Spring 2004
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Photo Courtesy Fort Hood

Dennis Glinn, of the Fort Hood cultural resources management office, collects geophysical resistivity data from a Fort Hood cemetery.

Fort Hood, Texas, is trying a high-tech approach to identify subsurface burials without disturbing sites.

The program aims to enhance relationships with Native American tribes and fulfill the Army's responsibility to maintain stewardship of our nation's history.

Financed by a Department of Defense cultural legacy grant, the cultural resource management staff at Fort Hood is working on the joint project with staff from Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, N.C.

The project includes testing prehistoric open campsites, prehistoric rock shelter sites and historic cemeteries to collect baseline data for the geophysics of different settings. By testing in various settings, researchers hope to show how any military installation environmental program, regardless of geographical location, can use this strategy.

Specifically, the process involves using near surface geophysics to map the subsurface and find anomalies that may be burials. Fort Hood cultural resources management staff hope to identify archaeological sites, especially those that may contain human remains, without having to excavate. Using the technology:

• Saves money by detailing features at archaeological sites without having to conduct costly excavations
• Demonstrates to Native American tribes that the military is sensitive to their concerns and is proactively seeking alternative procedures to archaeological excavations
• Creates a combination of testing strategies that can be applied to all types of archaeological surveys

The initial phase of geophysical testing is complete at Fort Hood and will soon begin at Camp Lejeune. The initial data provided clear surface maps that are helpful to the cultural resource management staff's efforts.

The second phase of testing consists of soil sampling and laboratory analysis and is due to begin in the next few months.

One goal for this testing is to educate the cultural resources community about geophysical applications.

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