The Arkansas State University Museum hosted a seminar covering an emerging technology that can be used to locate unmarked graves.

John Riggs, a retired archeologist, presented this new technology, known as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), which uses high-frequency radio waves to generate images of below-surface features.

This technology is used by the Easy Radar USA company, which claims to have created the first truly affordable ground-penetrating radar system.

Images generated by GPR represent abnormal soil activity. This data can be used for a variety of purposes, such as finding unmarked graves.

Riggs said he was introduced to the technology through Jamie Lockhart, the retired director of archaeogeophysical research at the University of Arkansas. 

“I was just absolutely blown away by the imagery that he could produce with his equipment,” Riggs said. “It really lit a fire under me that when I retired, I should get one of these things and see what I can do with it.”

Seeking a GPR system of his own, Riggs purchased a unit from Easy Radar USA and got to work. Riggs was involved in numerous projects utilizing GPR systems. 

One of these projects was at Stoney Point Cemetery in Beebe, Arkansas. The cemetery needed to identify every unmarked grave, which proved costly as the digging required to find an unmarked grave was around $1000 in labor costs alone.

Riggs was able to assist the cemetery find over 800 unmarked graves. Using GPR greatly reduced the $1000 in labor cost per grave, ultimately saving the Stoney Point cemetery approximately $800,000.

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