title: Suspect burial excavation procedure: a cautionary tale.
abstract: Geographic location, time of reporting and need for rapid evaluation contributed to a lack of intelligence concerning a suspect burial site in scrub woodland (approximately 15 km from the last known location of a missing person) in Northern Ireland. Police received reports of a subsiding 'grave', which was evaluated positively using GPR and victim recovery dogs (VRD). After 24h work, archaeological excavation showed a vertical-sided, stepped excavation on undisturbed clay with no inhumation. Subsequent research showed the feature to be an engineering trial pit. The GPR response was a water table and rocks, VRD were possibly reacting to disturbed ground. The work serves as a demonstration of good archaeological practice in suspect burial excavation, following a lack of landscape evaluation and poor overall intelligence.
authors.affiliation: School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, BT7 1NN Northern Ireland, UK. a.ruffell@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: Alastair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruffell
authors.forename: Colm
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carver
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCambridge
mesh_terms: D002048:Burial; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D011825:Radar; D014197:Trees