Weight References for Burned Human Skeletal Remains from P ortuguese Samples

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 2013

Sex determination of human burned skeletal remains is extremely hard to achieve because of heat-related fragmentation, warping and dimensional changes. In particular, the latter is impeditive of osteometric analyses based on references developed on unburned bones. New osteometric references were thus obtained which allow for more reliable sex determinations. The calcined remains of cremated Portuguese individuals were examined and specific standard measurements of the humerus, femur, talus and calcaneus were documented. This allowed for the compilation of new sex discriminating osteometric references which were then tested on independent samples with good results. Both the use of simple cutoff points and of logistic regression equations provided with successful sex classification scores. These references may now be used for the sex determination of burned skeletons. Its reliability is improved for contemporary Portuguese and thus has important repercussion for forensic research. Nonetheless, the more conservative use of these references may also prove valuable for other populations as well as for archaeological research.

Skeletal weight and/or weight of the different bones of the human skeleton are currently used in a wide range of applications such as archaeological cremations and forensics. Still, few reference values are available that compare the mean weights for the different skeletal parts. In this paper we present new reference values for total skeletal weight, including the weight of the different skeletal bones based on a modern Portuguese Identified Skeletal Collection (CEI) curated in the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). The mean weight of the entire skeleton for the CEI pooled sample is 3323.8 AE 779.6 g. Sex and age differences were investigated. As expected, males display heavier bones, at a statistically significant level. The mean weight of the male skeletons is 3850 g, and 2797.6 g for the female sample. Age differences were found, especially for the female samples in the 29-39 versus 50-59 and/or >60 age groups, probably as a consequence of age-related bone loss in postmenopausal women. For the male sample, no clear age-related trend was observed but for the unexpected result that the second highest bone weight recorded is in the oldest age group (>60 years). This could result from high mechanical loadings and thus greater bone robusticy and amount of cortical bone.

International Journal of Legal Medicine, 2014

The determination of the original condition of human remains prior to burning is critical since it may facilitate the reconstruction of circumstances surrounding death in forensic cases. Although the use of heat-induced bone changes is not a completely reliable proxy for determining pre-burning conditions, it is not completely devoid of potential, as we can observe a clear difference in the occurrence of such features between fleshed and dry bones. In order to quantify this difference and determine its true value for forensic research, the frequencies of heat-induced warping and thumbnail fractures were documented on modern cremations of cadavers from recently deceased individuals and from the cremations of skeletons previously inhumed. The effect of age, sex, time span from death to cremation, duration and temperature of combustion on those frequencies was statistically investigated. Results demonstrated that the heat-induced features were significantly more frequent in the sample of cadavers. In addition, warping was determined to be the most useful indicator of the pre-burning condition of human remains. Temperature of combustion was the only variable having a significant effect on the frequency of both features suggesting that fluctuation of temperature, along with collagen preservation and recrystallization of the inorganic phase, is paramount for their occurrence. Both warping and thumbnail fractures may eventually be used for the estimation of the pre-burning condition of human remains in lack of other indicators but their reliability is far from absolute. Ideally, such inference must be supported by other data such as skeletal representation, objects or defleshing marks on bones.

Science & Justice, 2017

In very fragmentary remains, the thorough inventory of skeletal elements is often impossible to accomplish. Mass has been used instead to assess the completeness of the skeleton. Two different mass-based methods of assessing skeleton completeness were tested on a sample of experimentally burned skeletons with the objective of determining which of them is more reliable. The first method was based on a simple comparison of the mass of each individual skeleton with previously published mass references. The second method was based on mass linear regressions from individual bones to estimate complete skeleton mass. The clavicle, humerus, femur, patella, metacarpal, metatarsal and tarsal bones were used. The sample was composed of 20 experimentally burned skeletons from 10 males and 10 females with ages-atdeath between 68 and 90 years old. Results demonstrated that the regression approach is more objective and more reliable than the reference comparison approach even though not all bones provided satisfactory estimations of the complete skeleton mass. The femur, humerus and patella provided the best performances among the individual bones. The estimations based on the latter had root mean squared errors (RMSE) smaller than 300 g. Results demonstrated that the regression approach is quite promising although the patella was the only reasonable predictor expected to survive sufficiently intact to a burning event at high temperatures. The mass comparison approach has the advantage of not depending on the preservation of individual bones. Whenever bones are intact though, the application of mass regressions should be preferentially used because it is less subjective.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2018

Due to the effects of fire on bones, macroscopic observations of burned human remains are often insufficient to completely characterize an individual (age and sex determination). Herein we explore microstructure of bone fragments recovered in a funerary urn from the 1st millennium BC at Lagunita I archaeological site (Cáceres, Spain) in an attempt to determine if histomorphological analysis could complement macroscopic observation in anthropological study. Although histological analysis is a destructive technique, analyses making use of thinsections has permitted us to unveil different stages of alteration in two pieces of the same bone despite both appearing to have similar major macroscopic alterations due to high temperatures reached by the fire (over 900°C in some areas). Furthermore, the mid-shaft fragment suggested that the remains belonged to a young individual (between 12 and 20 years old). In light of the results, we conclude that bone histology could support and enhance inferences made from macroscopic observations improving the analysis of archaeological cremated remains.

