Ground-Penetrating Radar and Rapid Site Identification and Characterization: Examples from the Theodore Turley Home Site, Nauvoo, Illinois

Summary

Nauvoo, Illinois, is among the most important sites in the history of the Latter-day Saint movement in the United States. Since the 1960s, Nauvoo has been the site of significant historical and archaeological research and interpretation.  With an estimated 1 million visitors annually, the competing needs to preserve the archaeological assets and the continued desire to improve the visitor experience necessitates the most accurate knowledge of these buried resources possible. This presentation reports work—using a combination of pedestrian survey, ground-penetrating radar, and targeted test excavations—which rapidly identified, characterized, and evaluated buried resources at the Theodore Turley Home and Brewery Site, the first home built by Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo.  The method and workflow employed provided valuable time-savings, limited the destructive impacts, and greatly improve our understanding of the buried features.  Implementation of these methods in Nauvoo (and indeed similar sites) will lead to more appropriate management of buried resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 951