Student Paper on Burial Location Wins First Place Award
Contact: Media contact: Nick Houtman, Dept. of Public Affairs, 207-581-3777; John Nelson, Dept. of Earth Sciences, 207-846-3103
ORONO– John Nelson takes pictures of the ground beneath our feet. To the untrained eye, his images are little more than abstract art, but the patterns and lines that emerge from his work have been instrumental in finding places with cultural significance, such as old burial sites.
In December, 2002, he found the location of a 19th century cemetery located, of all places, under a house in Falmouth, Maine. In September, his presentation on locating that long forgotten burial site received a Best Paper Award in the Division of Environmental Geosciences at the Eastern Section American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual meeting.
Nelson, a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Maine Department of Earth Sciences, lives in Yarmouth, Maine. His research focuses on evidence of the last Ice Age in southern Maine, and he uses technology known as electrical resistivity measurement (ERM) to gather information about layers of rock and soil underground.
In 2002, Nelson read a Portland Press Herald newspaper article about a search for the burial site of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 veteran, Capt. William Crabtree. Crabtree’s descendents thought they knew where the captain was buried, but they didn’t know for sure. The problem was that a house stood where they thought the old cemetery was located.
“I thought I could help them,” says Nelson, who had successfully tested the use of ERM at a modern cemetery and knew the technology could identify grave sites.
ERM consists of a computer and a system of electrical cables and spikes powered by a car battery. It injects an electric current into the ground and then detects the signals that are reflected back to the surface by soil and bedrock. The data can be analyzed to generate an image showing the location of the water table, impervious soil layers and bedrock. Because disturbed soil often contains small air pockets and electricity does not flow easily through air, areas previously dug up by people show up clearly in the images.
Nelson’s data from the house in Falmouth showed that a disturbed pit existed near the front steps of the structure. “I told the owners that depending on how serious they were about finding the grave, they should move the steps and dig there,” he says. The result was the discovery of a skull, vertebrae and an arm bone. Historical records confirm that the Crabtree-Hobbs cemetery at the site contained seven graves. Most of the gravestones are missing.
“The best thing about this technique is that’s entirely non-invasive. I don’t have to dig up anything to generate information about what’s underground,” says Nelson, who has established a company, Maine Non-Invasive, to provide the service to the public.
ERM, he adds, is typically used for geology research, resource studies and drilled-well characterization. While some archaeologists have employed the technique, the project in Falmouth may represent a new application to historical burial grounds.