Our Founder
Geoarchaeologist · Geospatial Scientist · Registered Professional Archaeologist
American Geospatial was founded on a simple conviction: that every person buried deserves to be found, identified, and remembered — no matter how long the ground has kept its silence. For more than three decades, Dr. Di Naso has devoted his work to exactly that.
A Registered Professional Archaeologist and Geospatial Scientist, he pairs precision field surveys — Differential GPS, total station, ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, and 3D scanning methods — with patient archival and forensic research. The result is work that has recovered lost potter's fields and reassociated next of kin with long forgotten burials where records had long since failed them.
From historically significant recoveries to federal cemetery inventories, Dr. Di Naso's projects span the full spectrum of cemetery science — several of them still unfolding in the field today.
Twenty-three men died over a two-day killing spree on June 21–22, 1922 — the largest mass murder of non-union labor in American history. Combining cemetery archaeology and geospatial science with archival and forensic work, our team located and permanently documented their long-lost resting place.
Part of the Illinois Coal Wars (1898–1900), the Pana Massacre killed seven — five of them African American — whose graves were lost to time. We have narrowed the burial location to a small section of a potter's field in a once-abandoned cemetery. Work continues in 2026.
A geophysical prospecting project seeking the final resting place of Franklin Oliver, an early pioneer settler of Livingston County, Illinois, near what was once Oliver's Grove — supported by the Ford County Historical Society. Work continues in 2026.
A Scientific Study Final Research Report for the U.S. National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Permit GRSM-01120). We inventoried the Cades Cove Primitive Baptist, Methodist, and Missionary Baptist church cemeteries — surveyed with precision DGPS and high-resolution 3D scanning to build archival 'virtual' walk-throughs.
A selection of published work spanning geospatial science, cemetery preservation, and forensic archaeology. The complete record of journal articles, conference papers, and manuscripts is available in the full CV.
Lectures, exhibitions, and public programs presenting the intersection of geospatial science, historical recovery, and cemetery archaeology.
A presentation on the pioneer burial grounds connected to Quanah Parker and his mother Cynthia Ann Parker — combining geospatial science, historical recovery, and archaeological documentation.
Watch the lectureNo obligation to consult — a written quote before any work begins.
Contact Dr. Di Naso