Four new coffins, rough-sawn boxes in pinch-toe style, stand ready, vessels for re-interring remains of French colonial-era Natchez residents exhumed in 1999. Awe and surprise will turn to somber closure for those who participated in the discovery of a cemetery and the burial places of these three adults and one child, who lived in Natchez perhaps 250 years ago &045;&045; after the 1729 uprising of the Native Americans against the French but probably before the Treaty of Paris was signed to transfer the Natchez district from France to England in 1763.

Daughters of the American Revolution will gather, along with others interested in the event, for a graveside service at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday on the grounds of Rosalie. Two Catholic priests will preside at the religious ceremony to

return the remains to the old and long-forgotten cemetery where they were found.

&uot;We dig up a lot of things, including human burials, in our work,&uot; said archaeologist Thurston Hahn of Coastal Environment Incorporated of Baton Rouge, La. &uot;It’s extraordinarily interesting, but I look at it as, what if they were my ancestors, or even not, you want the closure for them and I want it for me.&uot;

Hahn was on the project, which began in 1999 as part of the archaeological assessment along the Natchez bluffs prior to a massive U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bluff stabilization program, when the burial sites were found.

&uot;We located 25 burials and exhumed four that were moved for the bluff stabilization project,&uot; Hahn said. &uot;The reburial will take place within what we think were the original limits of the cemetery.&uot;

The Rev. Ron P. Herzog, a Natchez native, and the Rev. David O’Connor, pastor of St. Mary Basilica in Natchez, will conduct the service.

Herzog is diocesan director of the Office of Worship, Diocese of Biloxi, and is pastor at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Laurel.

O’Connor said the Catholic church has a profound sense of responsibility for the dead. He is pleased to represent the local church at the ceremony.

&uot;Cemeteries are sacred places. And we’ve always given great reverence to the remains of those who have died,&uot; O’Connor said. A burial service will give some degree of identity to otherwise unknown people.

Dell Scoper of Laurel was regent of the Mississippi Society DAR, which owns Rosalie, when the archaeology project was under way on the grounds of the house.

&uot;At the time of the discovery, it was called one of the most significant archaeological finds in the Lower Mississippi River Valley,&uot; Scoper said. &uot;Plans are that in a couple of years we’ll place a large monument there to recognize the cemetery.&uot;

The French Colonial period began in 1716 with establishment of Fort Rosalie on the bluffs near where the house Rosalie now stands.

After the 1729 rebellion by the Natchez Indians against the French, the settlement languished. &uot;There was a small French garrison for another 30 years after the rebellion,&uot; said Jim Barnett, historic sites director for Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

However, the entire French period in the Natchez area has importance in American history.

&uot;The French colonial experience in the Mississippi Valley is not as well known as the English settlement on the Eastern Seaboard,&uot; Barnett said. &uot;But the Natchez colony established in 1716 has been called the Jamestown of the Lower Mississippi Valley because of its importance.&uot;

The cemetery was an important find, Barnett said. &uot;And it’s important that the DAR wants to commemorate the site and set aside that area as a cemetery.&uot;

Hahn said maps and drawings made after 1729 showed a cemetery in the area but not at the site he and others found in 1999. &uot;We didn’t find any evidence of massacre victims. All we found were in coffins.&uot;

The remains are scant. No large bones and few artifacts. The backhoe unearthed some earth stains.

The archaeologists studied them, thinking perhaps they could be from Native American occupation.

&uot;We took out a compass and laid it down at one of the features we had found, and it went east-west, typical of a Christian burial place,&uot; Hahn said. The remains disinterred to make way for the bluff project were in toe-pincher style coffins.

&uot;One was a child and three were adults. Preservation was very poor. There is very little bone to speak of, no real intact elements,&uot; he said.

&uot;One had several buttons within the burial. They were arranged in a pattern that would suggest a French fly. Another has one very large button at the neck, such as you might find on a cloak.&uot;

The third was buried without clothes, suggesting possibly a shroud. &uot;It is wonderful to know we can put them back pretty much where they were,&uot; Hahn said.