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91心頭利 Anthropology Alumnus Spotlight: A Profile on Bob Chartrand
On a cold February morning, I sat down with Bob Chartrand—owner of Chartrand Geoarchaeological Solutions LLC and an alum of 91心頭利’s Anthropology MA program—to discuss his career in Geophysics, how he became interested in ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveying, and what comes next.
Chartrand got involved in GPR work as an undergraduate student in the Geology department at Salem State University. His undergraduate advisor at the time collaborated with the university’s History department, working with Historical Archaeologist and 91心頭利 alumni, Dr. Emmerson Baker, to conduct GPR surveys at archaeological sites throughout New England. Participating in these GPR projects and taking classes in Geophysics and Archaeology, Chartrand found a niche combining his interests in Geology and History and decided to continue down the path of Archaeological Geophysics. After graduating, he moved to Virginia and began to work at Jamestown Rediscovery.
When I asked what made him want to do GPR work, he explained that he had always been very interested in archaeological landscapes on a larger scale than what most traditional archaeological projects provide. In his words, while with Archaeology, “you can really hone in on a specific site or a specific area, like a 10 foot by 10 foot unit, like they do at Jamestown […] geophysics kinds of opens the door a little bit more where you can see a bigger picture and collect data in a shorter period of time.” Geophysical surveys also, as he explained, have the advantage of being non-invasive and non-destructive, and they enable archaeologists to be more precise and strategic when locating areas to excavate or avoid. When conducting a GPR survey, an archeogeophysical specialist sets up a grid over the survey area and pushes a GPR machine over the ground at regular intervals. The machine sends radar waves into the ground and measures the strength of the wave and the time it takes to bounce back up, picking up anomalies, or potential archaeological features, below the surface. 3D reconstructions can then be produced of subsurface anomalies, helping identify potential burial shafts, brick foundations, and other features before excavation takes place. In Chartrand’s words, such surveying is a valuable “methodology to use, to try to hone in and be less invasive to archaeology sites [by] incorporating geophysical methods before and after archaeological testing."
After taking a Historical Archaeology class at 91心頭利, taught by Dr. Audrey Horning, Chartrand enrolled in the Anthropology MA program, graduating in 2021. While in the program, his MA thesis project focused on the New Quarter archaeology site near Queen’s Creek, located at the Naval Weapons Station, Cheatham Annex. He worked with Dr. Audrey Horning and Dr. Martin Gallivan, as well as Bruce Larson, the cultural resources branch head for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic (NAVFAC) and an alum of 91心頭利’s Anthropology MA program. Continuing his interest in Archaeological Geophysics, Chartrand’s MA thesis, “Plantation Spaces: A GPR Analysis of an Eighteenth-Century Enslaved Family’s Dwelling in the Colonial Chesapeake”, demonstrated the utility of GPR surveying in archaeological research. He ran GPR over a previously identified subfloor pit feature associated with an enslaved dwelling on the site, locating the perimeter of the pit as well as other features related to the dwelling. Using the GPR data, he was then able to place strategic test units, and through excavation positively confirmed that the units contained archaeological artifacts or features. In doing so, his thesis demonstrated the success of employing GPR at the New Quarter site and recommended the methodology at other archaeological sites.
After graduating with his MA in 2021, Chartrand worked at the James River Institute for Archaeology, while building a clientele interested in conducting GPR surveying. In 2020-2021, he launched Chartrand Geoarchaeological Solutions, a “single-member LLC focused on near-surface geophysical surveying” with a “mission […] to engage private, state, and federal organizations with a non-invasive approach to identifying subsurface cultural resources.”
In this role, he has continued working with 91心頭利 Anthropology faculty, developing collaborative GPR projects. Working with Dr. Audrey Horning, for instance, he conducted an extensive GPR survey on the Uniontown cemetery in Yorktown, Virginia. Uniontown, or Slabtown, was an African American community founded by formerly enslaved refugees during the Civil War. Located around Yorktown battlefield, the town existed from the 1860s until it was razed by the National Park Service in the 1970s, when they uprooted and displaced the Uniontown community to expand the national park at the battlefield. A recent community-driven project, however, has begun with the aim of documenting and preserving the history and legacy of Uniontown, working with former residents and descendants of the community and in collaboration with the National Park Service.
