Henri Duday

Understanding the Circumstances of Decomposition When the Body Is Skeletonized

When a skeletonized body is found, the presence of an anthropologist is required to understand the circumstances of which the human remains reached the situation in which they are discovered. For this purpose, archaeological anthropology (called field archaeology) and forensic anthropology share the same techniques. This chapter aims to advise as to what should be done and registered precisely on the field when bone remains are exhumed or found on the surface of the ground. It also describes in detail the osteological observations that enable determination of whether it is a primary or a secondary deposit, and to restitute the cadaver environment. This methodological approach is enlarged to include multiple deposits. Although this discipline has mostly been developed in the archaeological funerary context, it provides valuable analysis tools when human bones are involved.

Brief communication : An early Case of Hydrocephalus, the Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh 12 Child (Israel)

Remains of 15 hominids were recovered within a Mousterian archaeological context in the cave of Qafzeh, Israel. Dated to ca. 95 kyr BP, this skeletal material has been crucial for understanding biological, chronological, and cultural aspects of anatomically modern ancient Homo sapiens. The high proportion of children (N = 8) in Qafzeh Cave is unique among Middle Palaeolithic sites and encourages the search for skeletal evidence of disease and trauma. We report on the case of one child, Qafzeh 12, ca. 3 years old (according to modern human reference standards), who manifests some outstanding skeletal abnormalities that indicate hydrocephalus.

First chemical evidence of royal purple as a material used for funeral treatment discovered in a Gallo-Roman burial (Naintré, France, third century AD).

Violet–purple residues collected from a Gallo–Roman burial dated back to the second half of the third century A.D. and excavated at Naintré (France) were chemically investigated by multi-analytical methodology involving the use of Raman spectroscopy, direct exposure-mass spectrometry (DE-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC–UV–visible). Little is known about funeral treatment and rituals during Roman times. Retrieving valuable information on these by chemical analysis of organic residues was thus a key aspect of this work. Analyses demonstrated the presence of the very precious purple colorant obtained from shellfish glands commonly known as Tyrian or royal purple and its exceptional preservation. Chemical investigation and archaeological evidence have shown that purple was widely spread after the deposition of the body for burial. These results are the earliest chemical evidence of purple colorant used during funeral rituals (not as textile dye) and enabled us to highlight new aspects of funeral practices in Roman times.

Recovery Methods for Cremated Commingled Remains: Analysis and Interpretation of Small Fragments Using a Bioarchaeological Approach

Abstract When confronted with buried, cremated, and commingled skeletal remains, forensic anthropologists are often limited in their analyses and interpretation by the lack of systematic training in field identification and recovery methods. Recent bioarchaeological methods have developed tools to optimize data gathering in the field that can be implemented in forensic investigations. This chapter addresses basic points regarding identification, recovery, and recording of small cremated fragments in their field context. We also present a GIS approach to analyze the spatial distribution of the cremated remains in order to identify some of the fires characteristics, such as its origin and spread patterns within the deposit.

La sépulture au début du Néolithique (VIe millénaire et première moitié du Ve millénaire cal BC) en France méridionale et en Italie : de l’idée d’une « simple » fosse à une typologie architecturale

RésuméLes pratiques funéraires au début du Néolithique en Méditerranée nord-occidentale ont longtemps été considérées comme une question réglée. Elles seraient caractérisées par une grande homogénéité et une norme funéraire: le défunt serait systématiquement inhumé en dépôt primaire individuel, dans une « simple » fosse, en position fléchie sur le côté, sans ou avec peu de mobilier d’accompagnement. Une analyse archéothanatologique mise en œuvre sur la quasi-totalité des collections ostéologiques et de la documentation de terrain disponibles en France méridionale et en Italie a révélé au contraire une multiplicité de gestes funéraires. Le choix a été ici de se focaliser sur les sépultures ayant accueilli un dépôt primaire individuel, car elles sont considérées classiquement comme étant la norme, en abordant plus spécifiquement la question de leur aménagement. L’objectif est de présenter les résultats d’une série d’analyses taphonomiques, dont la majorité des sépultures n’avaient jamais bénéficié, qui transforment et complexifient l’image que l’on se faisait de la sépulture, dont l’aménagement ne se réduit finalement pas à une « simple » fosse. La restitution de 48 dispositifs individuels a en effet démontré qu’il existait cinq types de sépulture. Cette typologie architecturale inédite donne accès à un système funéraire définitivement plus riche et plus complexe qu’on ne le pensait et offre potentiellement un moyen supplémentaire pour décrypter le polymorphisme du courant à céramique imprimée.AbstractFor a long time, the matter of burial practices at the dawn of the neolithic in the north-western Mediterranean region had been considered as settled. These practices were thought to be highly uniform, consisting of primary burials that obeyed a particular norm in which the deceased were always placed individually in a “simple” pit, lying in a contracted position on one side and with few grave goods, if any. However, an archaeo-thanatological approach, applied to virtually the entire corpus of available documentation and osteological collections in Italy and southern France, has invalidated the hypothesis of uniform burial patterns and revealed a multiplicity of funeral practices. We chose to focus on graves used for primary individual burials because these were considered to be the norm. Our paper presents the results of a series of taphonomic analyses (many applied for the first time to these graves), which have produced a very different picture, which indicate much more complex practices than simple pit burials. The reconstruction of 48 individual graves has demonstrated the existence of five different types. This new architectural typology definitively shows that the funerary system of early farmers in Italy and southern France was much more diverse and complex than previously thought, and thus offers new pointers to unravel the polymorphism of the impresso-cardial complex.

Aux origines de la maladie osseuse de Paget. Un nouveau cas néolithique dans le sud de la France

RésuméParmi les ossements recueillis dans une grotte sépulcrale du sud de la France, nous avons reconnu un cas de maladie de Paget polyostotique. La datation C14, après calibration, donne un âge d’environ 3350 ans avant J.-C. Après la description macroscopique, radiologique et microscopique de ces pièces, nous rapportons les éléments de la révision des deux cas les plus anciens publiés auparavant. Ces cas concernent des individus ayant vécu en Europe entre la fin du Néolithique et le Chalcolithique. Il est donc avéré que la maladie de Paget était déjà présente à cette époque, et au sud de l’Europe occidentale; aucun cas plus ancien n’a été signalé à ce jour.AbstractAmong the commingled bones collected in a sepulchral cave in southern France, we recognized a case of polyostotic Paget’s disease of bone (PDB). The C14 dating, after calibration, was 3350 BC. After the macroscopic description, the microscopic and radiological analyses of these samples, we discuss the criteria for a re-examination of the two oldest cases previously published. Both cases concern individuals who lived in Europe between the end of the Neolithic period and the Chalcolithic period. Thus, it can be established that PDB was already present at that period and in south-western Europe; no older case has been reported to date.