Phoenixville Geophysical Survey Hopes To Unearth Historical Treasures

This Historical Society of Phoenixville Area (HSPA) will perform a unique study on Friday.

The society host a Geophysical Site Survey, performed by a team of fourteen Kutztown University Geology Students, under the direction of Associate Professor Dr. Laura Sherrod, to review the former Mennonite Graveyard Site of the Phoenixville Mennonite Church (Circa 1794) and the Central Lutheran Churchyard Grave Site Plan (Circa 1925) on file in the HSPA Archives.

Historically, the society hopes to confirm and create maps of subsurface archaeological features that currently exist on the site.

Both a Magnetometer and Ground Penetrating Radar (“GPR”) Equipment will be used to examine the site. These geophysical instruments can detect buried features when their physical properties contrast measurably with their surroundings. In some cases individual artifacts, especially metal, may be detected as well. Readings taken in a systematic pattern become a data set that can be rendered as image maps.

Unlike other archaeological methods, geophysical survey is neither invasive nor destructive. For this reason, it is often used where preservation (rather than excavation) is the goal, and to avoid disturbance of culturally sensitive sites such as cemeteries.

Visitors are welcomed to stop by the Society on Friday, November 13, 2015 beginning around 1:00pm to see what it takes to complete this geophysical survey.