Bob Skiles,
I agree that this is a question that has no meaningful answer.
If skeletonised, I would add the critical variable of the amount of
collagen left in the bones - somewhat flexible with collagen remaining,
but crumbly if only bone minerals left.
Richard Wright
On 7/03/2013 03:41, Bob Skiles wrote:
> John Mark,
>
> This is a question that has no single (mathematical) answer, nor one
> that could ever be useful for highway engineers in arguing that
> running heavy machinery over graves would do no damage to them. The
> amount of compressive/shear/vibratory/etc forces that a human
> interment is able to sustain ranges widely from near zero to "very
> high," depending upon several factors, not the least of importance
> being the physical and chemical characteristics of the matrix in which
> they are contained, the type of inclosure the remains may have been
> placed within, and the age and health of the individual at the time of
> burial (among others).
>
> I don't believe an engineering table can be worked-up to provide such
> answers, nor should such be attempted (the only valid results would
> derive from experimentation on a wide-range of human burials in
> differing matrices under a wide variety of environmental conditions.
> Performing such experimentation would be highly unethical and morally
> bankrupt in the first place, as well as unlikely to produce any useful
> results.
>
> Regards,
> Bob Skiles
>
> PS - Your highway manager may likely benefit from a perusal of the
> Dallas "Freedmens' Cemetery" issue and reports of a couple decades ago
> (which involved a highway manager deciding to disregard and pave over
> a black freedmen cemetery, ultimately costing the state and
> contractors several million dollars more than what it would have cost
> to properly investigate and mitigate the cemetery in the first place).
>
> On 3/6/2013 7:51 AM, John Mark Joseph wrote:
>> To All,
>> Today, I was asked the following question by a project manager on a
>> highway project: “Can you please refer me to a study that… “ “would be
>> appropriate for determining the maximum pressure or force that a
>> human burial can
>> withstand without damage?” Would anyone care to weigh-in? If so
>> please write
>> me at my email address below as my library is back in Virginia. I
>> tried
>> to explain the variables but I had to post the question.
>> Si Yu'os Ma'åse',
>> John Mark Joseph
>> State Archaeologist, Guam
>> 490 Chalan Palasyo
>> Agana Heights, GU 96910
>> (671)-475-6339
>> [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
>>
>
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