More than 1,000 bodies have been found buried on the campus of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, forcing authorizes to put a construction project on hold.
Construction workers made the grisly discovery while surveying land for a new parking lot. The bodies are believed to have been patients at the old Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum 100 years ago.
“The property that the University of Mississippi Medical Center is located on used to be the location of the state insane asylum, which operated from 1855 to 1935,” university spokesman Jack Mazurak told Yahoo News.
Mazurak said that the discovery was not entirely unexpected as workers had come across unmarked graves before.
“Historically we knew that there were a lot of graves, many of which were not marked. In the '90s, we took the handful of marked graves and reinterred them in a designated cemetery area,” he said.
In fall of 2012, Mazurak said, construction workers found “an area that had rows of graves” while they were working on a project to extend a road for a new intersection on the campus.
Dr. James Keeton, dean of the medical school, said that paying for reburials elsewhere would cost about $3,000 a piece, or $3 million total.
The dean added that medical center officials might have to cancel other expansion projects on property west of the dental school because more bodies-- former slaves, TB victims and possibly even Civil War dead-- may lie beneath the earth.
【新闻快讯】
美国密西西比大学医学中心日前发生一起惊悚事件，在准备建造一大型停车库的校区内惊现千具尸骨埋于地下坟墓，吓坏所有师生，打破了校园唯美的氛围。
据美国媒体报道，密西西比大学医学中心原本计划在牙科学院东侧林地建造一个大型停车设施，但对该区域的雷达扫描显示，有多达1000具遗骨在地下坟墓中，同一个地点出现如此多的尸体让全校师生感到毛骨悚然。
这些遗体大约已有百年以上的历史，学校发言人杰克(Jack Mazurak)称，可能要追溯到百年前该所大学的前身——密西西比州立精神病院，该设施于1855年内战结束前开放，直到1935年才搬迁到其他地方。因此校方不排除这处林地可能是当时疯人院埋葬死亡病患的墓地。
“更糟的是，没有人知道埋葬在那里的遗体的名字。”医学院院长詹姆斯(Dr. James Keeton)表示，此前也曾在校区发现过无名墓地，并进行了迁墓，但数量不超过100个。如果这次要重新安置千余具尸骨，每具遗体需要3000美元，总计约300万美元“搬迁费”。目前校方并没有多余的经费，无法负担如此庞大的开支，因此只能被迫暂停停车库建设项目，另寻他址。
詹姆斯强调，学校对未来所有新建扩建设施的选址都将伤透脑筋，因为这些地区的地下很可能埋葬了肺结核病人、曾经的奴隶和内战中死去的人。该校最近宣布建设的1100万美元的美国癌症协会“希望小屋”所在地，就可能含有较多墓地。
出于这个原因，密西西比大学医学中心称，“希望小屋”和一个新的儿童司法中心很有可能被安置在164英亩的校园核心区内，学校空间和停车位似乎越来越稀缺。专家称，未来若要在校内动土建房，一定要掂量再三、仔细考虑才行。
