Understanding the circumstances of decomposition when the body is skeletonized

Abstract

When a skeletonized body is found, the presence of an anthropologist is required to understand the circumstances of which the human remains reached the situation in which they are discovered. For this purpose, archaeological anthropology (called field archaeology) and forensic anthropology share the same techniques. This chapter aims to advise as to what should be done and registered precisely on the field when bone remains are exhumed or found on the surface of the ground. It also describes in detail the osteological observations that enable determination of whether it is a primary or a secondary deposit, and to restitute the cadaver environment. This methodological approach is enlarged to include multiple deposits. Although this discipline has mostly been developed in the archaeological funerary context, it provides valuable analysis tools when human bones are involved. © 2006 Humana Press Inc.