Capabilities of skeletal anthropology are limited when studying cremations. The paper assesses the pattern of these limitations and the probability of bias in the macroscopic analysis of cremated remains with an emphasis on its aspects in need of special attention. Biased analysis is viewed as a hazard not only to bioarchaeology, but also to a broad scale of topics in the archaeology of burial. As a methodological approach, a comparative paleodemographic inquiry is proposed. It parallels inhumation (n=72) and cremation (n=370) samples from the 3rd/4th – 11th/12th centuries AD of East Lithuania. Life tables are created and mortality and reproductive profiles are calculated. Even though the analysed cremated bone material is fragmentary, a rather high correspondance of the profiles is registered, except for several aspects. Significant difference between inhumations and cremations is the lower subadult ratio in the latter. Under-estimation of infants and young children distorts newborn life expectancy and reproductive profiles. Another ground for bias occurs in the probable identification of adolescents as adults when aging cremations. The third risk of bias, alghough somewhat obscure, is observed in aging adults related to the sex of the deceased. Differences of male and female mortality profiles between the samples suggest that the biases in aging and sexing cremated adults are inter-related.

Science & Justice

Extreme fragmentation can complicate the inventory of human skeletal remains. In such cases, skeletal mass can provide information regarding skeleton completeness and the minimum number of individuals. For that purpose, several references for skeletal mass can be used to establish comparisons and draw inferences regarding those parameters. However, little is known about the feasibility of establishing comparisons between inherently different materials, as is the case of curated reference skeletal collections and human remains recovered from forensic and archaeological settings. The objective of this paper was to investigate the effect of inhumation, weather and heat exposure on the skeletal mass of two different bone types. This was investigated on a sample of 30 human bone fragments (14 trabecular bones and 16 compact bones) was experimentally buried for two years after being submitted to one of four different heat treatments (left unburned; 500 o C; 900 o C; 1000 o C). Bones were exhumed periodically to assess time-related mass variation. Skeletal mass varied substantially, decreasing and increasing in accordance to the interchanging dry and wet seasons. However, trends were not the same for the two bone types and the four temperature thresholds. The reason for this appears to be related to water absorption and to the differential heat-induced changes in bone microporosity, volume, and composition. Our results suggest that mass comparisons against published references should be performed only after the skeletal remains have been preemptively dried from exogenous water.

PLoS ONE, 2019

Sex estimation of human remains is one of the most important research steps for physical anthropologists and archaeologists dealing with funerary contexts and trying to reconstruct the demographic structure of ancient societies. However, it is well known that in the case of cremations sex assessment might be complicated by the destructive/transformative effect of the fire on bones. Osteometric standards built on unburned human remains and contemporary cremated series are often inadequate for the analysis of ancient cremations, and frequently result in a significant number of misclassifications. This work is an attempt to overcome the scarcity of methods that could be applied to pre-proto-historic Italy and serve as methodological comparison for other European contexts. A set of 24 anatomical traits were measured on 124 Bronze Age and Iron Age cremated individuals with clearly engendered grave goods. Assuming gender largely correlated to sex, male and female distributions of each individual trait measured were compared to evaluate sexual dimorphism through inferential statistics and Chaktaborty and Majumder’s index. The discriminatory power of each variable was evaluated by cross-validation tests. Eight variables yielded an accuracy equal to or greater than 80%. Four of these variables also show a similar degree of precision for both sexes. The most diagnostic measurements are from radius, patella, mandible, talus, femur, first metatarsal, lunate and humerus. Overall, the degree of sexual dimorphism and the reliability of estimates obtained from our series are similar to those of a modern cremated sample recorded by Gonçalves and collaborators. Nevertheless, mean values of the male and female distributions in our case study are lower, and the application of the cut-off point calculated from the modern sample to our ancient individuals produces a considerable number of misclassifications. This result confirms the need to build population-specific methods for sexing the cremated remains of ancient individuals.

Homo : internationale Zeitschrift für die vergleichende Forschung am Menschen, 2015

Perdigões is a large site with a set of ditched enclosures located at Reguengos de Monsaraz, Alentejo, South Portugal. Recently at the central area of this site burnt human remains were found in a pit (#16). This structure had inside human remains, animal bones (namely pig, sheep or goat, cattle, dog, deer and rabbit), shards, ivory idols and arrowheads. All have been subjected to fire and later deposited in that pit, resulting in a secondary disposal of human bones. The recovered fragmented human bones (4845.18 g) correspond to a minimal number of 9 individuals: 6 adults and 3 sub-adults. The aim of this work is to document and interpret this funerary context based on the study of the recovered human remains. For that purpose, observations of all alterations due to fire, such as colour change and type of bone distortion, as well as anthropological data were collected. The data obtained suggest that these human remains were probably intentionally cremated, carefully collected and fi...

