Visualizing Subsurface Features with Ground Penetrating Radar at the Vilkija Jewish Cemetery in Vilkija, Lithuania

Abstract

The Jewish Cemetery in Vikija, Lithuania has been abandoned since the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Lithuania. The Karnofsky family were a prominent Jewish family who moved to New Orleans in 1900 where they met Louis Armstrong and his family. Honoring this relationship inspired the restoration of the cemetery. Geographic research was conducted using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to image disturbances in the subsurface to locate cemetery features. GPR transmits electromagnetic pulses into the ground and reflects off changes in the natural sediments and anthropogenic features and data is displayed on a digital video logger (DVL). A pulseEKKO Pro 500 MHz antennae GPR unit with 0.25m spacing between lines, and a Topcon RL-H4C self-leveling laser and receiver are used to geometrically correct the GPR data. Between the road and the grassy edge of the cemetery three grids and one line were recorded, Grid 1 was 13.5x22m , Grid 2 was 5x12m, Grid 3 was 10x10m, and a 34m line. The reflections are interpreted to be boundaries of a mourning room and/or ritual purification building. Research on this site will continue to locate boundaries to allow for restoration of the site.