Technical report of geophysical survey of City Lot, Woodland Cemetery in Montgomery County, Ohio

The City Lot, located within Woodland Cemetery, was used for affordable burial options between approximately 1868 and 2016. The majority of City Lots' nearly three-thousand inhumations used wooden box burial containers. Background research demonstrated the density of cultural resources in historic Dayton and provided cultural context for both Woodland Cemetery and the City Lot. In addition to the background research detailed in this report, methods, and results of geophysical survey of the City Lot using ground-penetrating radar are also presented. Survey occurred between May 11th and 16th. Initial pedestrian survey documented 86 visible grave markers and 71 visible grave-like depressions and covered the entirety of City Lot (1.33 acres or 0.53-hectare). Their locations were recorded with an Emlid Reach RS2+ rover real time kinematic global navigation satellite system (RTK GNSS). GPR survey showed a number of headstones were also seen in GPR data from approximately 10 to 30 centimeters in depth. Three-hundred and seventy-one grave-like anomalies were interpreted from GPR data. The purpose of this research is to leverage archaeological geophysics to improve the documentation and understanding of an important part of Dayton’s cultural heritage through which the author will gain valuable insights into the strengths and challenges of archaeological geophysics within the setting of a historical cemetery.