2021

This document is the fourth in a series of guides aimed at promoting best practice in different aspects of archaeological science, produced by members of the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC) of The Cyprus Institute. The current document was largely developed in the context of two projects: People in Motion and Promised. The implementation of People in Motion involved the laboratory study of a large commingled and partially burned skeletal assemblage from Byzantine Amathus, Cyprus, which came to light in the context of excavations led by the Cypriot Department of Antiquities. Osteological work on this assemblage was co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation (EXCELLENCE/1216/0023). In addition, Promised aims at promoting archaeological sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean, with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 811068. The study of burned skeletal remains is particularly challenging due to the extensive alteration of the bones, manifesting as warping, discoloration, shrinkage, and fracturing. These macroscopic changes express underlying structural and chemical alterations. As a result, the application of traditional osteological methods (morphological, metric, chemical, molecular, histological and others) is largely inhibited or should be extremely cautious. Nonetheless, the study of burned skeletal assemblages can offer unique insights to funerary practices and technologies, as well as the manipulation of dead bodies. In line with the above, the aim of this guide is to cover various aspects of the study of burned skeletal assemblages. It should be seen as a supplement to the ‘Basic guidelines for the excavation and study of human skeletal remains; STARC Guide no. 1 ’ and the ‘Excavation and study of commingled human skeletal remains; STARC Guide no. 2’. The current guide is meant to serve only as a general outline and the described field and lab-based methods should be modified depending on the context and characteristics of each assemblage under study. A number of excellent volumes have been published in the past years, compiling experimental and case studies on the retrieval and examination of burned skeletal remains in archaeological and forensic contexts (Fairgrieve 2008; Schmidt and Symes 2015; Symes et al. 2012; Thompson 2015). Much of the information presented here has been drawn from these resources, as well as from other publications and the author’s professional experience. References are given throughout the current document but the aim is by no means to provide an exhaustive account of the literature. This document is an open resource and it is anticipated to be updated at regular intervals. I would greatly appreciate any feedback and recommendations for future improvement.

PLOS ONE

Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear ...

Plos One, 2019

Sex estimation of human remains is one of the most important research steps for physical anthropologists and archaeologists dealing with funerary contexts and trying to reconstruct the demographic structure of ancient societies. However, it is well known that in the case of cremations sex assessment might be complicated by the destructive/transformative effect of the fire on bones. Osteometric standards built on unburned human remains and contemporary cremated series are often inadequate for the analysis of ancient cremations, and frequently result in a significant number of misclassifications. This work is an attempt to overcome the scarcity of methods that could be applied to pre-proto-historic Italy and serve as methodological comparison for other European contexts. A set of 24 anatomical traits were measured on 124 Bronze Age and Iron Age cremated individuals with clearly engendered grave goods. Assuming gender largely correlated to sex, male and female distributions of each individual trait measured were compared to evaluate sexual dimorphism through inferential statistics and Chaktaborty and Majumder’s index. The discriminatory power of each variable was evaluated by cross-validation tests. Eight variables yielded an accuracy equal to or greater than 80%. Four of these variables also show a similar degree of precision for both sexes. The most diagnostic measurements are from radius, patella, mandible, talus, femur, first metatarsal, lunate and humerus. Overall, the degree of sexual dimorphism and the reliability of estimates obtained from our series are similar to those of a modern cremated sample recorded by Gonc¸alves and collaborators. Nevertheless, mean values of the male and female distributions in our case study are lower, and the application of the cut-off point calculated from the modern sample to our ancient individuals produces a considerable number of misclassifications. This result confirms the need to build populationspecific methods for sexing the cremated remains of ancient individuals.

2007

Excavations carried out in Tomb IX of the hypogeic necropolis of 'Sa Figu', near the village of Ittiri (Sassari, Italy), supplied burnt human bone remains and pottery unambiguously referred to the Early Bronze Age (characterised by the local culture of 'Bonnannaro'). Besides the anthropological study, we have investigated and evaluated the possibility of a funerary cremation practice in Sardinian prehistory , a subject that has previously not been considered from a scientific point of view. Making use of a calibration procedure based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) line-broadening analysis, related to the microstructural properties, it was possible to estimate the combustion temperature to which the fragmented bones were subjected. It was found that the studied bones reached temperatures varying from 4008C up to a maximum of 8508C. This spread of values suggested inhomogeneous combustion of the bones, which seems compatible with funerary cremation practices.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2013

Weight but occasionally also the volume of cremated human remains may often be the primary basis for interpreting the many stages involved in past cremation ceremonies. However, methods used for describing volume for cremated remains are extremely varying and biased by many factors. Here we evaluate different methods for calculating and describing volume and propose a method for estimating the original prehistoric post-cremation weight. Our data suggests that low cremation weights reported for archaeologically recovered cremated remains are markedly underestimated, and that whole cremated bodies probably are represented more often than discussed in osteoarchaeology. Hence, this contests many suppositions on ritual selection of cremated human remains in prehistoric and early historical archaeology. A simple descriptive Fragmentation Index for cremated remains is further suggested.

Lunula, 2019