These bones were excavated by Reginald P. Bolton and others before the formation of the Field Exploration Committee at sanitary camp that extended east of Broadway, between 196th and Ellwood Streets. The camp was built in the summer of 1779 to quarantine British and Hessian soldiers infected with a fever epidemic that was sweeping through the military camps in Washington Heights. The bones came from a large domestic animal that may have been used to feed the quarantined soldiers.