A Controlled Experiment to Test the Efficacy of Ground-Penetrating Radar in the Search for Clandestine Burials in Poland

The international workshop ‘Forensic Search and Recovery of Clandestine Graves’ took place over two days in 2021 Wroclaw, Poland. goal the was to improve search methods techniques related examination clandestine burial sites. Geophysical were used by an team multi-disciplinary specialists detect simulated training focused on testing methods, including Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), verify effectiveness for features representing burials. forensic community Central European countries, Poland, has been slow adopt these technologies due controversial results. While geophysical research is successfully carried out archaeological contexts internationally, its application activities prosecutor’s office police Poland relatively unsuccessful. This resulted several controversies primarily erroneous expectations how are applied. may be result operator inexperience applying paired experienced GPR with law enforcement teams archaeologists, leading successful discovery burials using GPR.