Approaching Extensive Damage at Historic Cemeteries Using Canine Detectors

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Historic cemeteries do not “age” well. Many factors contribute to the degradation of cemeteries. The constant shifting of soil, rodents, vegetation, vandalism, and now we are facing an even bigger threat with climate change, including floods, fires earthquakes, mud slides, hurricanes, etc. How do we approach burials that have been lost or damaged over time? The specially trained dogs with the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) are one of the few ways to locate lost burials in a noninvasive manner. For close to 25 years, ICF has been working with archaeologists, tribal entities, state and federal park services, and cultural resource management to help locate historic and precontact burials so they can be protected. ICF’s dogs bring another “layer” to archaeology. Dogs can access sites that cannot be explored by other means. They are the only “tool” that can locate the scent of human remains. A recent project at the Vicksburg National Cemetery is a case-in-point. A landslide obliterated a section of the cemetery. Remediation couldn’t begin until the number of graves impacted could be determined. Bring in the dogs! The National Park Service did that and the results allowed successful remediation to begin.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40456.0