Prairie View A&M University Spotlights

Researchers Collaborate
to Map Slave Cemetery

Read Original Article.

For over a century, a patch of land on the northern end of the Prairie View A&M University campus has held the remains of members of the surrounding community and, as researchers have found, that of slaves of the plantations that once stood in Waller County.

PVAMU Public Relations Dr. Davin Wallace of Rice University, far right, works with teachers to study the readings captured by the GPR.

A collaboration between Rice University and PVAMU is shedding light on the secrets held in the old Wyatt Chapel cemetery. Since 2007, a team from Rice University has come to the area using technology to map the terrain of the site. The project is part of a two year grant from Texas Education Quality. Earth Science Professor Dr. Dale Sawyer of Rice University is the principal investigator on the grant.

With a large amount of the brush cleared away, the research team gained access to survey the site with ground penetrating radar (GPR). Dr. Davin Wallace, a Rice University Earth Science lecturer, said GPR shoots radar waves into the ground. Based on return of the waves, researchers can determine if anomalies in the soil are present up to eight feet under the surface. Anomalies signal that the soil has been disturbed at some point in time. The anomalies are marked with flags down to the centimeter. Trenches are also dug to reveal the rock strata, offering insight into the flooding of the nearby Pond Creek.

“In the past, archaeologists have excavated and verified a few graves. I am not sure if this will occur again, but our main contribution is determining where a ‘good’ area could potentially be for an excavation,” Wallace said.

This year, the team researching the site consists of K-12 in service teachers from the Houston Metro area enrolled in an Earth Science course at Rice. The project offers the teachers a chance to gain fieldwork experience to carry out individual research projects.

Dr. Akel Kahera, director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture at PVAMU has high hopes for the site. “The results of the research work will provide valuable information that ultimately will be used to designate this area as a Texas historic site,” he said.

Dr. James Wilson, dean of the Honors Program and associate provost for academic affairs said students in the Honors Program will research the identities of those buried in the cemetery in an effort identify them and learn about their lives.

For both Kahera and Wilson, the project is the perfect embodiment of the University’s mission. “The mission is teaching, research and service. Therefore through integrating these three unique forms of information and pedagogy, a unique perspective can be gathered about this historic site that will promote academic knowledge,” Kahera said.

PVAMU Public Relations

Researchers from Rice University use ground penetrating radar (GPR)
to determine if the soil of the cemetery site has been disturbed.

PVAMU Public Relations

PVAMU Graduate Student Kenneth Grimes, Jr. studies one of the
damaged tombstones in the old Wyatt Chapel Cemetery.

Read Original Article.