Taphonomic Considerations

• Observation before Intervention

  •Body recovery is a destructive process

  •Your observations will fuel your questions and your interpretation

  •Environmental Observations

  •Body on surface

  •What type of area? E.g. Rural or Urban

  •Is there a watercourse near the body?

  •What types of vegetation?

  •What time of year?

  •Body in water

  •Is the water salt/brackish/fresh

  •What is the depth of the water?

  • Is the water Marine/Fluvial/Stagnant

  •What is the Temperature?

  •Is Machinery active in the area?

  •What types of Fauna?
• Look before you touch

  •Body Buried

  •Geotaphonomy

  •Soil type

  •Soil Depth

  •Drainage

  •Point of deposition

  •Vegetation

  •Machinery

  •Land use

  •Time of year
• Damage to Bone

  •The FA must be able to:

  •Recognise “normal” bone morphology

  •Understand the damage caused by animals

  •Understand damage caused by the environment

  •Weathering

  •Burial

  •Environments

  •Understand which animals can damage bone and how?

  •Understand what difference the environment has made to the analysis of damage?

  
• Factors related to the body

  •There are a number of factors related to the body itself that can influence the effect of taphonomic factors:

  •Body Size

  •Age

  •Clothing/Wrapping

  •Injuries

  •Deposition

  •Movement