Howdy all:):):)
 
During my endless saga of burial removal projects I often recover dentures
from the burial context.  I am at a loss for good references concerning
dentures.  I have recovered them from very late 19th century burials as
well as many 20th century burials.  My immediate problem is that I have
recovered a set of upper and lower dentures from a burial dating to 1880.
The material appears to be vulcanized rubber.  Has anyone done any
research on dentures?
Another phenomena I have observed recently is the inclusion of embalming
fluid bottles within a number of coffins from burials dating circa
1950-1960.  Some of these bottles were still full of formaldehyde? while
others were obviously empty.  Graves contained 3 to 5 bottles.  A few
were embossed with the name of a Chicago supplier.  Has anyone else come
across this behavior?  I am wondering if it is associated to a careless
local mortician or has been documented on a larger scale?
 
Any info will be greatly appreciated:):):)
 
Dan Sumner Allen IV
Staff Historical Archaeologist
Mortuary Specialist
DuVall & Associates, Inc.
and Cumberland Research Group
 
PS:  Thanx to all who participated in the dowsing discussion:)  I
accumulated a small but impressive collection of references on the
subject.  For the record, the specialized nature of archaeological
applications of remote sensing and less intrusive methods are impractical
in the contract world in this region due to the low number of
experienced operators and the high cost of equipment.  For many
of us our reputation and economic security depend on the thoroughness and
efficiency of our method.  For this reason, our firm firmly believes that
subsurface testing is the only definitive method of determining the
presence or absence of graves.  Even if we had the best and most precise
remote sensing data, the only way to prove or disprove the data would be
to remove at least a fraction of the overburden.  Being an ex-Marine I
often like to think of it as clearing minefields...you're never really
quite sure when one is gonna go off.  And you only get a few
mistakes:):):)