The buried objects are P=6 small cylindrical shells, buried at the same depth in sand, with DOA {32°,33°,34°,35°,36°,37°}. The wave speed in the water v 1 = 1,500 m/s and in the sediment v 2 = 1,700 m/s. Figure 12 sums up the experimental set-up.
The human and feline skeletons, lying less than 18 inches apart, were buried at the same depth and in the same sediment and were similarly preserved.
They were presumably buried at the same time, the archaeologists said, and perhaps the cat was killed so it could accompany its owner into the afterworld.
To compare C. parvum oocyst survival with another organism known to survive environmental stresses, Ascaris suum eggs were also placed in soil contained in chambers and buried at the same sampling points as the oocysts.
At the same site, called Tatham Mound, Jeffrey M. Mitchem of the Florida State Museum and Dale Hutchinson of the University of Illinois, reported finding the skeletons of 74 Indians apparently buried at the same time.
Family speculation was that it may have been Mr. Friedland's wish to be buried at the same time as Ms. Bayes, "allowing him to spend eternity alongside his beloved first wife," Ginny Bayes said.
Furthermore, the same mine buried at the same depth in soil with different properties may have different signatures.
Multiple lines of evidence show that the infants were buried at the same time, says Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the leader of the excavations at USR.
The genetic results, reported online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offered a real surprise: The infants belonged to two different mitochondrial DNA subgroups, C1b and B2, even though they were buried at the same time and place.
The two sets of bones were less than a half-meter apart, buried at the same depth and in the same sediment, with the same degree of preservation, strongly suggesting that they were buried together, the team reports in the 9 April issue of Science.
