The concept of materiality is a powerful “tool” to understand the relation between the physical elements of a haunted location, the social practices that took place there, and the uncertainties that continue to manifest. This is a view of a location’s haunted stratigraphy as material cultural remains. This stratigraphy includes:

-individual deposits of uncertainty (trauma, accident, fond memories, death).

-depositional practices which materialize (sounds, smells, visuals, voices, tactile sensations, movements, etc.).

-passages of time between each layer (Revolutionary War, Civil War, Victorian Era) in the course of a localized haunted history.

An analysis of this stratigraphy would include:

-How many haunted layers are there?

-What is manifesting in each layer?

-What and where are the “gaps” in this strata? and

-What internal spaces are haunted, and which are not?

These material remains are the principal evidence for cultural expression, contact, and exchange. Materiality is the means by which ongoing past social relationships manifest (aided by P.O.P. practices), and are constituted (by resonating cultural acts).

A resonating P.O.P. builds specific ways of making haunting phenomenon happen. It is a principal component in identity and relationship issues in ghost research. The key to this identity and relationship remains in an accurate understanding of the materiality of a particular level of a site’s haunted stratigraphy