Geophysical Methods Reveal Aviation Impacturbation and Inform Forensic Archaeological Recovery of Historic Aircraft Crash Sites

Author:

Chadwick William1,Palmiotto Andrea1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Anthropology Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana Pennsylvania USA

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper demonstrates the utility of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) to inform forensic archaeology recovery efforts of missing service members from historic conflict‐related aircraft crash sites. This approach is becoming more common and improving recovery strategies by pinpointing potential subsurface anomalies prior to excavation. Two examples of recovery efforts at WWII aircraft crash sites are presented, revealing the diversity of landscape upheaval signatures that result from aircraft impacts. In both situations, the GPR successfully located feature boundaries and identified aviation impacturbation. The landscape signature varied in both cases due to factors including the trajectory and velocity of the aircraft crash and the topography of the impacted landscape. Notably, a ‘halo’ effect was identified in association with one crash site, revealing the force of the impact on sandy soils. Recognition of these anthropogenic signals is important to promote effective recovery strategies, thus saving time, labour and funds, particularly in historic sites where postincident taphonomic conditions have severely altered the morphology of the landscape.

Funder

Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Publisher

Wiley

Reference12 articles.

1. Christian T.2011. “Into Thin Air: Toward a Standardized Methodology for the Archaeological Investigation of Second World War Aircraft Wrecks.” Presented at the 2011 Fields of Conflict Conference Osnabruck/Kalkriese Germany.

2. Actor-Network Theory and the Practice of Aviation Archaeology

3. Eck C.2020. “Fallout: Understanding Site Formation Processes and Developing a Lexicon for Terrestrial Military Aircraft Crash Site Types Associated with the Recovery of Missing Personnel Remains.” In The Second Modern Conflict Research Symposium 2020 Imperial War Museum North 31st Jan–1st Feb 2020.https://modernconflictresearch.wordpress.com/2020‐abstracts/.

4. Forensic Archeology and the Need for Flexible Excavation Strategies: A Case Study

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