Preface To The First Edition
What's Bred in the Bone, a novel by Robertson Davies, begins with the proverb, What's bred in the bone will not out in the flesh. The story is about a man who supposedly reflects his breeding since his behavior and characteristics are direct reflections of what he has inherited from his family. Although biological determinism may work in fiction, it is anathema to the biological anthropologist. The cornerstone of biological anthropology is the interaction of culture and human biology. What is...
Nonhuman Versus Human Remains
Although most forensic anthropologists can easily distinguish intact, well-preserved human remains from those of nonhumans, fragmentary or otherwise altered material can be challenging. Detailed knowledge of human skeletal anatomy is usually sufficient to recognize that evidence is consistent with a human origin. The more precise opinion that remains are of human origin could not be anything else requires some recognition of the many other materials that can mimic the human condition. With the...
Foreword
In 1953, Lucile E. Hoyme published an article entitled Physical anthropology and its instruments An historical study. She asserted, Measurement is the oldest and most distinctive hallmark of the physical anthropologist Hoyme, 1953 409 . By this she meant absolute and relative size measurements of the human body, which she argued was core methodology within physical anthropological investigations. The roots of this core methodology, when applied systematically to human remains, can be traced to...
Cannibalism in Context
Perimortem modification of human and animal bone is not the only data that have to be considered in the analysis and interpretation of possibly cannibalized assemblages. As with other assemblages, the archaeological context is crucial in interpreting the modification patterns. First is the distinction between a burial context and nonburial context, which requires knowledge of the nature of primary and secondary and possibly other burial forms. Assemblages that include human and animal remains...
Acknowledgements
Work conducted on the St. Thomas', Belleville, sample was made possible by collaboration with Dr. Heather McKillop, and I am thankful for the permission for study provided by St. Thomas' Anglican Church and its congregation. The skeletal research on the St. Thomas' sample has been supported by grants from the Ontario Heritage Foundation, the Bridge St. Foundation, the Arts Research Board of McMaster University, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This chapter...
Growth Studies Of Archaeological Skeletal Samples
Although he was one of the first to attempt to study growth using archaeological skeletal samples, Johnston 1962 was also the first to caution that these samples do not represent the normal, healthy children in the population who lived but those who died to become part of a biased, mortality sample. On the other hand, Lovejoy et al. 1990 have argued that most infant deaths among earlier groups were the result of acute, rather than chronic, diseases and, therefore, should not drastically alter...
Extrinsic Factors in Bone Preservation Physical and Chemical Weathering
Degradation of the organic about 90 collagen and mineral bone apatite components of bone is the result of contact with microbial agents, plants, soil, and ground water in the depositional environment. Events prior to burial will affect preservation, as an exposed body may be subject to wetting and drying, freezing and thawing, animal trampling and chewing, plant disturbance, fluvial transport, and other events. And, as discussed, numerous specific aspects of the burial program, the burial...
Postcranial Modification Patterns As
shown in Fig. 3.5a, defleshing the body for secondary burial results in many series of cutmarks where soft tissue, including ligaments and periosteum, has been removed Olsen and Shipman, 1994 380 . The consistent orientation of the marks in this case suggest systematic processing of this individual, an adult male, prior to disarticulation and deposition of the bones in the burial mound at Boundary Mound, a Middle Woodland site. Secondary burial may involve disarticulation and associated marks,...
Age At Death
Scientific progress in the estimation of age at death involves greater awareness of the variability involved, employing reliable demographic models and understanding new techniques available for different structures, and greater appreciation of the importance of regional and temporal variation in the aging process. Forensic anthropology strives for an accurate estimation of age at death. Such accuracy involves coming as close as possible to actual chronological age at death and realistically...
Douglas H Ubelaker
Forensic anthropology involves the application of our knowledge and techniques of human skeletal biology to medico-legal issues, especially the study of recovered human remains from the recent past. This subfield of physical anthropology can include the examination of soft tissues, but most practitioners use their skills as physical anthropologists to examine skeletal remains. The aim of this work is basically twofold to assist in the identification of human remains and in the interpretation of...
c
Figure 3.7 a Cutmarks on mandible from cannibalized assemblage, Southwestern Colorado fig. 7.39, White, Tim D. Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR2346. 1992 Princeton University Press. Reprinted by Permission of Princeton University Press . b Cutmarks on mandible, curated skull FMNH 43366 . c Curated skull with incised design, pith eyes and nose, mandible attachments at nasal, and zygomatic, decorative carrying frame. Kerau, Lower Sepik River, Papua New Guinea FMNH 43366 .
