A Taphonomic Approach to Marine Abrasion on Human Bones

Abstract

Coastal areas are often scenes of various phenomena linked to forensic cases, such as homicides, suicides, naval accidents linked to clandestine migration, or simply coastal sites with human remains that are affected by aquatic phenomena. It is in this context where the Taphonomy can contribute to responding to many problems within the forensic field. Our goal is to determine the morphology, density and orientation of the changes caused by the action of marine sediments on the surface of a human femur. The use of binocular loupe, have enabled a more detailed analysis of abrasion. It has been determined that abrasion traces are distributed across all surface of the bone and presented an anisotropic spatial orientation, i.e. present a non-random pattern. The results have been used to corroborate on a human bone subjected to natural phenomena, the observations carried out in the experimental field by others authors.