Applied Osteology Objective:
Using what you have learned about osteology, as well as age, sex, and stature estimationy in the previous labs, perform an analysis of a set of skeletal remains and determine the individual’s most likely age, sex, and stature at the time of death. Introduction: For the last few labs you have been learning about osteology, including information about how to identify the sex of an individual based on their pelvis and skull, and how to know whether a particular bone or skull is from an older or younger individual. In this lab, you are going to put that knowledge to use and learn a bit about how forensic anthropologists and bioarchaeologists interpret skeletal remains. Forensic anthropology
is a subfield of biological anthropology that analyzes human skeletal remains in a medico-legal context, often with the goal of determining the identity of the deceased individual, interpreting patterns of trauma (for example, how that individual might have died), and estimating the time since death. By contrast, bioarchaeology
is another subfield of biological anthropology that analyzes human skeletal remains from archaeological sites; bioarchaeologists often try to identify the sex, age, and health of human remains, typically with the goal of understanding behavior and health patterns from an archaeological site as a whole. Forensic anthropologists and bioarchaeologists often ask the same types of questions, but the context is different. Your task: For this lab, imagine a scenario where a local resident was hiking in the woods outside of Fayetteville and stumbled upon what appeared to be a human skull. Upon closer inspection, they noticed other bones in the area. They contacted the proper authorities who began an investigation. It is your responsibility to assess the bones and record detailed information about their condition. By carefully analyzing and measuring key bones, you must infer the sex, height, and approximate age of the skeleton at the time of death, and do your best to determine whether these remains are forensic (i.e., recent) or bioarchaeological (i.e., ancient). Identifying skeletal remains is an easier task when the entire skeleton is present. However, many times this is not the case and the analyst (in this case, you) must make their assessment based on only a few bones present. This will be the case with today’s lab activity. YOUR N
AME:
Daniel Haley
LAB SECTIO
N
:
12
1