Facial Reproduction
A central goal of forensic anthropology is the accumulation of information about an individual from their remains to facilitate identification. At times, even with individuals thought to be deceased only short periods of time, information on sex, age at death, ancestry, living stature, and other information still does not lead to an identification. There are many reasons for this lack of identification but among them is the possibility that the lifestyle of the individual is such that the...
Sex Estimation 1
Logic says that sufficient dimorphism should exist for sex separation in fetal and early infant skeletons because of the presence of high levels of testosterone. Dimorphism should increase again at adolescence as pubertal changes begin to occur. But the percentages of observed subadult skeletal dimorphism are believed to be low compared with levels observed in the adult pelvis. In Weaver's 1980 study of hip bones, two indices, although not significantly different between the sexes but which fit...
Human Agents And Human Intentions In Bone Modification
Human activity produces three major categories of modification to human remains 1 tool marks on the bone surface, 2 fractures and fracture products, and 3 thermal alteration. Identifying ancient human activity as the agent of modification is predicated on systematic evaluation of the range of possible sources of modification animal chewing, contact with sharp rocks in the sediment, excavation damage, preparation, and curation modification e.g., Pickering et al., 2000 . In human-modified...
Distinguishing Perimortem and Postmortem Trauma Fractures and Fracture Products
Fracture types are important in distinguishing between ancient and modern fractures. Bone in a green or vital state with high moisture content and intact collagen tends to fracture in a helical or curvilinear manner, whereas dry bone with degraded collagen or complete destruction of the organic component has more angular fracture patterns. Although this information does not tell us what broke the bone, fracture types help to distinguish between bone broken before or shortly after death...
Postmortem Fractures
Figure 3.8 Fracture types in long bone shafts. Adapted from Marshall, 1989 14. Figure 3.9 Reconstructed tibia with postmortem fractures. perimortem fractures, or toolmarks and a combination of perimortem and postmortem fractures Fig. 3.10 are clearly suggestive of processing. Fracture products also characterize the bone status when the force was applied, as well as the kind of implement used in the fracturing process. These products include conchoidal scars, areas of crushing, incipient...
Contents
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION-M. ANNE KATZENBERG PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION-M. ANNE KATZENBERG PART I THEORY AND APPLICATION IN STUDIES OF PAST PEOPLES 1 1 Bioarchaeological Ethics A Historical Perspective on the 2 Forensic Anthropology Methodology and Diversity of 3 Taphonomy and the Nature of Archaeological Assemblages 71
Thermal Alteration of Human Bone
Thermal alteration of bone results from postmortem processing, including cremation, cooking for consumption, heating to facilitate dismemberment, and incidental contact with fire before or after death. This type of bone modification is of interest to archaeologists, forensic anthropologists, and zooarchaeologists as it relates to mortuary practices, medico-legal investigation, and animal food processing and discard patterns. Heat changes the structure of bone mineral crystals cooked bone is...
Cannibalism in the Archaeological Record Conceptual and Analytical Frameworks
Cannibalism is a term that covers a range of behaviors known in a wide range of species. Human cannibalism is typically divided into three main types 1 starvation cannibalism the Alfred Packer party and the stranded soccer players in the Andes, 2 gustatory or nutritional cannibalism consumption of human flesh not as a starvation avoidance, and 3 ritual cannibalism consumption of specific body parts not as a food source but as part of mortuary ritual. Gustatory and ritual cannibalism can each be...
SEX NOT GENDER [Walker and Cook
In forensic anthropology, as in the more general field of skeletal biology, the estimation of sex of the adult is generated most accurately from observations of the pelvis. For a discussion of sex determination of the subadult skeleton, see Saunders, this volume. In the absence of the pelvis, in incomplete remains, or those with excessive deterioration of the pelvis, the morphology, especially the size, of bones can provide important information. Increasing advances in DNA extraction and...
