Death Forensic Anthropology Research Paper

ARCHAEOLOGY/ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS Archaeology is the scientific study of past cultures and the way people lived based on the things they left behind. Archaeological techniques involve finding the site, use of specialists, use of technology, dating methods, and preservation/ conservation. From the techniques used to study the remains of human bodies and the specific locations in which they were found, it is possible to learn details of their lives prior to their deaths and then later preservation. Three specific cases where the study of human remains has led to an insight into the persons life are the Ice man, Lindow man, and Tollund man. Finding the site is the first step which involves chance finds where archaeologists come across the remains
The use of specialists include archaeologists which determine the human remians social status, wealth, and occupation. Forensic pathologists find the cause of death, time of death, and age/gender. Biologists tell what they ate. Specialist also use the technique use of technology which includes CT scans, X-rays, and facial reconstruction.These techniques help the understanding of how they died and things that happened before that. To tell the social status, wealth, and occupation archaeologists examine his clothing, equipment, and age.To find the time and cause of death forensic pathologist examine the bones, CT scans and X-rays can also reveal broken or fractured bones which would help determining the death. Age is discovered by using radiocarbon dating and carbon 14 and gender is determined through the structure of bones. To find the stomach contents biologists use ESR which examined changes in molecular structure to determine exposure to heat this can also determins what time of year they died because of the foods they ate to what season it is. For example with Ice man Archaeologist determined possible solutions for his occupation which were an outlaw, a shaman or priest, a prospector for metal ores or a
Then In 2001 he was X-rayed again this time a shadow in the shape of an arrow was noticed near his shoulder. In 2007 the cause of death was finally solved, CT images showed a lesion of the dorsal wall of the left subclavian artery caused by the already detected arrowhead that remains in the back, a large haematoma could be visulised in the surrounding tissue. The ice man died within a short time due to this lesion. Forensic pathologists uses radiocarbon dating to find his age and the tests showed that the ice man lived approximiately 5300 years ago. Biologists used the ESR to see his stomach contents and found he didnt die on a full stomoach it was found he ate bread, some type of plant possibly a herd, and meat.it was indicated that he eaten about 8 hours before he died. A second example is Lindow man, archaeologists found his social status was ranked highly in society because of his well manicured nails and smooth hands. They found he was in good wealth by using electron microscopy which revealed that his hair follicels were stepped, leading archaeologists to conclude that his hair was trimmed not long before his death with scissors or shears and these were not common items at the time. Lindow man's stomach hand not decayed, allowing analysis for his partly digested stomach contents which included grains of cereal. ESR