Thursday, June 28, 2007
We began early today in the
blazing hot sun of Waterman Farms on Kenny Rd. Having marked and mapped
our sites at the surface level on the previous day, we began to dig
almost immediately. Fortunately, we were assisted in this endeavor by a
host of graduate students, archaeologists, and police officers. First,
we cleared the vegetation with shovel and trowels. For most teams, once
their site was free of grass and weeds, a burial site was clearly
visible. The ground in this burial site was softer, spongier, and
looked recently disturbed. Once we could see the burial outline, we
narrowed the scope of our “digging” (really careful poking and brushing)
to this area.
A student carefully sifts through the dirt covering her victim.
We carefully sifted through the
many layers of dirt covering our assumed grave with a large, wooden
sieve, and bagged and tagged any evidence we found. Throughout the
process, we measured location and elevation of the ground, evidence, and
body, and mapped these points onto a succession of surface-area grids.
Students use a line level to determine the depth of their gravesite.
We also took pains to journal
our findings in detail, upon the advice of almost all of our expert
lecturers. Ultimately, we unearthed our “bodies”—articulated skeletons
dressed in real clothes and surrounded by trace evidence including
jewelry, shoes, and keys.
A body is uncovered.
At the end of the day, we
returned to Metro to unload and briefly process the bodies.
Ellie tries her grave out for size.
The 2007 OSU/PAST Foundation Forensic
Archaeology Field School is sponsored by:
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