Anthropology
Anthropology
• The pathologist’s domain is that of dead
bodies; the forensic anthropologist applies
his expertise to skeletal remains.
• Our longest surviving remnant after we die
is our skeleton.
• The scientific study of skeletons for
forensic purposes includes recovery of
remains, skeletal examination & forensic
identification.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Sometimes human & animal bones are
mixed together.
• Many skeletons are recovered incomplete
due to dismemberment, or to animals
feeding on the corpse, or to other causes.
• There are remains that have been boiled,
sawed into pieces, or charred from
accidental fires or deliberate attempts to
destroy the corpse.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Skeletal remains may come to the forensic
anthropologist in widely diverse forms.
• When skeletal remains are not sent to the
anthropologist, the anthropologist must go
after them.
• Remains may be above ground, in a
casket, or exhumed from a traditional
below-ground burial.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Following steps recommended for belowground burial:
• 1. court order legally permitting
exhumation; 2. exact location of burial:
cemetery address, name of person in
charge, plot number of gravesite (essential
not to dig up wrong person); 3. date & time
of exhumation;
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• 4. complete list of persons attending
exhumation – persons immediately
concerned with death inquiry & not
members of news media or other
spectators; 5. scaled sketches of
gravesite; 6. photographs of burial site,
coffin in situ, coffin above ground.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Coffin should be transported to morgue or
other facility for careful opening because
improper handling may raise questions
about injuries to body that may be
discovered.
• A well embalmed body may last in a
sealed casket within a burial vault for
many years (some known as long as 27)
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• It looked as if person had died the day or
so before with natural features & small
areas of skin slipping from hands & feet.
• Even unshielded by any container, a body
will last longer underground.
• General rule of thumb: Decomposition
Rate is as follows: 1 week in open air
equals 2 weeks in water, equals 8 weeks
underground.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• The horrific picture of “worms” devouring a
buried corpse is false.
• Flies will lay eggs on a body even before it
is dead. Larvae (maggots) will hatch out in
just under 24 hours. This regular cycle can
be used sometimes to establish time of
death. However, maggots cannot live
under ground.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Flies & beetles don’t burrow more than a
few inches below ground.
• How did they get there? Insects found
their way to corpse before it was buried,
and were buried alive with it.
• “The Body Farm” – bodies are exposed to
elements in a “decay rate facility” or “open
air morgue”
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Some 30 to 40 bodies are exposed each
year – placed on the earth, in pits,
automobiles, etc. and are carefully
monitored to document the process of
dissolution. No embalming process used.
• Some preservative effects are postmortem
changes due to environmental conditions.
Three are listed as follows:
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Mummification: result of tissues drying
under concomitant conditions of high
temperature, low humidity, & good
ventilation
• Adipocere: transformation of body fat to
soap-like material due to excessive
moisture
• Freezing (self explanatory)
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• When looking for buried bodies, aerial
photography with infrared film may be
helpful because the film is sensitive to
heat emitted from decomposing bodies.
• Graves may be indicated by sunken area
or an adjacent mound of surplus dirt.
Damage to vegetation may be apparent.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• Standard search technique involves
probing with steel rod about 5/16” in
diameter & 5’ in length; one end with Tshaped handle & other end sharpened.
• Probing can detect soft spot relative to
surrounding soil that may indicate a grave.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• A special probe sensitive to temperature is
inserted, reading being used to calibrate
another instrument (methane gas
detector).
• Since gases from decomposing body rise
upwardly in an inverted-V shape, probings
should be made at varying depths to help
ensure adequate coverage.
Anthropology
Recovery of Remains
• When remains are tentatively located, dirt
should be sifted as it is carefully removed,
& any small objects discovered should be
photographed in place on a screen.
• The general rules of collecting and
preserving evidence should be followed
throughout the excavation of the scene.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Excavated remains are cleaned in forensic
anthropologist’s laboratory on steam
tables used for this purpose.
• Next, various bones are placed on exam
table and arranged in proper anatomical
order.
• Exam of skeletal remains follows an
attempt to determine approximate age…
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• …sex, race, height & other characteristics,
all of which may assist in the subsequent
attempt to identify the remains &
determine the cause of death.
• Age: Bones can be used to estimate age.
By means of a series of formulas, age can
be estimated with considerable accuracy
up to 25 years.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Successive changes in pelvic bone occur
within intervals of about 5 years & can
provide an aid in age determination.
• Calcification of rib cartilage begins at age
of bout 55. Arthritic “lipping” that appears
in vertebral column & certain joints of
mails appear between 35 and 40 years old
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• There is also potential evidence of age in
the dental data including eruption of teeth,
root formation, crown structure.
• Dental estimation of chronological age is
used as primary method of age
determination from birth to 14 years old.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Sex: Items of clothing & personal
possessions found with remains may
provide a suggestion of victim’s sex.
• Most accurate skeletal indication comes
from pelvis. Inverted-V shape of lower
contour of bone is narrower & more
pointed in male skeleton whereas female
pelvis is wider & rounder for childbirth.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• “Scars of parturition” (childbirth) on pelvic
bone not only indicate sex but represent
evidence decedent has borne children.
• When pelvis is not available, diameters of
heads & humerus (upper arm bone),
radius, and femur (upper leg bone) provide
probable indication of sex.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Race: Remnants of hair may provide quick
determination of race if it is clearly Negroid
or Caucasian.
