standards for treatment of human remains abroad

[sniper]

quote:Originally posted by Tim

Glad to see Sniper wants to write a paper on Human remains/forensic excavation: I agree. Too many Human remains people know nothing about arch method, stratigraphy,taphonomy, site formation processes, post depositional diagenesis etc. Archies tend not to know enough about anatomy and medicine. There the twain meet.

I guess I am very lucky in having been a digger for quite a while before becoming an osteo (and I still do dig when I can), so I am able to see things from both sides, and understand the site processes. I can see where there has been truncation of a burial (for example) rather than thinking that bones have gone missing for no reason, but then, conversely, I know when to start asking questions about where bones have gone if there is no rational reason for them to have disappeared.

Maybe, as well as improving the treatment of human remains by archaeologists, we should be encouraging better understanding of archaeological method by osteologists. Is there such a document? Should we write one? Hosty? anyone else? let me know what you all think.

++ i spend my days rummaging around in dead people ++