engleski

Cremating the Dead: Burned Human and Animal Remains

Fire modification studies become the base of understanding the alteration that fire and heat leave on bone remains with its final impact on the cremation analyses and interpretations. Normal burn patterns are well studied with processes like the body position induced by fire and heath, the tissue shielding in bone, the change of colour due to burning process and the burned bone fracture biomechanics. The last two have a great influence on the analysis of archaeological cremations. The reconstruction of mortuary practice and the interpretation of the human and animal burned bones from sixty eight well preserved Celtic graves (Middle La Tène period, Brežice, Slovenia) provided an opportunity to use the histological analysis of cremains. The research revealed individual, double and triple commingled human burials with animal cremains or just charred animal bones, added as pyre good, grave good, or both. Distinctive patterns of cracking, fracturing, and warping of the burned bones were detected, clearly indicating the state of tissue before cremating. The temperature range for each grave specimen was determined according to their specific colour expressed by Munsell designation. The estimation of age at the time of death for each skeleton was defined by modified hystological method on the femoral fragment samples. In the case of very fragmented burned animal samples the hystological analysis was also applied, to distinguish human from non human samples and to determine their species, genus or family. The hystological analysis was performed under the light microscope and SEM.

cremations; histological analysis; animal bones; human bones; forensics

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