• Hair of Hispanics, Native Americans &
Orientals may be confused; determination
should be made by expert hair criminalist.
• Determination of race of skeleton is made
from examination of skull, pelvis & long
bones.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Caucasian skull has flat front profile;
African Americans exhibit prognathism
(jaws project beyond upper part of face).
• Absence of skull, long bones of limbs
provide indication of race, but not certain
one. White individual’s pelvis tends to be
broader & have lower pubic bones. Long
bones tend to be longer & straighter in
blacks.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Height & Other Characteristics:
Measurements of long bones provide
estimate of living stature of individual
within an accuracy level of about an inch.
• Old rule of thumb: height roughly equals 5
times length of humerus.
• Skeleton can tell us if a person was thin,
fat, muscular, right- or left-handed due to
dominant arm will have longer bones.
Anthropology
Skeletal Examination
• Past traumas, particularly fractures, may
be revealed by skeletal remains.
• Cause of Death: Occasionally bones will
reveal cause of death – gunshot wound,
blunt-force trauma to skull.
• Knife marks may be discovered on ribs.
• Other modes of death may be detected in
skeleton including metallic poisoning such
as arsenic which remains for many years.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Three special techniques are frequently
used in field of forensic anthropology.
• Two standard techniques are forensic
odontology (teeth) & facial reconstruction
(software & holograms) New technological
breakthrough: mitochondrial DNA.
• Forensic Odontology: use of dental
records when no fingerprints available.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Because of longevity (enamel is the
hardest substance of the body, outlasting
all other tissue) human dentition offers
obvious potential for identifying skeletal
remains. Dentition also provides sufficient
characteristics for individualization.
• Adult has 32 teeth with 5 surfaces in a
visual examination for a total of 160
surfaces.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Possible combinations of missing teeth,
fillings, cavities & prostheses (such as
bridges) even unusual spaces between
teeth, represent the basis of dental
identification.
• Forensic odontology, “the scientific
application of dentistry to legal matters”
includes such matters as dental
identification & bite-mark comparison.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Whether involving a corpse or skeleton,
the process of dental identification begins
with postmortem dental examination &
should include the following:
• Missing, unerupted or extracted teeth;
restorations & prostheses; decay & broken
teeth; malposition, overlapping, crowding
& spacing; malrotation; peculiar shapes of
teeth; root canal therapy on x-ray exam…
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• …bone pattern on x-ray exam; complete
dentures; relationship of bite; oral
pathology (tori, gingivitis, etc.)
• The first 3 items listed constitute basis of
most routine dental identifications.
• More recent dental records, more reliable
& valuable. X-rays are especially valuable
due to giving information not seen by
visual inspection or examination.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• More dental work done, more points of
comparison. Even a single filling can be
enough for identification.
• Children with few or no fillings may
represent difficult identification problems.
• The elderly with upper & lower dentures
may present problems.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Bite marks are relatively distinctive & may
be individualized to a particular suspect as
with serial killer Ted Bundy.
• Facial Reconstruction: controversial
procedure among forensic anthropologists,
often used as last resort. It begins with an
exam of remains to determine race, sex &
approximate age of deceased as well as
build of person (thin, tall, muscular, etc.)
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• When facial features are present but are to
distorted or gruesome for public
dissemination, forensic artist may make a
sketch that removes distortion, adds
missing areas & makes the whole
presentable.
• Identi-Kit & Photo-Fit use various facial
feature to make composite portraits.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• When photos of proposed deceased
become available, they can be compared
with skull by means of photographic
superimposition.
• Two video cameras are used with a video
mixer to superimpose remains of skull
onto actual size photo.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Mitochondrial DNA: new technology.
DNA found throughout cell. Changes in
mitochondrial DNA are extremely rare &
happen on the order of 1 ever 3 to 4
thousand years.
• It stays the same in a family for generation
after generation & is passed on through
the female line.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• It can endure in our bones for hundreds of
years, if they are not cremated.
• Therefore, comparison results are very,
very reliable and trustworthy.
• Passed through female line: It is found in
the egg, it is not carried in sperm except
shaft or tail which breaks off when sperm
fertilizes egg and never enters egg.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• So male mitochondrial DNA is lost and
only that of the mother is passed on.
• It will be found in blood of all her children
both females & males but only passed
down the female line as stated before. So
it is very reliable with few mutations, so it
is easily match for individualization with
great accuracy.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• For this reason, it was particularly
successful in identifying grandchildren of
Argentinean women who had lost sons &
daughters during political unrest of 1970s
& 1980s.
• 4 nucleotides in DNA: adenine, guanine,
thymine, cytosine repeating in different
orders making each unique.
Anthropology
Forensic Identification
• Due to longevity & accuracy, mitochondrial
DNA is ideal technique for forensic
anthropologist to establish identity of
skeletal remains. Getting samples is easy.
• DNA testing was successful in resolving
the question of the identity of skeletal
remains unearthed in 1979 believed to be
the Romanovs, the royal family executed
in Russia in 1918.
Anthropology Case Study:
Assassination of the Romanovs
• Read case study of the assassination of
the Romanovs. Answer the following ?s
• In 1992, who were some of the forensic
anthropologists identifying the remains?
• Who was Anna Anderson?
• Was the skeletal remains that of the
missing Tsar’s daughter Anastasia?
• How was identity determined?