Dear Students,
You've got 15 minutes to look at the Official Messy Notes and make your own additions in the comments.
GO!
You've got 15 minutes to look at the Official Messy Notes and make your own additions in the comments.
GO!
Angela Mitchell – Forensic Anthropology
Common Scenes of Death
Surface
Burial
Water
Fire
Mass Disaster
Man in the Canal
Missing White/Hispanic Male 5’8’’ results in a lot of hits
Bones can help tell the age
Fire
Flesh is so badly damaged it doesn’t help the investigation
Don’t want to overlook hidden evidence like bullets
Fires used to cover-up homicide
Mass DisasteR
Help sort individuals from individuals
Primary Questions
Are the bones human?
Deer? Dog? Person?
How many individuals are there?
Who is the individual?
How did they die?
How long has the individual been dead?
Animal vs. Human
Human shoe with deer hoof
MNI – minimum number of individuals
206 bones in the human body
Looking for duplicate bones
The Big Four
Sex Determination
Age Determination
Ancestry Determination
Height???
Cranial Sex determination
MALE – square chin, square mandible, large mastoidprocess (bone behind your ear), retreating forehead, rough occipital, rounded supraorbital marine, prominent brow ridge
FEMALE – round chin, blah blah comeback and get
Pelvic Sex determination
Wide pelvic angle
Wide opening in the pelvis
Sacrum (tail bone) bending back
Ilia close together
Age determination
Developmental stage
Age related changes that start in utero and continue for about 25 years
Epithesis, and the end of the bones word
Humerous – three parts when you’re young
If the bones are missing the epitheal ends, it’s a young skeleton
Men’s bones will fuse more quickly than women’s bones
Degenerative
Biological and environmental factors that start breaking down bone
Bones starting to rub on each other
Arthritis – can be made worse by what you do for a living, exercise, ect
Ancestry Determination
Relies heavily on the morphological differences in cranial skeleton
This is more of a generalization
Sometimes refered to as “race”
European noses long to warm up air (huh!)
African noses shorter and wider to cool the air
Stature
Relies completely on measurements
Some margin of error
Identity
Man or a woman
Age
Ethnicity
Height
Other factors
Pathology – evidence of disease, broken bones, ect
Evidence of lifestyle – exercise
Using pictures of teeth to match individuals by showing them to family members
Forensic Odontology
Dental records
Evidence of braces
Cavities, ect
Cause of Death
Fractures
Green stick fracture
Crushing fractures
Blunt force fracture
Ballistics Trauma
Looking for holes
Cut marks
Harder to see
Can be mistaken for animal bites or post-mortem trauma
Hyoid fracture –very difficult to break, can indicate strangulation
Pink teeth – can be a sign of strangulation or suffocation
Skeletal trauma
Two hard plates separated by spongy stuff
Triangular holes are common
Takes about 8 lbs of pressure to break neck
Splankno-cranium – your face
When did the trauma occur?
Giant hole Inca Skull – yikes
Final Report
Who – bio profile of the person
What – criminal or natural
When – rate of decomposition
Where – the location of the body
How – trauma analysis
How many bones there are and how they’re cared for determine a lot about what you can find out post-morteM
How to clean bones
Scalpel and brush
Beetles
Boiling
How long were you an archaeologist – 3 years
Common Scenes of Death
Surface
Burial
Water
Fire
Mass Disaster
Man in the Canal
Missing White/Hispanic Male 5’8’’ results in a lot of hits
Bones can help tell the age
Fire
Flesh is so badly damaged it doesn’t help the investigation
Don’t want to overlook hidden evidence like bullets
Fires used to cover-up homicide
Mass DisasteR
Help sort individuals from individuals
Primary Questions
Are the bones human?
Deer? Dog? Person?
How many individuals are there?
Who is the individual?
How did they die?
How long has the individual been dead?
Animal vs. Human
Human shoe with deer hoof
MNI – minimum number of individuals
206 bones in the human body
Looking for duplicate bones
The Big Four
Sex Determination
Age Determination
Ancestry Determination
Height???
Cranial Sex determination
MALE – square chin, square mandible, large mastoidprocess (bone behind your ear), retreating forehead, rough occipital, rounded supraorbital marine, prominent brow ridge
FEMALE – round chin, blah blah comeback and get
Pelvic Sex determination
Wide pelvic angle
Wide opening in the pelvis
Sacrum (tail bone) bending back
Ilia close together
Age determination
Developmental stage
Age related changes that start in utero and continue for about 25 years
Epithesis, and the end of the bones word
Humerous – three parts when you’re young
If the bones are missing the epitheal ends, it’s a young skeleton
Men’s bones will fuse more quickly than women’s bones
Degenerative
Biological and environmental factors that start breaking down bone
Bones starting to rub on each other
Arthritis – can be made worse by what you do for a living, exercise, ect
Ancestry Determination
Relies heavily on the morphological differences in cranial skeleton
This is more of a generalization
Sometimes refered to as “race”
European noses long to warm up air (huh!)
African noses shorter and wider to cool the air
Stature
Relies completely on measurements
Some margin of error
Identity
Man or a woman
Age
Ethnicity
Height
Other factors
Pathology – evidence of disease, broken bones, ect
Evidence of lifestyle – exercise
Using pictures of teeth to match individuals by showing them to family members
Forensic Odontology
Dental records
Evidence of braces
Cavities, ect
Cause of Death
Fractures
Green stick fracture
Crushing fractures
Blunt force fracture
Ballistics Trauma
Looking for holes
Cut marks
Harder to see
Can be mistaken for animal bites or post-mortem trauma
Hyoid fracture –very difficult to break, can indicate strangulation
Pink teeth – can be a sign of strangulation or suffocation
Skeletal trauma
Two hard plates separated by spongy stuff
Triangular holes are common
Takes about 8 lbs of pressure to break neck
Splankno-cranium – your face
When did the trauma occur?
Giant hole Inca Skull – yikes
Final Report
Who – bio profile of the person
What – criminal or natural
When – rate of decomposition
Where – the location of the body
How – trauma analysis
How many bones there are and how they’re cared for determine a lot about what you can find out post-morteM
How to clean bones
Scalpel and brush
Beetles
Boiling
How long were you an archaeologist – 3 years
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