Forensic Archaeology (Other Keyword)
26-50 (78 Records)
This is an abstract from the "The Arch Street Project: Multidisciplinary Research of a Philadelphia Cemetery" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This case study focused on two individuals, a child (G-009) and an adult female (G-033), recovered with intact hair masses from the former First Baptist Church of Philadelphia (FBCP) cemetery. Hair samples from both individuals were studied visually using light microscopy and chemically using inductively...
The Ethics and Practice of Forensic Archaeology, Unfunded Mandates, and the Unidentified (2018)
In 2001, California passed SB 297, which mandated that coroners "shall collect samples for DNA testing from the remains of all unidentified persons and shall send those samples to the Department of Justice for DNA testing and inclusion in the DNA data bank." This legislation, which was largely unfunded by the state, expanded existing DNA testing programs to include remains from cold cases that were being stored by state agencies and remains that had been interred in cemeteries throughout the...
Finding Solace: Recovering Human Cremations from the Ashes of a Firestorm (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. On October 9, 2017, a firestorm swept through northern California. Eventually reaching over 180,000-acres, the wildfire destroyed more than 8,400 buildings and killed 42 people. Thousands of families lost their homes and all their possessions. In many instances, the cremated remains of previously deceased family members were stored in urns within the home. A...
Footprint Analysis of the Sunset Road Rillito Fan Site, AZ AA:12:788(ASM) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Community Matters: Enhancing Student Learning Opportunities through the Development of Community Partnerships" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In March 2016 a study investigating human footprints discovered at the Rillito Fan Site, AZ AA 12:788(ASM), located in Pima County, Arizona, was conducted by Pima Community College archaeology staff and students, in partnership with other Pima County-based archaeological...
Forensic Archaeological Investigation and Recovery of Underwater U.S. Naval Aircraft Wreck Sites: Two Case Studies from Palau and Papua New Guinea (2016)
This paper will examine two recent underwater forensic archaeological efforts undertaken by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to address Second World War-era U.S. Naval aircraft wreck sites associated with unaccounted-for U.S. Military service members. These efforts, in the Republic of Palau and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, serve as case studies that illustrate the intersection between the responsibility of site preservation, and the duty of personnel accounting via...
Forensic Archaeology and Today’s Student: Managing Expectations and Providing Rigor While Maintaining Best Practices (2015)
Fueled by the media and uniformed academic advisors, students are flooding into the field of forensics, often with unrealistic expectations of success and future employment. Although careers in forensic anthropology and archaeology are difficult to attain, today’s practitioners have the responsibility to prepare and train the field’s future members. This paper discusses the 2014 field season of the Unidentified Persons Project, a twenty-three student forensic archaeology field school that took...
Forensic Archaeology Fieldwork as a High-Impact Practice (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will discuss search and recovery efforts concerning an isolated, World War II-era burial from the Federal Republic of Germany. This was a project partnership between the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and Western Carolina University (WCU), coordinated between DPAA, WCU, and...
Forensic Geoarchaeology: Three Case Studies (1991)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
The Forensics of Commodification: Examples from Louisiana of the Acquisition, Analysis, and Legal Problems Related to Trophy Skulls Seized from Illegal Sales (2015)
Since the inception of the Louisiana Department of Justice’s human remains acquisition program in 2007, two Tibetan kapalas have been recovered from illegal sales. This commodification of human remains constitutes technical violations of the law, but the nature of the remains makes for an awkward fit to the existing laws. The forensic, bioarchaeological, and cultural analysis of these remains are difficult due to their altered nature, leading to problems of disposition. Questions inherent in...
Further Defining the Role of the Forensic Archaeologist (2017)
As the use of archaeologists in forensic matters grows, it is important to define the role the archaeologist ought to play in such situations. Archaeologists should educate law enforcement personnel as to their utility in investigations. It is important that archaeologists understand their usefulness in criminal matters, and even more importantly, archaeologists should understand their limitations in investigations. There is a need to establish guidelines as to what archaeologists should/should...
