1887
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Abstract

Locating unmarked graves is frequently necessary in older cemeteries that have poor or no records. Such is the case for a cemetery located on the fort Hood Army Base. the base is located in central Texas and is home to more than 2,000 archeological sites of varying ages. the goal of our Investigation was to determine if unmarked graves were present at a particular site. the Tools utilized to reach this goal were a soil resistivity meter and a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system. the existing headstones indicate the cemetery was active at least from 1871 through 1964. However, it is suspected that the cemetery was used prior to 1871. Soils at the site consist of thin loam overlying limey clay. the Walnut formation (Cretaceous) crops out at the site and consists of lime marl with layers of fossiliferous limestone. the survey area was approximately sixty meters by fifty meters. Resistivity measurements were made using the Wenner array with an A-spacing of one meter and a transect spacing of two meters. the GPR system utilized a 270 MHz antenna with half meter transect spacing. Resistivity data indentified areas believed to be disturbed, but not at a scale useful for locating specific graves. GPR successfully located eighty-four percent of the marked graves. GPR also identified nine anomalies consistent with graves that were not marked. Data indicates that specific graves are not identifiable in a lime marl environment using soil resistivity alone. the use of GPR greatly enhanced the ability to identify individual graves, both marked and unmarked.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.247.106
2011-04-10
2024-03-29
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http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609-pdb.247.106
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