----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Pye"
To:, "Richard Wright"
Cc:
Sent:Thu, 18 Apr 2019 22:04:55 +0000 (UTC)
Subject:Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations
All,
I have attached a copy of the Borstel and Niquette paper, which was
cited in a previous email. The blue-green crystals are mentioned in
this paper, but the only source provided is personal communication
attributed to Dana Kollman, a forensic anthropologist currently at
Towson University. I have sent an email to Dana to ask if she has
specific sources that discuss this phenomenon. I will report back if I
hear anything.
Other than the Meyers et al. 1998 paper, for which a link was given
previously, I do know of two other publications that discuss health
concerns in historic cemeteries, including arsenic. These include
Konefes and McGee (2001) and Bybee (2004), both of which are attached.
Bybee does show a picture of the blue-green crystals in a grave in
Kentucky, but the reference given for the blue-green crystals is
Borstel and Niquette.
Best,
Jeremy
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 4/16/19, Richard Wright wrote:
Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 5:30 PM
Daniel
I agree
absolutely that prior tests for arsenic should be carried
out
on cemetery soils. No question about
that.
What I was worried about was that
excavators might get the jitters if
what
they were observing were merely bluish crystals of
vivianite,
which are commonly found around
bodies in soils that contains iron.
An
anecdote, unrelated to health and safety. In one forensic
site,
containing an unidentified murdered
body, an excavator thought that
the blue on
a persons clothing showed that the person must have
brushed up against crumbling, blue coloured
distemper on a painted
wall. Alas there was
no such forensic clue. The blue was made up of a
dusting of tiny crystals of vivianite.
Richard
-----
Original Message -----
From:
"HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY"
To:
Cc:
Sent:Tue, 16 Apr 2019
14:02:32 +0000
Subject:Re: Health and safety
considerations for exhumations
Richard,
Well, the original
citation was Borstel C.L. and Niquette C. Testing
Procedure for Historic Cemeteries. Cultural
Resource Analysts, inc.;
Lexington, KY, USA:
2000 - which used to be relatively easy to find
online, but now all I can seem to locate are
articles that use it as a
reference. It was
taken from a paper that originally appeared in the
publication of ACRA (American Cultural
Resources Association) in Issue
6-5 from the
year 2000, but that issue is not available in their
archives, and that appears to have been taken
from a paper presented
at the Archaeological
Society of Virginia's annual meeting on October
3, 1998. The paper is available on Academia
https://www.academia.edu/10146132/Arsenic_and_Old_Graves_Testing_Procedures_at_Nineteenth-Century_Cemeteries
though it does not include a reference to
arsenic presenting as blue
green crystals in
historic burials.
The
notation of arsenic presenting as vivid blue or
blue-green
crystals does appear on page 40
of this Chicora Foundation report on
the
excavation of a historic cemetery in South Carolina
http://www.chicora.org/pdfs/RS73%20-%20Son%20Cemetery%20compressed.pdf
but the reference in the report is to the ACRA
paper, and no specific
examples are
illustrated in the report
We have no specific examples of arsenic
presenting as blue-green
crystals from the
historic period excavations conducted to date in
Kentucky, but we have not encountered high
concentrations of arsenic
in any of the
completed exhumations. In short, the reference appears
to come from a single source and currently
appears to lack any field
verification that
I can locate. If however, arsenic were present in
such concentrations in a historic period burial
that it did appear as
a cluster of vivid
crystals, we would be looking at a burial that
constituted a haz-mat site, which would create
a very different set of
problems.
I do not see a good means to
differentiate vivianite from possible
arsenic contamination in the field aside from
testing the soils
beforehand. I would guess
that, if testing shows no contamination of
soils by arsenic but blue-green crystals appear
on skeletal remains,
you may have vivianite.
If you do have contamination of soils from
arsenic and crystals appear, additional - and
very careful - testing
of the material
should be undertaken to determine its composition.
Fun stuff.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On
Behalf Of Richard Wright
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2019 5:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations
for exhumations
Daniel
I did not know that arsenic forms blue green
crystals, but then I
have never worked in
that sort of cultural environment for burials.
However, I have worked on numerous human and
animal sites where the
mineral
'vivianite' (an iron phosphate) forms harmless
bluish crystals
on bones and clothing.
https://www.academia.edu/6961746/The_significance_of_vivianite_in_archaeological_settings
[1]
Vivianite is odd. You can
expose parts of a burial and notice nothing
on the surface of the bones. After you return
to work from a coffee
break you see bones
that are covered with bluish crystals. The
explanation is that vivianite is colorless when
buried, but oxidizes
on exposure to light
Is there any literature on
the blue green crystals of arsenic?
Richard
----- Original
Message -----
From: "HISTORICAL
ARCHAEOLOGY"
To:
Cc:
Sent:Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:35:11 +0000
Subject:Re: Health and safety considerations
for exhumations
I
recommend testing the soils around historic graves prior to
any
excavation to determine the presence of
hazardous materials -
especially lead,
arsenic, creosote, and mercury. Take samples away
from the interments to get an idea of
background levels of these
materials, and
follow OSHA guidelines with respect to the levels of
any of the materials that show up in your
samples.
In most
conditions - regular cemetery, wooden coffin, tropical to
subtropical environment - the risk of
infectious or contagious disease
still being
viable is pretty much non-existent. In some cases with
good preservation, say above the Arctic Circle,
the possibility of
encountering viable
contagions would increase significantly. Here in
Kentucky, however, arsenic is the thing that I
worry about most. It
was used as an
embalming agent for around 50 years, from around 1860
to 1910, with up to 12 pounds of arsenic used
per interment. It
presents in burials as
blue green crystals, but if you haven't
prepared for it by the time you see it,
you're hosed.
Daniel
B. Davis
Administrative Branch Manager,
Cultural Resources Section Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet Division of
Environmental Analysis
200 Mero Street
Frankfort, KY 40622
(502)
564-7250 or (502) 782-5013
KYTC Archaeology
and KYTC Cultural Historic
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL
ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On
Behalf Of Adrian Myers
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 7:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Health and safety considerations for
exhumations
Hi all,
Can anyone point me to any
articles or research that explore the
issues
around possible health and safety risks associated with
exhumation of historical graves, both in
general (e.g.
lead/chemical/hazmat
exposure, depth of excavations), but also
specifically in relation to the possibility
that an interred
individual died of a
communicable disease (e.g. Spanish Influenza).
i.e., are there risks of disease transmission
from a historical
burial, and is there any
research to back this up?
Since so far I have nothing on it, I will also accept your
informed
anecdotes and opinions!
Thanks kindly
*Adrian Myers, PhD*
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Links:
------
[1]
https://www.academia.edu/6961746/The_significance_of_vivianite_in_archaeological_settings
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