On Monday, May 12, 2003, at 12:44 PM, Jamie Brandon wrote:

> Greetings all:
>  
> I am currently looking for references (including mentions in State 
> Plans, Laws, gray literature, methodological papers, etc.) on the use 
> of metal detectors in finding the locations of historic grave sites. . 
> . Or more to the point, are there statements out there in the 
> literature to the effect that metal detectors may not be (putting it 
> diplomatically) "the best way to go about" delineating a 
> historic-period grave (I mean, 5-6 ft down?!?). . . .
A metal detector has a fall-off of signal with depth of about 1/d9th 
which means that the signal falls off very, very, very rapidly. The 
larger the object, the deeper it can be detected. However, a typical 
coffin with nails has very little metal mass to be detected. A MD is 
not the best bet for grave detection at those depths.

Physics in Archaeology by Martin Aitken (1971) has a good write-up on 
them and their limitations. The essentials haven't appreciably changed 
over the years.

Lyle Browning