In Texas recently we had a road construction case in which a tribal group objected to any vibrations of an area which contained burials. I don't know much about the particulars, unfortunately.

If you want additional information, email me off list and I can refer you to someone who would know more.

Carol

*****************************
Carol McDavid, Ph.D.

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob Skiles
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 10:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Pressure on Human Burials Question

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])
>