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Locating a grave and site assessment
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class notes on how to locate a grave and performing site assessments
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Locating a grave and siteassessment
Locating a burial site
Steps in locating a burial site:
Desktop research: identification of a site of interest
Site assessment: surveying
Site detection techniques
Intelligence data:
Eyewitnesses
CCTV Imaging
Historical or literature records, e.g., diary entries, data logs
Private digital collections, e.g., photographs
Assessment of landscape:
Cartography
Site accessibility
Palynology and soil data from suspect
Identification of sites of interest
Archaeologists are skilled in mapping activity spaces – by mapping
these for both the victim and the offender this can lead to the
identification of where the activity spaces intersect, i.e., the location of
the crime.
If the investigators know that the suspect has access to a car but does
not have the tools or skill to create a clandestine grave, rational choice
theory would suggest that the offender likely dumped the remains
rather than buried them.
Again, a map with the suspect’s likely routes between nodes may
present sites that would facilitate a dump.
A search strategy can then be devised and executed.
Landscape assessment
By assessing background knowledge, for example, a GIS application with
pedological, geomorphological and ecological maps, the forensic
archaeologist would be able to:
Predict what the soil and ecological conditions are at and near the to
be investigated crime scene, or place of incident.
Estimate which formation processes and taphonomic transformations
(e.g., taphonomic changes, soil and ecological alterations and material
degradation) could have taken place at this site and, therefore, to
predict which methods and techniques would offer the best change to
find a body, or object.
, Access the detectability of a grave in different pedological,
geomorphological and ecological contexts by means of field walking,
geophysics, remote sensing, or cadaver dogs.
Cartography
Maps of various types constitute an important initial resource in the
selection and elimination of the search are:
Larger maps are particularly useful for built up areas
Geological maps and those that showed land use both past and
present may also be of significant value.
Surface Surveying
Surface surveying is a routine part of pre-excavation undertakings. It
includes a methodological search, the documentation of finds, and the
collection of finds. This should happen at a crime scene regardless of its
location or size.
Survey should be research and question driven, integrating 3D mapping,
GIS and database features into its field procedures. During the survey, the
crime scene should be assessed for forensic evidence, given the type of
crime investigated, the locally encountered conditions and the time frame
of the case. Additionally, preliminary information concerning the site
formation processes and taphonomic transformations should be collected
and processed.
Importance of surveying
Identification of a potential burial site
Orientation and location of potential physical evidence
Updating of evidential value of the physical evidence
Updating excavating and recovery methodology.
Site assessment and survey techniques
Aerial photography and satellite imagery
LiDAR
GPR
Field walking and cadaver-detection dogs
Environmental indicators such as pH
Plant types and growth, mounds, hollows.
Geophysical survey techniques
Ground based physical sensing techniques used for archaeology
Data collection
Similar for all sensing instruments
Survey involves walking/flying with the instrument along closely
spaced parallel traverses, taking readings at regular intervals
Area to be surveyed is staked into “grids” – corners are the reference
points
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