Greg

Stacking of coffins of pauper burials is documented from the exact
contemporary Anglican Camperdown Cemtery near Sydney Uni.  This, among other
scandals involving the cemetery management, resulted in a NSW Parliament
Select Committee.  You're welcome to a copy of the SC report for a sense of
what was going on further north at the same time.

Cheers

Denis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Jackman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: archaeology in historic burial grounds


> Hi Gaye,
>
> Number of burials in question on the IOD not actually known, with
estimates
> ranging from c900 - c1800.  We have done a fair bit of remote sensing,
> including GPR, mag, EM, DC res and seismic, but the results are ambiguous
in
> most cases and require physical verification.  As for markers, when I say
> unmarked I mean UNMARKED, i.e. convict and pauper graves, by law, were not
> supposed to have any surface indicators - part of the whole shameful death
> thing, so no rails and head/footboards.
>
> We also have many myths of stacking, buried standing up, mass graves,
liming
> etc, none of which is historically documented, and the remote sensing is
> helping us with some of this - to a degree, but far from conclusively.
>
> Thanks for the thoughts.
>
> Greg
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gaye Nayton [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 10:25 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: archaeology in historic burial grounds
>
> Greg
>
> Have you found out how many burials you have without digging anything up.
>
> I have researched a couple of pioneer graveyards with success here using a
> combination of aerial photographic analysis, physical survey and metal
> detector survey (for evidence of metal spikes associated with head and
foot
> places, metal surrounds and nails from wooden ones - none of which you may
> have in your case). This sort of work gives you a good idea of the layout
of
> the cemetery and of course the location of all those unmarked graves.
>
> I have also used ground penerating radar on a couple. It worked really
well
> in the one that had not been cut and filled to create tennis courts.
> Suggested we had some shafts stacked two or three deep. Would any of that
> information help you or do you already know that stuff.
>
> Gaye
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tonia Deetz" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, 30 January 2004 5:27 AM
> Subject: Re: archaeology in historic burial grounds
>
>
> > Greg,
> >
> > If I can address some of your questions, with the statement first that
the
> > excavation of human remains in the US is a highly debated topic.
> >
> > I have worked on some important historic burial projects and I believe
> that
> > if you are truly justified ethically, research wise and legally in the
> > examination of human remains that you should pursue that to its fullest
> extent from
> > the start.
> >
> > By simply opening up the burials you are changing the environment in
which
> > they exist and most likely accelerating the natural destruction of the
> remains
> > and any data in them. To take a look without gaining critical and
sensitve
> > information, you risk loosing anything you may want to explore later,
> therefore
> > negating your purpose for the excavation.
> >
> > I would also say that to conserve the bones without removal is
> questionable,
> > as the process of conservation eliminates the elements from many
> diagnostic
> > tests you may need for your research. We usually have certain bones left
> > untreated to keep them more viable for certain tests.  Stabilizing bones
> for future
> > excavation is not really practical.
> >
> > If you have a good solid reason for the project, do it all in one series
> of
> > steps, not a little now and then something else later.
> >
> > Anyway, that is my opinion on the matter, hope that helps.
> >
> > Tonia Deetz Rock
>
>