A team of researchers from the University of Saskatchewan will be conducting a project at Saskatoon’s oldest cemetery this summer.

Professor Samuel Butler, Department Head of Geological Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan along with three other colleagues will be using electrical resistivity surveys to locate tombstones at the Nutana Pioneer Cemetery located in the Exhibition neighbourhood.

Typically, ground penetrating radar is the most commonly used technique to find unmarked graves, although it doesn’t work well in conductive ground where electrical resistivity tomography may be effective.

An image of the electrical resistivity of the ground can then be created when the data is analyzed. Graves may be located as resistive anomalies if the caskets are intact or may be conductive if the caskets are no longer intact or were not present at time of burial. Areas where the soil was disturbed to dig the grave may have a different resistivity from the background and therefore will show as a resistive anomaly.

That’s according to a City report. The City’s planning and development committee signed off on the project

after hearing the research is for method practices only and not for any new investigations.

According to the City’s website, there are 144 graves at the cemetery that have been identified. The last burial at the Nutana Pioneer Cemetery took place in 1948.