notorious case of Frederick and Rosemary West, and in the search for the
victims of Moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian West.^4
Human remains
In forensic investigations, the archaeologist may often have to deal with
human remains. As well as identifying when and how the person was buried, a
study of the body, even if only bones remain, can lead to identification of
individuals, their age, gender, state of health before death, last meal, and cause
of death. Osteoarchaeologists apply techniques drawn from medicine,
anatomy, palaeopathology and many other disciplines. In the United States,
and sometimes in Britain, these investigations are known as forensic
anthropology.
In the past, police investigations into the grisly finds of murder victims
could be pretty unscientific affairs. Half a dozen brawny policemen armed
with shovels would simply dig up the remains, remove the body to the local
morgue, and hope that a pathologist or medical examiner would provide them
with sufficient evidence to pursue the killer. A vast amount of useful clues
were lost until, by the end of the last century, it was realised that an
archaeological approach would offer much more detail about events leading
up to the death, the manner of the death, and the way the body was buried,
aiding both identification of the deceased, and ways to identify and catch the
criminal. Archaeologists in the past were also guilty of a lack of care in this
respect–there are many instances where antiquarian diggers in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries would dig randomly into prehistoric burial mounds
searching for artefacts (particularly gold), simply discarding any bones they
found in the process.
Thankfully, nowadays, strict protocols come into force when human
remains are discovered, either during police or archaeological investigations.
As a result, due care and respect are offered to the buried individual, and many
details of their identity, life and cause of death can be recovered. Perhaps the
first thing to establish is whether the corpse is male or female. Once the flesh
has decayed to bones, only the skeleton can provide this information. In many
cases, the larger the bones, and the more developed the places on them where
muscles and ligaments were attached, the more likely it is that the deceased
was a man–but there are also big, muscular women. Another problem occurs
if the dead person was subadult–a child or teenager. Until we are fully
mature, our skeletal shape is very similar despite our gender.
In adults, the pelvis is a useful place to start. The pelvis of a woman (or any
other female mammal) has a wider subpubic angle than that of a man, to
ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT