Prague-Zlicin,
Czech Republic - Summer 2007
Zlicin
- Hrozenkovska Street is located on the western outskirts of Prague, still within
the city limits. Apartment houses are being built on this site and as is the
usual scenario in Central Europe, human skeletal remains were found.
LABRYS o.p.s. archaeologists were in charge of excavations in Zlicin and they
extended an invitation to an ICF canine, Ness, and her trainer, Eva Cecil, to
come and search for burials.
Burials on this site are dated to 400 - 450 AD; a gold Roman coin found here was made in 402 AD or 403 AD. Glass wine goblets, intact ceramic pots and some jewelry were also found. There are an estimated 125 - 150 burials on this site approximately 2 to 2.5 meters under the surface.
The
original soil is mostly grit sandstone; 2 - 4 feet of the top soil were removed
and a undisturbed grit sandstone soil level was reached. At this point the burial
areas
were somewhat visible to a trained archaeologist’s eye, because the burial
depressions contain some darker top soil. But the dog
can not see this.
Search
In June 2007, ICF’s HHRD trained canine Ness searched an unexcavated
area measuring approximately 10 x 40 meters about 4 ft of the top soil had already
removed. Most burials in this area were already suspected by archaeologists.
These suspected burials were visible to their trained eyes after the surface
soil was lightly watered; the darker spots revealed their location. Ness confirmed
the burials and her alerts were documented. Black arrows show Nessie's alerts.
In July 2007, her alerts are confirmed.
ExcavationA dog find
In
July 2007 while visiting the Zlicin excavated site, Ness gave an additional
trained alert in an area previously unsuspected and unknown to contain skeletal
remains. This alert was also photographed and documented on a video.
Excavation began in August 2007
As it turned out,
this was a pure dog find. After this spot was fully excavated in August 2007,
it was discovered that it contained not only the human skeletal remains (1.5
meters deep) but also a beautiful and very special, intact glass bottle, both
dated to 450 AD.
This burial was numbered 1557/144
Conclusion
In
archaeology, an HHRD trained canine with impeccable manners, slow and methodical
search style, properly trained and certified, may be the Remote Sensing Tool
of the future.
ICF canine trainers are "writing the book" in this field. Certification standards are high insuring that the ICF certified canines are reliable, non-invasive tools to be used in modern archaeology.