort in Boston’s Charlestown section. Soon after digging the first trench, the team led by Joe Bagley, the city of Boston’s archaeologist, found definitive signs of a ditch constructed hours before the battle on 17 June 1775, one of the first of the American Revolution. “The part that’s really crazy to me is that we get to stand in the same ditch,” said Bagley, standing over one of the two dig sites, where soil is removed about 4in (10cm) at a time, put in buckets and filtered through screens. Any items found are bagged up and identified. Joe Bagley, right, the city of Boston archaeologist, talks with with Sarah Kiley Schoff, a forensic anthropologist, during the dig at the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill on Monday. Photograph: Charles Krupa/AP So far, the dig has uncovered musket balls and parts of a musket from the battle. …