Yudu - Connect Volume25 Issue4 March-April2012DRM

3–5 inches of soil over the sites with wire rods. In no time a fragment was unearthed. When bodies decay and the skeletons disarticulate, the bones of the hands and feet percolate upward as rainwater descends. But was this fragment human? We would need an anatomist and found

a national expert visiting a nearby university. The bone was human, the second metatarsal from a right foot. The graves were active sites. In January, 2005, we were able to excavate in the park. The play-

ground equipment was due for replacement, and we wanted to dig. City officials had followed our work closely and agreed to fund the services of a professional archaeologist and his graduate assistant from the University of Idaho to supervise our work. We had wondered why the graves discovered by the GPR were so

deep. When the concrete pilings for the old playground equipment were removed and the soils examined, the answer presented itself. When the park was created 110 years ago, landscape architects had imported at least a meter of topsoil, effectively burying the graves even deeper—too deep for safe exhumation.

The Archaeological Field School Total station survey, 2004

The popularity of the archaeological work among my students moved me to design yet another layer to the project and network with even more resources. Partnering with the Idaho State Historical Soci- ety and the University of Idaho, and with the financial support of a regional pathology laboratory, I developed a field school for eight students in grades seven to ten to train them in the protocols for investigations at a pre-Columbian site, working side by side with professional archaeologists. Those skills in hand, the students could progress to the next level of investigation, in which chemical labora- tory analysis would follow their fieldwork. In June, 2008, after reading a report on the status of pioneer ceme-

Bone fragment, Pioneer Park Photo

teries in Iowa, I petitioned the city for permission to extract soil cores from the city park at points identified in 2004 as likely candidates for unmarked graves. The goal was to identify the residual effect of embalming with arsenic, a common practice during the period when the old cemetery

The bone was

human, the second metatarsal from a right foot.

was operational. A regional testing laboratory underwrote the fieldwork and spectros- copy analysis for the sample the students gathered from the cores. One sample produced outstanding results: spikes in arsenic and zinc. We had struck a zinc-lined coffin. Four months later, I drew regional foresters into the professional network with a field exercise collecting cores from mature trees at both cemetery sites. Why? Trees concentrate soil contaminants. Working under the guidance of a PhD in microbiology, high school stu- dents processed the samples using testing kits specific to arsenic contamination. Only normal background levels were found. As these project components unfolded, work with GIS expanded to include more than

400 seventh- and eighth-grade students every term in regularly scheduled seminars fea- turing historical geography and life sciences, complemented by two college courses for their faculty. Three elementary schools introduced their sixth graders to GIS. In May, 2010, an outdoor kiosk was placed in the park to commemorate the old cemetery

and the work done by the students. Underwriters included fraternal organizations from two states, funeral homes, and health care facilities. Over nearly ten years of work, more than a dozen organizations volunteered their professional services or funded activities. We

steven branting