Sean:

Rose Bushes LOVE a high Phosphorus soil!!! The rose leaves or flowers should
have elevated metal and P content.  You MIGHT want to take soil and plant
samples over suspected grave areas without markers and send both the soil
and dried plant samples to WRI for FREE OIX pXRF analysis, OR, better, bring
them to SHA, SCA or SAA for FREE OIX pXRF analysis AND, party with us. Hope
to see you at SHA in Austin!

Sincerely,

Richard J. Lundin BA, MA, RPA, ISAP
Consulting Historical Archaeologist & Remote Sensing Specialist
(Archaeogeophysics)
Director, Wondjina Research Institute
Co-Organizer & Co-Chair of the 1st SHA pXRF Symposium at SHA 2010 at Amelia
Island, Florida
Co-Organizer & Co-Chair of the 2nd SHA Technology Symposium at SHA 2011 at
Austin, Texas
Co-Organizer & Co-Chair of the 2nd SHA pXRF Symposium at SHA 2011 at Austin,
Texas
Co-Organizer & Co-Chair of the 1st SAA pXRF Symposium at SAA 2011 at
Sacramento, California
Member, SHA Technology Committee
Liaison from the Society for Archaeological Science (SAS) and the
International Society for Archaeometry (ISA) to SHA
 

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sean
Doyle
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 10:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Relocating late 19th century cemetery

I have had some experience locating unmarked late 19th and early 20th
Century graves on the cheap while working on the Ft. Berthold Reservation in
North Dakota. These were Native graves, so any invasive procedures including
the use of Pin Flags were simply not allowed, so we had to go by site and on
some level, deductive whim. 

Almost invariably the 'grave' depressions were some value of 3 feet by 7
feet, arranged in streets, with each individual depressions oriented east to
west. They would be markedly rectilinear and deep, approximately >30cm with
a relatively sheer drop at each side resulting from coffin collapse. Also,
(and this is a bit alchemical) but the grasses within the grave would, more
often than not turn green first and the graves would show an intensity of
disturbance vegetation. Out here that would be Yuccas, Sage, etc... within
the disturbed soil. I suspect that the early greening has to do with the
disturbed soils allowing more efficient water transport and solving of the
nutrients. 

I am not sure if these indicators would be viable for a place with such a
high soil accumulation rate such as Pennsylvania. Also, it does not address
whether or not human remains are in fact interred in the "depression". 

P.S. Strange, out of sort, and often decorative vegetation may be growing at
a furious rate in the vicinity of graves; resulting from seeds/cuttings
dropping or being placed there as a memorial at some point. We have seen
rose bushes overtake the entire center of an 80 grave cemetery in the middle
of the open prairie.

Sean M.A. Doyle 

Historic Resources Specialist

SWCA Environmental Consultants

295 Interlocken Blvd. Suite 300

Broomfield, CO. 80021
303-487-1183 x.149
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Benjamin
Carter
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 7:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Relocating late 19th century cemetery

  All,

I received a number of very fast off-list responses. I greatly 
appreciate them all and those on-list.

Here's what people suggested. Cadaver dogs got the overwhelming votes 
with surface scraping a close second and probing next.

A cadaver dogs would be nice and it sounds like many of you have had 
great success with them, but this project has no budget and I get the 
gist from your emails that cadaver dogs who can identify 150 year old 
graves are not necessarily common. I will look around and see if any of 
the local police departments have such a dog with a trainer that has 
some spare time-  my hopes are not high.

As Lyle mentioned, surface scraping is somewhat intrusive and may fall 
afoul of current laws. It may be something to keep as an option.

Probing is somewhat less intrusive (as long as I stay shallow),  cheap 
and quick, so perhaps I'll give that a whirl.

Thank you all for your input.

Ben Carter

On 12/1/2010 2:31 PM, Lyle E. Browning wrote:
> If the 5 depressions are laid out side by side, then the odds are highly
to overwhelmingly in favor of them being graves. If not, way less so, with
isolated tree falls being the culprits.
>
> Investigation is tricky. Presumably PA has laws starting from at least the
Resurrectionist days against disturbance of a grave without prior
administrative approval. It may be as simple as the church granting same as
it is private land, if that is the law; or as complex as the SHPO or local
court system process. Either way, the legal ramifications need to be
addressed before fieldwork.
>
> A toothless bucket on a mechanical excavator would make quick work of
determining whether the depressions had sharp 90° edges and therefore looked
more gravelike than not. That still doesn't answer the ultimate question
because the graves might have been exhumed later. A parishioner with a
Mini-Excavator could probably be persuaded to volunteer for the effort.
>
> Another avenue entirely would be police cadaver dogs. As there is no
attendant graveyard, there is nothing to confuse the dogs, but the handler
would have to be familiar with a low level of response left from a 19th
century burial. And, CSI programs occasionally feature electronic sniffer
devices that may be able to identify decomposed human remains, but again the
time depth is an issue. A training exercise for the local forensic folks?
>
> Perhaps the bigger question is absent some threat, why is there any real
necessity to make the determination?
>
>
> Lyle E. Browning, RPA
> Browning&  Associates, Ltd.
> 2240 Chartstone Drive
> Midlothian, VA 23113
> 804-379-1666
> 804-357-2959 mobile
>
> On Dec 1, 2010, at 1:55 PM, Benjamin Carter wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> I was recently contacted by a local historian who has an interesting
problem. I don't have a lot of time, but thought I would throw this problem
out there and see if any of you have thoughts on quick and easy ways to deal
with this issue.
>>
>> The story:
>> A local iron works was built in the mid to late 19th century. Along with
the factory the company built dorms and a church. The church still exists,
but there is no cemetery officially associated with it. Indeed, many of the
factory workers who attended the church (and whose funerals were held at the
church) can be located via head stones in other cemeteries in the area.
However, just behind the church are five depressions that are roughly the
right size for a grave. The local historical society can demonstrate that
there were also five individuals in the church records who are not accounted
for in other cemeteries. These tend to be children and itinerant laborers
with little apparent connection to the area. It sounds quite plausible to
me, but I have NO experience with late 19th century cemeteries.
>>
>> My question: Aside from GPR, excavation,  or other time intensive and
expensive methods, is there a quick way to assess whether or not there are
human remains in these depressions?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Ben
>>
>> -- 
>> Ben Carter, Ph.D., RPA
>> Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology
>> Sociology and Anthropology Department
>> Muhlenberg College
>> 2400 Chew Street
>> Allentown PA, 18104
>> Phone: 484-664-3961 Fax: 484-664-3718
>> [log in to unmask]