Skeletal Modification in Mortuary Ritual
Secondary mortuary rites, rather expansively defined by Metcalf and Huntington 1991 97 as the regular, and socially sanctioned removal of the relics of some or all deceased persons from a place of temporary storage to a permanent resting place encompasses a wide range of treatments of the dead which are practiced in many societies past and present. Because there may be such a range of activities associated with manipulation of the dead, the recognition of secondary mortuary ritual and resulting...
The Taphonomic Signature
Over the course of three decades of research on perimortem damage to human remains assemblages from the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest, Christy Turner Flinn et al., 1976 Turner, 1961, 1983, 1989, 1993 Turner and Morris, 1970 Turner and Turner, 1990, 1995, 1999 developed a list of assemblage characteristics referred to as the taphonomic signature of cannibalism. The minimal tapho-nomic signature includes breakage, cutmarks, anvil abrasions, burning, many missing vertebrae, and pot...
The Forensic Data Bank
Angel's work 1974, 1976 offers examples of how forensic anthropologists have used the opportunity offered by casework to gather information about the skeletal biology of contemporary people Ubelaker, 1990 . In 1962, J. Lawrence Angel joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution and succeeded T. Dale Stewart in consultation with the nearby FBI Headquarters in forensic anthropology. In about 1978, the author assumed responsibility for the FBI work, but Angel continued to report on cases for...
The History Of Beliefs About The Dead
Early in our evolutionary history people began to develop a keen interest in the remains of their dead comrades. At first this was undoubtedly simply a response to the practical considerations of removing the decaying remains of a dead relative from one's domicile or preventing scavengers from consuming their body. More elaborate patterns of mortuary behavior soon began to develop. Cut marks on the crania of some of the earliest members of our species show that as early as 600,000 years ago...
Historical Development
To demonstrate the methodological advances in forensic anthropology, one needs to examine the historical foundation on which progress has been made. The beginnings of modern forensic anthropology date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with European scholarly interests in anatomy and anthropology. One of the earliest contributions to forensic anthropology comes from the Paris art instructor Jean-Joseph Sue 1710-1792 , whose measurements of body dimensions at progressive...
Toolmarks on Human Bone
Categories of toolmarks include cutmarks made by a sharp tool held perpendicularly to the bone surface scrape marks sets of several shallow, narrow, closely spaced marks across a bone surface chop marks shorter and broader than cuts and percussion marks from hammerstones or other heavy tools or weapons used to facture a bone White, 1992 White and Folkens, 2005 61-62 . Observation of these modifications is dependent on the condition of the bone surface, and interpretation is dependent in large...
Preservation And Decomposition Of Human Bone
In addition to mortuary practice, the preservation of the skeleton is mediated by factors intrinsic to the bones, such as bone density, size, and shape, and by extrinsic factors, such as characteristics of the soil and water in the burial microenvironment. It is important to distinguish between two dimensions of preservation completeness the degree of fragmentation of bone and condition the degree of destruction of bone Marean, 1991 . There are several methods for documenting and characterizing...
Sources Of Conflict
The ethical principles described above have an inherent potential for conflict. The preservation ethic, with its basis in the belief that the information that skeletal studies can yield is of great value to all people, can easily conflict with the ethical principle that the descendants should have the right to decide the disposition of their ancestor's remains. If we recognize the validity of the interests of both descendants and scientists in human skeletal remains, how do we deal with the...
Descendant Rights
Since disputes over who should have the right to control the disposition of ancient human remains are central to many of the ethical dilemmas bioarchaeologists face, it is useful to consider this issue in as broad a perspective as possible. Giving close relatives authority to make decisions about the disposition of the remains of the recent dead seems to be a cultural universal. Only in exceptional circumstances, such as the special dispositions mandated for the bodies of executed criminals as...
Evidence Of Foul Play
Forensic anthropologists are in a unique position to offer opinions about some types of evidence relating to foul play. A careful eye sometimes aided by a microscope is needed to spot some evidence for trauma. Knowledge of the reaction of bone to a variety of stimuli is then required to determine the nature of the alterations and whether they represent antemor-tem, perimortem, or postmortem conditions. A single forensic case may present evidence of all types. Evidence of bone response,...
