Cremation under fire: a review of bioarchaeological approaches from 1995 to 2015

Abstract

The study of bioarchaeological evidence associated with burials is essential for achieving a global perspective on cremation as a funerary practice, its chronological and geographical distribution, as well as its inner socio-cultural and technological diversity. However, for that purpose, similar and consistent analyses must be adopted by bioarchaeologists to enable intra-and inter-sites comparisons. The 1995-2015 literature encompassing 84 geographically representative articles concerning bioarchaeological studies of burned human skeletal remains is reviewed herein. The objective was to assess methodological variability. Information concerning colour, fragmentation, skeleton completeness, 'skeletal region' representation, non-human funerary assemblage, pre-burning condition of the remains, minimum number of individuals, biological profile, trauma and Manuscript Click here to download Manuscript renamed_cac01.docx pathologies was considered. The results demonstrate that certain methods were used by almost all researchers. That was the case for colour description (91%), skeleton completeness (91%), minimum number of individuals (96%), age-at-death (100%) and sex of the individuals (95%). Researchers are much more divided about the implementation of the remaining methods. Methodological choices also vary. The asymmetries in the selection of the analyses that are undertaken can lead to different interpretations and conclusions of the contexts under study. This may prevent consistent comparisons within the same site and between different sites. We emphasize the need for bioarchaeologists to discuss and standardize analytical procedures for studying cremated remains.

Towards a new osteometric method for sexing ancient cremated human remains. Analysis of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age samples from Italy with gendered grave goods

“…Indeed, the majority of anthropological contributions to archaeological research are insufficiently detailed to provide a clear understanding of the methods applied in sex assessment (see for instance [84]), and are frequently relegated to a brief “osteological appendix”. In this respect, Gonçalves and Pires [85] conducted a survey on the consistency of approaches and methodologies used among researchers in the analysis of cremation contexts. On a sample of 84 published papers, 95% reported individual sex assessments, but fewer than 30% had applied metric methods.…”

A re-evaluation of manner of death at Roman Herculaneum following the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius

“…With this in mind, attempts have been made to offer refined interpretations of funerary behaviour based on cremated human remains (Gonçalves & Pires 2015;Thompson 2015a). A recent study of Roman soldiers along the Northern Frontier, for example, demonstrates the potential for inferring aspects of individual identity through the combined analysis of microscopic heat-induced changes in cremated bone and pyre artefacts (Thompson et al 2016).…”

Burned Fleshed or Dry? The Potential of Bioerosion to Determine the Pre-Burning Condition of Human Remains

“…Its presence can therefore be used as an indicator of the likely pre-burning putrefaction of human remains. Bioerosion thus helps to answer the question of whether pre-cremation burial has taken place, which no other established criterion so far is entirely able to do (Gonçalves et al 2015;Gonçalves and Pires 2017). Furthermore, our results suggest that bioerosion is more clearly visible in bones that were buried under regular decomposition conditions than those from corpses that were treated to accelerate decomposition of soft tissue.…”