By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
BATH — Today’s technology is helping researchers answer a few questions about life — and death — from centuries ago in the Beaufort County town of Bath.
Researchers from East Carolina University recently spent two days walking the grounds outside the historic Palmer-Marsh House trying to determine if the property is the final resting place of town residents long deceased.
Among the researchers was Mike O’Driscoll, an associate professor with ECU’s geology department. Strapped to what he called an “OhmMapper,” a meter that measures the electrical properties of soil, he walked a grid outside the historic building, passing over each area four times to obtain proper readings.
“Sometimes it’s hard to see changes in the topography, so this can indicate where old graves are, based on air pockets, which resist electricity,” O’Driscoll said as he paced the Palmer-Marsh grounds. “It takes a measurement every half second.”
O’Driscoll said he’s used the device several times when searching for older graves, but it is also helpful in other applications. For example, the meter can search up to 50 feet into the earth’s surface and is often used for locating ground water.
Assisting O’Driscoll was Robert Mills, an ECU graduate student studying anthropology. He is using technology utilized in the project as background for his master’s thesis.
“I’ve identified a couple of promising technologies,” Mills said. “Another uses lasers to see the surface in 3-D, to get surface data. And ground penetrating radar identifies anomalies by using radio waves underground.”
The data compiled in Bath is being studied, and Mills will interpret the findings. Bea Latham, assistant site manager and historical interpreter for Historic Bath, is looking forward to learning the project’s results.
“The new, sophisticated opportunity allows us to be precise in possibly locating graves that we know should be on the property, according to Marsh family Bibles and records,” Latham said. “While we can’t identify who is buried there, it just substantiates things we think to be there.”
ECU anthropology Professor Charles R. Ewen led the Bath project, which also included the excavation of an 18th century merchant’s cellar nearby.
“There is a historical agenda: We know there are more people buried here than there are tombstones,” Ewen said. “This will be useful for the historic-site folks. They’ll be able to tell people who may come to do utility work, ‘Oh no, you can’t dig here, there are graves.’”
Similar research has been done at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Beebe Memorial Park in Washington, as well as St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Bath and Tryon Palace in New Bern.