ARCHAEOLOGY

GRAVE ENCOUNTERS

• Intro to various specialisations in which human remains are studied from, and context.
• Understand why human remains are studied
• Highlight methodologies used in skeletal studies

WHY STUDY HUMAN REMAINS

• Unique and direct source of info about ancient people’s behaviour and biology
• Not value free: spiritual dimensions, generates emotions, used for political means

ETHICS

• “A set of principles or standards of human conduct that govern behaviour of individuals and groups
• Eg: National Heritage Resources Act, 1999
• Human remains should be treated with respect and dignity

HUMAN REMAINS PROVIDE INFO ON

• Burial oractices
• Demography
• Diet
• Health and lifestyle
• Genetic relationships

BURIALS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

• Main focus: recovery of material remains associated with death and dead themselves
• Recording/documentation:
• -Location/ Orientation
• -Grave goods (artefacts)
• Identification process:
• -status and sex
• -age
• -culture (population groups)

BURIALS

• Where were they buried? Location
• What are they buried with? Artefacts
• Who is the one buried? Demographics
• Who buried the dead?

Body positions
Supine, semi flexed and flexed

BIOARCHAEOLOGY

• Archaeology of human skeletal remains
• Demographic info:
• Age, Sex and Ancestry
• Biographic information:
• Biological distinctiveness, and life history

SEX DETERMINATION

• Not possible before puberty
• Skeletal elements involve: skull, pelvis
• Shape and size is an important factor

SEX DETERMINATION, SKULL

• Muchal Crest
• Mastoo Process
• Supra-Orbital Arch
• Supra-central Pedoeglagella
• Mental eminence

SEX DETERMINATION: PELVIS

• Subpubic angle
• Sciatic notch
• Shape and size of pelvic rim

AGE ESTIMATE

• Cranial sutures
• Dentition: tooth eruption and wear
• Epiphyseal closure
• Pubic symphyseal surface

Cranial sutures

DENTITION

• Teeth are most durable biological remains
• Estimations based on eruption and wear of teeth
• Dental eruption occurs at a known rate
• Dental wear, older means more worn
• Epiphyseal closure

PELVIS

• Most widely used skeletal element
• Most reliable maximum age
• Morphological features
• -pubic synthesis
• -auricular surface

STERN ALL RIB END

• Pit depth
• Pit shape
• Rim and wall of configuration
• Problematic method:
• Reservation
• Positive identification of the 4th rib

PATHOLOGIES AND TRAUMA: HEALTH OR LACK THEREOF

• Abnormalities/changes in skeleton
• Some forms of pathology and trauma do not affect the skeleton
• Eg, cultural modifications (tattoos), pathology (science of causes and effects of diseases), trauma
• Added dimension to the life history of an individual and sometimes the population

CLASSIFICATION OF TRAUMA

• Antemortem (healed/survived trauma)
• Peri-mortem(at/around time of death)
• Post-mortem (after death occurred)

TREPHINATION/TREPANATION

• Surgical practice in which an artificial hole is made into the cranial vault to relieve pressure off of the brain

POST-DEPOSITIONAL TAPHONOMY

• Phenomena that affect the remains of biological organisms peri-mortem or post-mortem
• Change the bones surface features
• Result in the loss of biological info
• Possible causes:- environ factors(Burial environ, water, sun etc.), carnivores, rodents or human activity

DIETARY RECONSTRUCTION

• Evidence of food consumption
• Individual meals and short therm diet:
• -stomach content
• -faecal material
• Long term diet:
• -teeth
• -bone collagen

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MIDDENS

• Bone
• Shells
• Broken potsheads

STABLE LIGHT ISOTOPES

• Do not decay over a fixed period of time
• Trace chemical signatures embedded in the bone collagen & teeth
• Widely used in diet reconstruction: multiple years of consumption are represented
• Stable isotopes:Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen (location) and strontium (location)

DIETARY RECONSTRUCTION

• Isotopes used; Carbon and Nitrogen
• Plants use C3, C4 & CAM
• Animal Protein (Nitrogen)
• Marine protein (Nitrogen)

SHORTCOMINGS OF STABLE LIGHT ISOTOPE ANALYSIS

• Destructive
• Direct or indirect consumption?
• Do not give clear indication of what was consumed
• Eg. Marine food isotope, but was it crab, sea cucumber, clams, whale or fish?
• Strontium isotopes in tooth enamel

FORENSIC ARCHAEOLOGY

• Cross fertilisation of archaeology and forensic science
• Human osteology with excavation techniques
• Osteology: study of structure and function of the skeleton and bony structures

Untitled Slide

ROLE OF FORENSIC ARCHAEOLOGY

• Step1 get briefed on case
• Step 2 site control and survey
• Step 3 excavate and recover the evidence
• Step 4 hand over the recovered material to the next person in the Chain of custody (COC)
• COC: order in which a piece of criminal evidence should be handled by people investigating a case. Unbroken trail of accountability that ensures physical security of samples, data and records of criminal investigation

SECONDARY ROLE OF FORENSIC ARCHAEOLOGY

• Reconstruct and interpret events

DISASTER VICTIMS IDENTIFICATION (DVI)

• Process of identifying victims of major disasters such as natural disasters or genocide
• Eg. 9/11 or the genocides of Rwanda and Burundi
• Missing persons task team