New Haven Independent

New Tool Probes Colonial Cemetery

by Thomas MacMillan | December 16, 2009 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Thanks to some newfangled radar, archeologists looked for traces of old burial spots on the Green — and found some were closer to the surface than expected.

The New Haven Green was once the site of a Colonial-era cemetery. When the grave stones were moved to the Grove Street Cemetery, the skeletal remains were left behind.
With that history in mind, a group of Yale archaeologists picked the spot to test out a high-tech piece of equipment Tuesday.

Using a Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) machine, the archaeologists discovered what appeared to be a number of shallow graves underground behind the Center Church on the Green.

They made the find as part of a try-before-you-buy session with a new GPR machine, called a Noggin SmartCart. The $25,000 device is made by a Canadian company called Sensors and Software. The university is considering buying it for research at archaeology sites around the world.

Designed for archaeologists, the machine uses radar to create an image of what lies underground. At just past 11 on Tuesday morning, company representative Greg Summers (at left in top photo) was showing Yale’s Ken Panko (at right) how it works.

The machine is mounted on an all-terrain cart, which an archaeologist pushes back and forth like a lawnmower across an area to be surveyed. The machine scans the depths in segments and then assembles a kind of image of what lies below.

Pointing to the machine’s display, Summers indicated an anomaly that the machine had discovered. He said that it looked to be the remains of a grave. Punching some buttons, he determined that it was just 0.8 meters (2.6 feet) below the surface.

“A shallow grave,” he remarked. He said that the machine had already found several such anomalies.

“Archaeologists are increasingly relying on this type of equipment,” said William Honeychurch, an archaeology professor in Yale’s anthropology department, who was standing nearby.

Ground-Penetrating Radar allows archaeologists to discover large artifacts beneath the ground, like the outlines of ancient ruins or forgotten roads, said Yukiko Tonoike (at right in photo), a laboratory manager in the anthropology department.

Honeychurch (at left in photo) said that the university is likely to buy the machine, which could then be sent to ongoing Yale research sites in Peru, Mongolia, and Africa. It might also be put to use closer to home, he said.

“We would like to do a long-term research project here,” he said gesturing at the Green. The project could be done by Yale students learning how to use the new Noggin Smartcart, he added.

In an email on Tuesday evening, Tonoike said that the GPR survey had turned up fewer possible burial features than predicted. She expressed surprise, since records show that burials were quite dense in the area behind Center Church. Yale will study the matter more in the future, through historical archive research and more GPR work, she said.

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Comments

Posted by: TheVin | December 16, 2009 8:47 AM

Dead bodies? What a juvenile middle schoolesque headline. Skeletal remains perhaps...there are no bodies you dope.

Posted by: Peter Stein | December 16, 2009 9:12 AM

This is not a cute headline. Given the violence in the city, I had a sinking feeling when I first read it and feared reading on to see what awful, but imaginable thing had happened on the Green. Some other reader is going to read it and not continue on to read the story and will come away with a mistaken impression. There is a time for playing games with headlines, but I think this is not it.

[Editor's Note: Thanks. We changed it. The original headline was "Dead Bodies Found on the Green."]

Posted by: William Kurtzw | December 16, 2009 9:24 AM

Boy, I hate to be a wet blanket but the new headline isn't much better. 'Shallow graves' has a definite grisly connotation and also calls to mind the image of violent crime. And 'sleuths' might be correct word, but it's definitely not the most accurate or appropriate one.

Posted by: Robert Perry | December 16, 2009 9:43 AM

Since 2008, we have used GPR to locate and map over 2000 unmarked graves. This past summer (2009) in Savannah, GA we located two mass burial sites from the Great Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1820.
Bob Perry-TOPOGRAPHIX

Posted by: JP | December 16, 2009 10:07 AM

Isn�t common knowledge that the green is a graveyard and that only the headstones were moved to the grove street cemetery? I don�t think you can take a walking tour of new haven and not hear about that. Seems like a non-story to me.

Posted by: steve ross, human | December 16, 2009 10:33 AM

I like the original headline.

Posted by: Gretchen Pritchard | December 16, 2009 10:35 AM

I'm with the previous commenters. Redo the headline again and maybe find some other way to be vaguely cute if you're determined to be cute. Get over the CSI meme; it's not funny, and anyway the article isn't about finding graves on the Green, which anybody who knows anything about New Haven already knows are there. It's about testing a new device.

How about "Yale tries using its Noggin"? Ha ha.

[Ed: Thanks for your comments. We gave the headline another try. The second one read: "Sleuths Discover Possible Shallow Graves."]

Posted by: William Kurtz | December 16, 2009 11:53 AM

Great; now we can get to what's really important here which is: that machine is really cool. How do I go about getting them to run it over my yard?

Posted by: Robert Perry | December 16, 2009 6:45 PM

As far as GPR equipment goes GSSI (Geophysical Survey Systems) in Salem, NH is the World Leader in sub surfacing Imaging equipment. Noggin GPR equipment is good but they are located in Canada
Bob Perry - TOPOGRAPHIX.com

Posted by: Don | December 17, 2009 9:44 AM

This is a great article

Posted by: Jerry Lima | December 17, 2009 10:04 AM

I live in the States and have been using Sensors and Software Noggin GPR equipment for 15 years. Their equipment is well designed and very reliable. Dealing with Canada is as seamless as dealing with an American company.

Posted by: streever | December 17, 2009 3:30 PM

Kurtz you know that's a bad idea don't you?

Posted by: Robert Perry | December 17, 2009 3:44 PM

Yes, Noggin equipment is well designed and very reliable - I've worked with Noggin GPR on several joint projects. However, since my company specializes in historic cemeteries a good part of the work is performed in very rough terrain and debris that a �flat cart� system cannot get into. Also, if I have questionable GPR data, I can call GSSI and get an archaeologist on the phone. What I don�t like about GSSI equipment is the anti-glare coating they use on their computer display. Any type of cleaning performed on the glass wears off the coating.

Posted by: Lifer | December 17, 2009 9:44 PM

How long before some ghoulish teenie boppers start digging?

Posted by: Greg Summers | December 18, 2009 8:27 AM

I just wanted to say thank you to all who attended the demonstration on Tuesday and say a special thanks to both Yukiko and Prof. Honeychurch for hosting such an event.

Happy Holidays!!

Posted by: Vic Adams | December 21, 2009 4:51 PM

As a GPR service provider in the US & Canada our company uses ground penetrating radar for various applications. We have found the Noggin to be extremely accurate for cemetery mapping. In extreme rough terrain it can be removed from the cart and pulled by a single handle configuration. We have also found Greg Summers (mentioned in the article) and the other support staff at Sensor's & Software are very knowledgeable with extensive geophysical experience.

Posted by: Robert Perry | December 22, 2009 5:19 PM

Currently, TOPOGRAPHIX have three associate locations in the US. By the fall of 2010 we will have 4 additional locations in the US and Canada with more planned for 2011. If Noggin or Mr. Summers would care to contact me, I would be interested is seeing what Noggin has for completive pricing.

New Tool Probes Colonial Cemetery

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