A RAG system for the management forensic and archaeological searches of burial grounds

Alastair Ruffell, Sean McAllister

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Abstract

Burial grounds are commonly surveyed and searched by both police/humanitarian search teams and archaeologists.One aspect of an efficient search is to establish areas free of recent internments to allow the concentration of assets in suspect terrain. While 100% surety in locating remains can never be achieved, the deployment of a red, amber green (RAG) system for assessment has proven invaluable to our surveys. The RAG system is based on a desktop study (including burial ground records), visual inspection (mounding, collapses) and use of geophysics (in this case, ground penetrating radar or GPR) for a multi-proxy assessment that provides search authorities an assessment of the state of inhumations and a level of legal backup for decisions they make on excavation or not (‘exit strategy’). The system is flexible and will be built upon as research continues.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Archaeology
Volume3
Issue number1-1
Early online date29 Oct 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2015

Keywords

  • burial grounds, clandestine graves, RAG System, ground-penetrating radar, search

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