Assessment of commingled Human Remains Using a GIS-Based Approach

1. Assessment of commingled Human Remains Using a GIS-Based Approach Sara Vickers October 20, 2009

2. Methods to gather Data and Definitions • Element: Individual bone –ex. femur • MNI-minimum number of individuals to account for all bone specimens • MNE-minimum number of skeletal elements to necessary to account for all bone specimens -Does not take into account sides -Example: 8 elements: 2 left femur heads, 1 left distal femur epiphysis, 2 right proximal humeri, 2 left distal radii • MNI: 3, MNE: 6

3. BoneEntryGIS Customized ArcView extension Uses element-specific GIS to calculate MNE estimates. Overcome the traditional inventory systems in managing fragmentary and highly modified remains. -visual identification, osteometrics, Identifiable bone fragments digitized and assessed.

4. Walker-Noe site 14Gd56Garrard County, Kentucky Early Middle Woodland Adena crematory 170 B.C. to A.D. 130 Adenaculture found throughout Ohio River Valley. In Kentucky-extended interments with few cremations within large mounded burial facilities. Short-use facility -in situ cremations-evidence of burned soil Ceremonial projectile points/knives

5. Adena Mound -Mounds used for burial complexes, ceremonies, often times layered; mound of ceremonial objects/remains-burned and repeated

6. Skeletal Analysis Most fragments less than 3 centimeters in diameter Extensive heat alteration, burned on internal and external surfaces. Evidence of calcination- gray and whitish gray in color Warping, cracking, fracturing Skull fragments identification easily recognizable compared to post-cranial skeleton

7. GIS Analysis Bone frags separated into 3 categories: cranial, post-cranial, and indeterminate Focused on: frontal, zygomatic, maxilla, and mandible Shapefile templates created, Adobe Photoshop created images (2 dimensional) to enter into GIS

8. Easily Identifiable Features

9. Frontal Bone Maxilla and Zygomatic Arch Mandible

10. Postcranial Skeleton Femur Ulna-Radius

11. Site Results • MNI of 21 individuals • MNE results vary: Zygomatic = 17 elements, mandible and right maxilla = 21 elements, left maxilla =20 elements • Depicts issues with digitization of elements, once into the system, different views are hard to accurately depict, specifically the lateral view. • Could be solved with 3 dimensional scanner

12. Site Results High representation of cranial fragments -possibly due to “trophy heads” Fracturing and cracking consistent with burning of dry bone. Further analysis of post-cranial skeletal fragments to show relationship to cranial MNI. -post-cranial frags very hard to distinguish specific elements

13. Conclusion Initial results from visual inspection of cranial fragments showed MNI of less than 10 individuals Using GIS allows researcher to gain additional information to use as secondary research questions Problems: Time intensive, some elements clearly unidentifiable, exclusively done by highly skilled osteologist. Infants and juveniles should have separate models Element shapefiles produce a standardized presence of bone fragments, linked databases provides fragments specific information for user queries