Southwest Geophysics was contracted to locate sacred burn and burial areas inside and near an existing cemetery as part of an extensive archeological study. The purpose of the geophysical services was to confirm existing marked grave sites and to delineate the limits of unmarked graves and potential sacred burn areas. The primary goal of the archeological study was to restore the grave sites and to reestablish the fenced limits of the cemetery to encompass new sites revealed during geophysical survey.

Our services included the preparation of a detailed survey grid to facilitate the collection of electromagnetic and ground penetrating radar (GPR) data. Traverses using an EM61 time domain instrument were conducted at 1 meter spacings across the study area in order to detect the presence of buried metals objects (i.e., tools, utensiles, coins, etc.) that may have been associated with a sacred burial or burning. In addition, GPR traverses were conducted at ½ meter spacings to locate areas of disturbed ground, and/or buried objects including bodies. The data were processed in the field and areas of interest were reevaluated with GPR by conducting numerous random profiles across the anomaly to define the limits and nature of the anomaly. The results of the study reestablished the limits of marked graves sites as well as uncovered several additional unmarked sites.

An example of one detected unmarked grave.

Grave sites detected in the survey area.