Intrinsic Factors in Bone Preservation Size Shape and Density
Size, shape, surface area, and bone density are all intrinsic aspects of bone that affect their survival. Building on zooarchaeological research on the accumulation and condition of animal bone deposits associated with contemporary hunter-gatherer settlements Binford, 1981 Brain, 1981 , Waldron's 1987 study of the survival of different bones in burials from a Romano-British cemetery in London demonstrated the importance of size and anatomical position in bone survival. He calculated the number...
Part Iv Chemical And Genetic Analyses Of Hard Tissues
13 Stable Isotope Analysis A Tool for Studying Past Diet, Demography, and Life History 14 Bone Chemistry and Trace Element Analysis 443 15 DNA Analysis of Archaeological Remains 461 PART V QUANTITATIVE METHODS AND POPULATION STUDIES 485 16 Metric Analysis of Skeletal Remains Methods and Applications 487 17 Nonmetric Trait Variation in the Skeleton Abnormalities, Shelley R. Saunders and Dori L. Rainey 18 Advances in Paleodemography 561 George R. Milner, James W. Wood, and Jesper L. Boldsen 19...
Age Estimation 1
A need exists for more examination of dental development in a variety of population groups. In particular, we need information on deciduous tooth development quantified at macroscopic and microscopic levels gathered from living individuals. Although there is not much in the way of longitudinal tooth development data since the widespread use of research X-rays has been curtailed, the possibility exists of amassing large samples of cross-sectional data from clinical, radiographic databases...
The Preservation Ethic
The final universally accepted principle of bioarchaeologists is the preservation ethic. Human remains are a source of unique insights into the history of our species. They constitute the material memory of the people who preceded us and thus provide a direct means through which we may come to know our ancestors. Because we believe that the lessons that the remains of our ancestors can teach us about our common heritage have great value to modern people, it is an ethical imperative to work to...
Population Variation
Many organs in the human body exhibit substantial interpopulational variation in metabolism e.g., melanin production by the integument , and the skeleton seems to be among them. It is this attribute, coupled with the fact that bone microstructure provides a record of past metabolic events, that makes histological investigations of past and present skeletal populations so fruitful. However, population-level differences in bone remodeling dynamics potentially can lead to complications in age...
Living Stature
Recent progress in the estimation of living stature has been registered on three fronts 1 the detection of errors and clarification of past formulas for estimating stature 2 improvements in methods with the new forensic database, and 3 recognition of the potential error involved in known living stature. In recent years, most skeletal biologists in North America have relied heavily on the published stature regression equations of Trotter 1970 . These formulas were generated from multiple...
Archaeological Recovery Of Human Remains
The excavation methods, purpose, and strategy of an archaeological project are also important determinants of the composition, condition, and representativeness of the recovered skeletal assemblage. Bones are damaged on discovery during backhoe trenching, grading, or other earth-moving work, and additional damage may result from handheld excavation tools. Some institutions use burial recording forms that ask the excavator to specify the specific event s leading to discovery of a skeleton, what...
Ancestry
In studying remains ofunknown identity, forensic anthropologists usually attempt to estimate the ancestry of the individual or the group with which this person would likely have been identified in their community the so-called ethnic identity of the individual . This information can be useful to law enforcement in attempting to narrow the search for the identity. Knowledge of the ancestry is also useful in other aspects of analysis, especially stature estimation in which different regression...
Physical Activity
Studies of animal models have demonstrated that intracortical bone remodeling can accelerate as a result of increased mechanical loading Bouvier and Hylander, 1981 Hert et al., 1972 Lieberman, 1997 . It is likely that skeletal strain levels, distributions, and frequencies experienced by past populations were variable from population to population and were different from those experienced by industrialized, modern populations. Technological developments, landscape topography, and food...
Juvenile Skeletons And Growthrelated Studies
Until the twentieth century, juvenile mortality was high in most human populations, but juvenile skeletons are often hard to find in archaeological excavations of cemeteries. Estimating sex in juvenile skeletons is also a difficult task, but estimation of age at death can be very specific because of the nature of developmental changes in skeletal and dental hard tissues. This chapter addresses some of the apparent problems and contradictions that bioarchaeolo-gical researchers encounter when...