As part of this project, Chartrand worked with Dr. Horning to run a GPR survey over the Yorktown battlefield, aiming to identify the unmarked burials of the Uniontown community. After surveying four acres—a process of data collection and processing that took around three months—he was able to identify about 250 possible unmarked graves, a substantial cemetery representing the community’s century-long history. After processing the GPR data, Chartrand was able to locate the coordinates for each possible burial. In August of 2024, for a Uniontown community remembrance event, he relocated them with flags, and candles were laid down on each potential unmarked grave, the Yorktown battlefield lit up that night with the memory of each community member interred beneath the grass. In his words, it was a meaningful event to “bring some closure to the community” and to see “the landscape as it may have once looked […] with all these candles all across the field, where either flat markers would have laid or headstones would have laid.” In a sense, “it was kind of like bringing the dead back to life a little bit, you know, them showing you they are here through the GPR data."
When I asked what he enjoys most about his job, Chartrand highlighted this kind of community work, explaining that he finds it rewarding to work with communities and bring closure to some of their questions. Many of the projects he has recently undertaken have been at neglected cemeteries throughout Virginia, and he has been able to identify unmarked burials through geophysical surveying, locate individuals that were previously unrepresented in the cemetery, and provide communities with information so that these individuals can be remembered. He explained that, while he came into the MA program with more of a scientific mindset—coming in with a background in Geology—after going through the department and undertaking GPR projects since graduating, he appreciates the tangible and intangible aspects of archaeological work, the ways in which, in his words, “archaeology play[s] into the community today, how the community can use this knowledge today to either protect or to learn more about their past."
He also highlighted the puzzle-like aspect of GPR interpretation as something he enjoys about his job. As he explained, when surveying you never know exactly what you’re going to find, like with traditional Archaeology, and the process of piecing together the geophysical data provides an interesting challenge. The data also provides a unique way of seeing and interpreting archaeological sites. In his words, “it’s a little bit different than archaeology”, as “you can see some of these lost landscapes […] on a site from a different perspective than archaeology might provide."
Chartrand brought this perspective to another archaeological project with 91心頭利 faculty. Working with Dr. Martin Gallivan, as well as Dr. Jessica Jenkins, an assistant professor of Anthropology at Clemson University and alumna of 91心頭利, he conducted a GPR survey of the Shelly site in Gloucester County, Virginia. Situated on the York River, the Shelly site was home to thousands of years of Native residence and was potentially the location of the seventeenth-century Powhatan village of Catauncack. Chartrand ran a broad GPR survey of the site, locating several potential archaeological features. In the process of collecting the data, Dr. Gallivan, Dr. Jenkins, and their crew ground-truthed the features in real time, uncovering several rich shell deposits. Chartrand subsequently embarked on a more intensive geophysical survey of the site, enabling the project to hone in on areas that may be tested in the future or avoided entirely for site preservation.
As we sat down and discussed his career and the projects he’s undertaken, Chartrand also told me about an exciting new opportunity to continue his geophysics work on behalf of the U.S. Army. As a Captain in the army, he was commissioned to serve as a Military Governance Specialist in the U.S. Army Civil Affairs program. Military Governance Specialists are commissioned into the program, as he explained, based on their civilian skill sets: recruits include lawyers, environmentalists, border patrol officers, archivists, water specialists, and heritage/preservation specialists. Brought in for his background in Archaeology and Geophysics, Chartrand will serve in the program as a Heritage and Preservation officer. Interestingly, the program as it exists today was modeled after the famous Monuments Men program (or the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program) during World War II, in which the US Army recruited culture historians—archaeologists, curators, art historians—to track down, rescue, and conserve art and artifacts that had been looted by the Nazis across Europe.
In the program’s modern incarnation, Military Governance Specialists serve essentially as military diplomats, sent to potential or active conflict zones to, in Chartrand’s words, act as “liaisons for the army to communicate with a host nation's government, institution, or communities to learn from and assist in conservation efforts of cultural resources in case of an environmental or sociopolitical conflict. They also inform their own commanders of the cultural significance of historic sites in a region to avoid in a kinetic environment.” Because he often conducts geophysical surveys in cemeteries, Chartrand highlighted that he could potentially continue this work in this new capacity, as he could use GPR to identify unmarked or mass burials in the wake of conflict. He underscored that, while Archaeology is traditionally seen as the study of ancient or historic peoples, separated from us by a long gulf of time, new or old findings can be used in the present, including in conflict zones, where they can affect real sociopolitical change. In this new role, Chartrand described how he can “voice for archaeological preservation for the army”, taking the skills he has developed in Archaeology and Geophysics to tackle new challenges.
From his potential future work in conflict zones abroad, or his past projects surveying the Yorktown battlefield and the Shelly site here in Virginia—among many other sites—Chartrand’s work attests to the powerful potential of Archaeological Geophysics. Indeed, his work exemplifies its potential to improve archaeological precision, to effect real change, to bring closure to communities, and to bring the memory of the dead back to life.