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A metal plaque marked the casket of Sister Rosaline Hutchins who died and was buried in a cemetery at Loretto Heights in Denver in 1936. (Credit: Chris Daley/Mt. Olivet)

Lauren Hosek cradles a human jawbone in the palm of her gloved hand鈥攊t鈥檚 brown and covered in flecks of dirt.

Behind her, a team of archaeologists spreads out in a field not far from Pancratia Hall, a red-brick building constructed in 1929 in southwest Denver. Six or so students kneel in a hole about the size of a swimming pool, excavating a series of graves. They carefully pull away what鈥檚 left of wooden caskets and collect pieces of bone, including the mandible Hosek is now inspecting.

The researcher is a 鈥渂ioarchaeologist鈥� at CU Boulder who specializes in working with human remains. And, she learns, the bone she鈥檚 holding belonged to Sister Carmelita Hodapp, an educator and nun who died in Denver in 1909.听

鈥淚 love teeth,鈥� said Hosek, who will join the CU Boulder baby直播app in the fall as an assistant professor of anthropology. 鈥淭hey can tell us so much about the health of the body over time, but we can also see things like the way people tried to care for their bodies or even care for others.鈥�

Hodapp was one of 62 women who were buried in this historic cemetery, once operated by a Catholic order called the Sisters of Loretto. All former nuns, the women died between 1898 and 1969. They came to baby直播app from New York City, St. Louis and County Galway, Ireland. They taught math, music, art and more to everyone from the children of miners to college students.

On this day in July, they鈥檙e in the process of being moved. Because of impending development, the Sisters of Loretto decided to transfer the women鈥檚 remains to another nearby cemetery to ensure they can receive 鈥減erpetual care.鈥� Hosek is part of a team led by Michala Stock at Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver . Students from both MSU and CU Denver, and an incoming freshman at CU Boulder, participated in the effort.

Hosek, in particular, is collaborating with current members of the order to develop 鈥渙steobiographies鈥� for the 62 nuns鈥攅ssentially, telling the stories of their lives through the clues hidden in their bones.听

Throughout the process, she and her colleagues will take pains to ensure they鈥檙e treating the nuns鈥� remains with respect. At least one representative from the Sisters of Loretto, for example, was on site at all times during the several week-long exhumation project. Once Hosek is finished analyzing the remains, the team will carefully place them into oak caskets for reburial.听

鈥淏eing invited to join in the process of exhuming and reinterring these 62 sisters has been an amazing, humbling and, ultimately, educational experience for me and our team of volunteers,鈥� Stock said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e kept in the forefront of our minds that these are people we are working with, and that death does not diminish or negate the fundamental respect and reverence that everyone deserves.鈥�

Pioneering sisters

Sister Mary Nelle Gage, a current member of the Sisters of Loretto, joined Stock, Hosek and their colleagues at the site鈥攖he former campus of a Catholic school called Loretto Heights College, which became part of Regis University in 1988. She said she鈥檚 grateful that, in their deaths, the 62 women can continue to do what they were passionate about in life: teach.

For her, the project is a personal one. The Sisters of Loretto were founded in Maryland in 1812 but today include fewer than 85 nuns, Gage said.

鈥淭hese nuns are the shoulders on which our community stands,鈥� Gage said.听

Mother Pancratia Bonfils, for example, traveled to Denver by train and stagecoach in 1868 and later helped to found Loretto Heights College. Sisters Miriam Judd and Vivian Edelin both earned doctorates in the early 20th century when academia was an arena dominated by men. They died within two years of each other in 1939 and 1941.

Gage added that even the cemetery itself has been an important fixture of this neighborhood in southwest Denver for decades. 听

鈥淸Community members] have memories of walking past the cemetery and being scared to death, or of coming in and finding solace here,鈥� she said.

Osteobiographies

Hosek wants to pay tribute to that history.听

In the fall, she鈥檚 teaching a new course at CU Boulder called Advanced Osteology that will help students identify human remains like the ones at Loretto Heights. Hosek noted you can learn a lot about a person鈥檚 life, and the society around them, from their teeth and bones.听

Take the history of dentistry: In the 19th century, this profession was in the middle of a major upheaval, Hosek said, evolving from an ad hoc and sometimes brutal undertaking into a more modern and regulated medical field. The nuns鈥� remains, Hosek said, provide a window into how dentistry and dental care were changing across that time period and after.

鈥淚t was coming out of what you could call a Dark Ages where anyone could be a dentist and pull teeth with the right tools,鈥� Hosek said. 鈥淵ou had umbrella makers and silversmiths pulling teeth and plugging fillings. That was all starting to shift by the early- to mid-19th century.鈥澨�

Many of the Sisters of Loretto, including Sister Carmelita Hodapp, came to baby直播app in an attempt to recover from bouts of bad health. Hosek is hoping to find hints of these illnesses in the women鈥檚 remains鈥攄iseases such as tuberculosis and osteomalacia, caused by vitamin D deficiency, can leave marks behind on a person鈥檚 skeleton.

Hosek will examine the remains until around Aug. 22, when the 62 nuns are slated to听be reinterred during a ceremony at Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge.

Like Gage, the bioarchaeologist is grateful for the chance to revisit how these women helped to shape Denver more than a century ago.

鈥淪ister Mary Nelle kept saying these women were educators, and the idea of them continuing to educate the Sisters of Loretto, the public and even my own students is really important,鈥� Hosek said. 鈥淚 want to honor that spirit.鈥