Outdoor taphonomy facility

Keele's DEFRA-approved outdoor taphonomy facility includes various burial scenarios that are used for teaching, research and training. These include simulated clandestine burials of murder victims in both earth-cut and below patio graves, buried metallic objects of forensic interest and six 2,000L water tanks for aquatic decomposition studies.

A variety of long-term monitoring projects are ongoing within the site that are available for teaching and research projects, the longest being earth-cut graves dug in 2007. Our geophysical monitoring research paper details the first 10 years of results.

A domestic patio has also been simulated with Sus scrofa and a variety of forensic objects that can be detected. Our geophysical monitoring research paper details initial results.

Aquatic forensic research

	Within the facility, there are six 2,000L water tanks with pumps that can be used for various taphonomic teaching and research projects.
	Keele has a variety of lakes that can be used to trial forensic object detection techniques and we have developed a bespoke aquatic forensic geophysics capability for water search.

 

dGPS surveying

An EMLID dGPS base station is permanently installed on a nearby building, only the second known globally at a UK HE, which allows sub-cm positional accuracy for campus-based spatial positioning.

Contact

Please contact Dr Jamie Pringle with enquiries.
For media enquiries, please contact the Communications team.