Introduction to Forensic Anthropology
On the 4th of July in 2005, a couple was walking along an access road on Randall's Island in New York City. The man observed a bone near the side of the road and playfully tossed it at his girlfriend. They then became concerned that the bone might actually be human and called the police. Detectives from the New York City Police Department and investigators from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner responded to the scene and noticed other bones scattered in the area that they believed to be human. At this point, the location was treated as a crime scene and a call went out for anthropological assistance. It became of critical importance to determine first, if the bones were indeed human, and second, if they were of medicolegal significance, that is, if they might be part of a recent crime or missing person case.
The analysis of human Forensic Anthropologist Can Do Forensic Anthropology" href="/forensic-4/what-the-forensic-anthropologist-can-do.html">skeletal remains within the medicolegal context is called forensic anthropology, and those who practice it are forensic anthropologists. Large cities such as New York City may have a forensic anthropologist on staff who works for the medical examiner's office. In other cases, a forensic anthropologist may work at a university and serve as a consultant on call for various agencies.
Once the forensic anthropologist arrived on the Randall's Island scene, it was immediately determined that the bones were indeed human. Forensic anthropologists are familiar with every feature of the human skeleton, the range of variation between individuals, and the differences between human and nonhuman bones. When bones are complete, the task of determining whether they are human is relatively simple. When the bones are fragmentary, however, it can be a much more challenging task. In this case, both intact and fragmentary bones were observed, some on the surface and some slightly buried. To complicate matters, there were also bones in the vicinity that were identified as nonhuman. The human bones were associated with rubble such as bricks, concrete, metal, and charcoal, which suggested everything was secondarily deposited from another location. In an undisturbed (or primary) burial, the bones would still have been articulated. This means that the anatomical location of the bare bones would be exactly the same as when flesh was present. In this case, the lack of articulation was a clear indication that the person (or persons) represented by the bones did not die at this specific location, but the remains were transported there after death and decomposition (i.e., secondarily).
In order to document the location of the bones and any associated evidence (such as clothing), a sketch map was made of the area. Standard archaeological equipment, including shovels and trowels, was used to excavate the site thoroughly. During excavation, all dirt was placed through wire mesh sifting screens in order to recover small items, such as teeth, that might not be readily apparent. This process is exactly the same as a small archaeological excavation that might be undertaken on a prehistoric site. After the recovery effort was complete, the bones were transported to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan for anthropological analysis.
- Figure 1.1 Bones and teeth discovered on Randall's Island in New York City are arranged into groups according to age (A = child; B = adolescent; C = adult).
Figure 1.1 shows the human bones recovered from the site at Randall's Island. To the untrained eye, it may be difficult to state conclusively that these bones are even human. Even to someone familiar with the human skeleton, the bones may appear consistent with one very incomplete and fragmentary skeleton at first glance. A closer analysis of the bones and teeth reveals that there is much more to the story. For example, there are duplicated portions of two right tibiae (shin bones), indicating that more than one person is represented. There are also skeletal and dental indicators that show people of different ages and sizes are represented. This is an example of commingling. Commingling means that the bones of more than one individual are mixed together in the same context. In this instance, analysis revealed that there were bones and teeth from a child around 3 years old, the bones of a teenager around 16 years old, and the bones of at least two adults. The minimum number of individuals (MNI) is an indicator of the least number of individuals found at a site; in this case, a minimum of four people are represented by the remains. The condition of the bones indicated that they were quite old. Some of these indicators included the complete lack of soft tissue and decompositional odor. The bones were also very dark brown in color and had deterioration of the cortical, or exterior, surface, suggesting that they had been buried for an extended period of time. Another critical clue to consider was the context of their discovery, in which the bones were mixed in with construction debris. There was no sign of any kind of trauma to the bones, only damage that occurred postmortem, or after death.
Taken as a whole, the evidence in this case strongly suggested that the bones and teeth originated from a disturbed cemetery, one probably impacted during a construction project, and that construction debris associated with the project was dumped on Randall's Island. These findings were obviously of great importance, since law enforcement officials were then notified that this was not a crime scene involving a multiple homicide or missing persons case. The remains were determined to be not of medi-colegal significance, a report of findings was generated, and the case was closed.
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