Gas line workers find human remains while digging in Sharpsburg

Peoples Gas crews replacing gas lines immediately stopped digging when, four or five feet down beneath street level in Sharpsburg, they found what turned out to be human remains.An Allegheny County crime lab team came to the location in the 400 block of Short Canal Street on Friday to dig deeper into Wednesday's discovery."They wanted to come out this morning and meet myself here so they could dig some more, and they did find some more bones. They're going to take them back for analysis and give us an update when they can," said Chief Tom Stelitano, Sharpsburg police.Stelitano thinks the find could be historical."I'm not a historian, but I've been here a long time. And I do believe that back a long time ago, this area was flat, and there were orchards here. So many of the first settlers that were here may have had a small community here possibly," he said."Very small — lot of very small bones. I've been here a long time. I'm kind of thinking maybe Indian burial, possibly. That's what I first thought. There was a canal that came through here. I don't know when the streets were first built, but I'm thinking late 1800s, early 1900s, possibly," Stelitano said.As crime lab investigators from the county medical examiner's office gathered evidence on Short Canal Street, crews and contractors with Peoples Gas assisted them on the site.The remains were taken to the county lab. Allegheny County police detectives were also on the scene. A release from the county medical examiner's office on Friday confirmed the skeletal remains were human.Neighbors expressed their surprise. They were troubled if the remains were more recent — but intrigued if they are historical artifacts."Our ancient history. Wow. How cool is that? I feel like this is some history class we could possibly all be living in," said Lashawnna Aikens, who lives across the street from the site.Taylor Stein, who also lives across the street from the site, said, "Today, I saw them picking up bones and what looked like a small skull to me. Then I think a few other pieces of something. It wasn't bone, it wasn't human, it may have been some kind of jewelry possibly. I'm not really sure.""I know the Seneca Native Americans had settled here, starting in, I think, the mid-1700s, early 1800s. So that wouldn't be completely surprising to me, especially being so close to the river. But it's definitely a mystery for me, still," Stein said. The county medical examiner's office said in a release that the site may represent a Native American burial ground. Anthropologic and archaeology experts will assist in that determination. The office says experts "are taking all measures to respect and protect the property and remains while the investigation is ongoing."The medical examiner's office said an update to the investigation is not expected for several weeks.