Dig sites in Albany reveal 19th-century life of African Americans

ALBANY — Archaeologists love trash. From the garbage heaps of centuries past comes evidence of lives lived, meals eaten, heirlooms cracked and lost.

And when the lives lived hold historic significance — when they're 19th-century Albany abolitionists who sheltered runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad — refuse can assume a weighty importance. Any tiny find pulled up and dusted off by archaeologists can illuminate workaday habits of the rescuers and the rescued both.