The History Of Research On Human Remains
Ambivalence toward scientific research on human remains has deep roots in Western societies. From its onset, scientific research on the dead has been the domain of physicians who were often forced to work under clandestine conditions on the bodies of social outcasts. The earliest recorded systematic dissections of a human body were conducted in the first half of the third century b.c., by two Greeks, Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceosc. These studies were performed in Alexandria,...
M.c. Schultz 1968 Human Medical Experimentation Eighteenth Century Martyrs
AAA American Anthropological Association. 1986. Principles of Professional Responsibility Adopted by the Council of the American Anthropological Association, May 1971 As amended through November 1986 . Arlington, Va. AAA. AAA 1997. Code of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association. Arlington, Va. AAA. AIA Archaeological Institute of America. 1991. Code of ethics. Am J Archaeol 95 285. AIA 1994. Code of Professional Standards. Boston Archaeological Institute of America. Alfonso MP,...
Photographic Superimposition
The closely related procedure of comparing a recovered skull with a photograph taken during life has been augmented by computer technology Ubelaker et al., 1992 . This technique is termed photographic superimposition and is employed in cases when identification of remains is suspected but not confirmed by other evidence. The technique is used largely for exclusion, to demonstrate that the recovered skull could not have originated from the individual depicted in the photograph. Although it is...
Bone Density and Element Survival
Differential survival of skeletal elements is also well documented for the human remains from the Crow Creek South Dakota massacre assemblage Willey, 1990 Willey et al., 1997 . This assemblage representing a minimum of 486 individuals based on MNE of the right temporal bone was discovered eroding out of a fortification ditch in the Crow Creek village site in 1978. The remains were studied in five months and reburied in 1981. The two bone beds, the larger a deposit of bones four and a half feet...
Cortical Bone Histomorphology And Age Estimation
Several types of osteons exist in compact bone. Many methods employ different osteon types as variables thus, an understanding of their morphologies and the ability to distinguish among different osteon types are necessary in applying such methods. During modeling, some blood vessels in the periosteum become incorporated into the circumferential lamellae being deposited, producing primary vascular channels in the cortex. In some primary vascular channels non-Haversian canals , a few rudimentary...
Positive Identification
Positive identification is achieved when unique characteristics known to exist within an individual are found in recovered remains. Traditionally, such evidence originates from dental records. These records are most commonly radiographs, which can be compared with radiographs of unidentified jaws and teeth. Other useful dental characteristics include restorations, fillings, and crowns. Unique aspects of dental or skeletal morphology may also be useful. Increasingly, positive identifications are...
Other age estimation methods
Although the dental and skeletal methods described above are the main means of estimating age, the possibility also exists of using histological methods with subadult bones. Several important studies of cortical bone histology have included assessments of infants and children Amprino and Bairati, 1936 Jowsey, 1960 Kerley, 1965 . Bone turnover in the growing skeleton is usually observed as too complex to be used in age estimation because of the superimposition of bone modeling over remodeling of...
Future Prospects
Interest and participation in forensic anthropology has grown steadily since the casual, occasional encounters of a few pioneers early in the history of American physical anthropology. The sustained growth of this area of physical anthropology can be measured in student interest, the numbers of anthropologists involved in casework, the increase in the membership of the physical anthropology section of the American Academy of Forensic Science and the Diplomates of the American Board of Forensic...
Age Estimation
Most critical, of course, to the identification of immature individuals from skeletal samples is the problem of age estimation. Juvenile age at death estimations are more accurate than adult age estimations because of the telescoped time span of human growth relative to the total life span over which age variability is assessed. However, difficulties with estimating sex in juveniles increase the range of error. Age estimation of the skeleton involves establishing physiologic age developmental...
Ethical Responsibilities Of Skeletal Biologists
Given these sharply polarized views concerning the value of scientific research on human remains, what are the ethical responsibilities of skeletal biologists On the one hand, we have bioarchaeologists who believe that the historical evidence obtained from human remains is critical for defending humankind against the historical revisionist tendencies of repressive, genocidal political systems, and on the other hand, we have indigenous people who believe that the spirits of their ancestors are...