Seeing Beneath the Surface: Mapping Unmarked Graves at a Historic Appalachian Cemetery
Abstract
In the Appalachian region and beyond, historic cemeteries typically contain many unmarked grave sites and are primarily found to be maintained by volunteers. This study uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to map unmarked graves at the historic Citizen’s Cemetery in Bristol, Virgina. Citizen’s Cemetery was founded in the early 1800s and has since moved three times. Its current location resides on a hill previously used for public housing. A GSSI-SIR-3000 GPR system with a 400 MHz antenna was moved along closely spaced transects to record the reflections of radar pulses sent into the ground. When objects or layers in the ground are different than the soil above them, the radar pulses reflect off of them. Graves are sometimes detected using GPR by reflections from buried remains and coffins. They are also found by an absence of reflections in grave shafts, which cut through natural soil layers. Specialized GPR imaging software was used to visualize and analyze the collected data, including two-dimensional cross sections and depth slices, creating a finalized map of unmarked graves. A detailed basemap was created from drone-based aerial imagery captured at the grave site, visualizing the location of headstones and associated markers. The products of the study are compared to a parallel study which used thermal imaging and lidar to detect unmarked graves at the cemetery. The results of this study will help us determine the effectiveness of GPR for detecting unmarked graves, which can be applied to other historic cemeteries in the Appalachian region.
Start Time
15-4-2026 1:30 PM
End Time
15-4-2026 2:30 PM
Room Number
271
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Presentation Subtype
UG Orals
Presentation Category
Science, Technology, and Engineering
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor
Eileen Ernenwein
Seeing Beneath the Surface: Mapping Unmarked Graves at a Historic Appalachian Cemetery
271
In the Appalachian region and beyond, historic cemeteries typically contain many unmarked grave sites and are primarily found to be maintained by volunteers. This study uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to map unmarked graves at the historic Citizen’s Cemetery in Bristol, Virgina. Citizen’s Cemetery was founded in the early 1800s and has since moved three times. Its current location resides on a hill previously used for public housing. A GSSI-SIR-3000 GPR system with a 400 MHz antenna was moved along closely spaced transects to record the reflections of radar pulses sent into the ground. When objects or layers in the ground are different than the soil above them, the radar pulses reflect off of them. Graves are sometimes detected using GPR by reflections from buried remains and coffins. They are also found by an absence of reflections in grave shafts, which cut through natural soil layers. Specialized GPR imaging software was used to visualize and analyze the collected data, including two-dimensional cross sections and depth slices, creating a finalized map of unmarked graves. A detailed basemap was created from drone-based aerial imagery captured at the grave site, visualizing the location of headstones and associated markers. The products of the study are compared to a parallel study which used thermal imaging and lidar to detect unmarked graves at the cemetery. The results of this study will help us determine the effectiveness of GPR for detecting unmarked graves, which can be applied to other historic cemeteries in the Appalachian region.
