Old Lyme Resident Phil Davidowsky Surveys Centuries-Old Burial Site

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Phil Davidowsky (foreground) operates a magnetometer system while student colleague Cory Wydysh (background) operates ground penetrating radar equipment to find unmarked gravesites.

ITHACA, NY (05/31/2013)(readMedia)-- Old Lyme resident and 2013 Ithaca College graduate Phil Davidowsky was part of a four-member Ithaca College research team that used ground penetrating radar and other remote sensing tools to search for hidden gravesites in Dansville, New York. Headed by associate professor of physics Michael "Bodhi" Rogers, the team had come to the attention of the Dansville Area Historical Society because it explores archaeological sites with radio signals, not shovels.

"To excavate a site with picks and shovels, you're essentially destroying it," Rogers said. "Plus, if you're not sure what's under the surface, knowing where to start digging is pretty much hit and miss. With our radar and magnetometer techniques, we can pinpoint the areas we want to look at and, once we've investigated our areas of interest, leave the site the way we found it. Our methods are also significantly less expensive than the ones used in traditional digs."

The goal of Rogers' student research team was to find burial sites dating back to 1797, when the first death in Dansville was recorded. Residents in that early time had no designated area to bury the deceased individual, so they interred the body behind a house near the main street. The area soon became the village's burial site. In 1847, however, the village designed a separate burial facility, intending to transfer the remains there from the original site. Not all the remains, though, got moved.

Now that the original site is a park, village officials plan to erect a monument on it and add new sidewalks and lights. But first, they want to make sure their construction projects won't disturb the unmarked gravesites. To help them do that, Wydysh and his colleagues spent two days using their specialty equipment to examine the ground for soil shifts, a good indicator of a gravesite. With the fieldwork complete, the team is now analyzing their data in order to design a map showing the locations of the unmarked gravesites.

Davidowsky graduated from Ithaca College in May with a bachelor's in physics.

For more information, contact Keith Davis, assistant director of media relations at Ithaca College, at (607) 274-1153 or kdavis@ithaca.edu.

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Phil Davidowsky (foreground) operates a magnetometer system while student colleague Cory Wydysh (background) operates ground penetrating radar equipment to find unmarked gravesites in Dansville, New York.

[[PHOTO CREDIT]]:

Michael "Bodhi" Rogers