M. Schotsmans – Taphonomy of Human Remains (2017)

Описание

We first considered the possible utility of joining the theory and methods of taphonomy to the more
urgent and pragmatic needs of forensic practice about 30 years ago. Before that time, although some
American forensic anthropologists had noted the importance of relating the condition of human
remains to the depositional context, most forensic scientists were unfamiliar with the term ‘taphonomy’,
let alone what this conceptual framework could add to forensic work. A taphonomic approach
allows us to view the forensic scene as a natural phenomenon, asking how the body arrived there,
whether it was part of that environment or introduced, how long it had been there, and what natural
forces hadmodified it in the post-mortem period. Although these questions are similar to those used
in forensic work, the viewpoint can be quite different.
Traditional crime scene investigation generally focuses on humans as the responsible agents for
moving and/or modifying the body. Taphonomy conceptualises both the human and non-human
processes and how they may interact with each other and with the remains. With this taphonomic
lens,we can clarify the boundaries of human/non-human agency, for example, in discriminating scavenging
from peri-mortem trauma.
During the intervening decades since our earliest efforts to bring taphonomic approaches into
the realm of forensic science, much has changed. Taphonomy is no longer just an interesting new
approach within the forensic sciences; it has developed into a rich subdiscipline of its own. Taphonomic
studies are now common in forensic literature, and taphonomic approaches are routinely
incorporated into forensic casework, especially by anthropologists and archaeologists. Perhaps no
topic illustrates this better than the development of forensic taphonomy approaches to estimate the
time of death and post-mortem interval. Taphonomy was originally developed within palaeontology
and archaeology, in order to understand the biology of organisms recovered in skeletal form, in which
death occurredmany years or even epochs before discovery. In forensic work, the post-morteminterval
is much shorter, and the investigation often includes much more attention to the soft tissue and
what happened to it. Yet, despite the closer temporal focus, the estimation of post-mortem interval
has remained somewhat problematic. This book helps to chip away at this problem.
This volume illustrates many of the important advances that have occurred in forensic taphonomy
research and practice recently, such as research in interpreting volatile organic compounds,
or contributions of the microbiome as a biological clock. It also updates what may now be considered
more traditional topics such as decomposition of both soft and hard tissues, degradation of
DNA, aquatic decomposition, thermal damage, weathering and scavenger modification. Significant
attention is given to depositional environments, including new understandings about how the presence
of human remains changes the soil around them, or changes the preservation of other human
remains in mass graves. Critical attention is given to methodological issues involved in estimating
the post-mortem interval.There is an entire section of case studies demonstrating more specialised applications of forensic taphonomy, and illustrating how to proceed in specific situations, such as a
body in concrete, a saponified brain, interpretation of textile degradation, or various types of burials.
We congratulate the editors on compiling such awide range of topics and perspectives fromEurope,
Australia and North America.We are especially pleased to see the editors’ incorporation of a broad
purview that integrates forensic and strictly archaeological time frames. The relatively fine-grained,
actualistic knowledge about death events in forensic taphonomy has potentially much to teach more
traditional taphonomic efforts. The breadth of experience represented here, and the comprehensive
coverage of the most important topics in forensic taphonomy, is a real contribution to the field