The Geochemical Profile of the Woman in the Iron Coffin, a Mid-19th C. Burial in Queens, New York City (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Illegal construction excavation in Queens (NYC) unearthed a mid-19th C. iron coffin and exposed the burial interred within. Known as the Woman in the Iron Coffin, the well-preserved burial was a young adult female of African ancestry who died of small pox. Here we provide stable isotopic (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr, 206Pb/207Pb) and elemental (Pb, As)...
Getting the Job Done: Case Resolution in the Field, from Investigation through Recovery, at Site GM-05585, a Low-Angle B-17G Crash Site in Sachsen Anhalt, Germany. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "A Multidimensional Mission: Crossing Conflicts, Synthesizing Sites, and Adapting Approaches to Find Missing Personnel" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The DPAA case resolution process involves a number of important steps that occur before a recovery team is sent into the field to excavate an incident site, and typically includes a combination of historic research, witness interviews, field investigations, and...
Handbook of Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology (1983)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Hitting Huggins’ Roadblock: Confronting the Challenge of Recovering the Missing from a World War II Battlefield in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea (2019)
This is an abstract from the "A Multidimensional Mission: Crossing Conflicts, Synthesizing Sites, and Adapting Approaches to Find Missing Personnel" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The complexity of accounting for missing in action personnel is highly dependent on the past—and present—context of the loss. In late 1942, during the Battle of Buna-Gona in New Guinea, United States forces established a roadblock behind forward Japanese positions in an...
Hot, Cold, Above and Below: Enhanced Survey Methods in the Detection of Clandestine Graves (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Forensic Archaeology: Research & Practice" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ground-based methods of searching for clandestine graves and surface remains have been utilized by law enforcement and search and rescue personnel for years. When ground conditions and the technique of search are appropriate for the circumstances of the case, results are often successful. However, weather, terrain, acreage, foliage and efforts...
How Experimental Research in Forensic Archaeology Informs Archaeological Practice: Differentiating Perimortem Fracture From Postmortem Breakage (2018)
Often perceived as a highly specialized and peripheral subfield of archaeology, forensic archaeology contributes to our understanding of not only forensic anthropology and forensic science, but also traditional archaeological practice. Forensic archaeologists’ extensive knowledge of postmortem taphonomic effects on material objects has led to more precise interpretations of postmortem interval, environmental (including scavenger-induced) scattering and alteration of human remains, and site...
The Importance of Collaboration: Reflections from a World War II Forensic Archaeology Field School (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Fulfilling a Nation’s Promise: The Search, Recovery, and Accounting Efforts of DPAA and Its Partners" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recovery of past service members from historic military sites is a specialized archaeological niche with substantial forensic influences. It receives distinct notice by governments around the world as they recognize the importance of closure for their nations and families of those...
In Search of MIA from One Fateful Day in 1943: Florida Gulf Coast University Partners with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to Bring Servicemen Home (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) recently formed a partnership with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). In June 2019, FGCU participated in its first mission, the investigation of a World War II aircraft crash in Germany. For FGCU, this was the culmination of several initial endeavors. It was...
In the Groove: Alternative Functions for Sharpening Grooves in the Pueblo Southwest (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Commonly across the Puebloan Southwest, incised lines are observed adjacent to petroglyph panels. Often, these features are simply labeled as “axe sharpening grooves.” Many archaeologists label them in their site forms as such, tally them, and tend to not interpret them further. In this experimental research, I push back on this over simplified...
"Inconceivable!": Innovation and Improvisation on a WWII-Era Aircraft Crash Site in the Swamps of Papua New Guinea (2019)
This is an abstract from the "A Multidimensional Mission: Crossing Conflicts, Synthesizing Sites, and Adapting Approaches to Find Missing Personnel" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological recovery of an aircraft crash site differs significantly from traditional archaeology in that the former often takes place in locations unsuitable for human habitation, in geographic and environmental settings beyond the scope of standard excavation...
The Intersection of Bioarchaeology and Forensic Archaeology Methodologies and Theories: A Practical Application (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Forensic Archaeology: Research & Practice" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although often viewed as disparate fields of practice, bioarchaeology and forensic archaeology share a number of commonalities in their approaches to human remains recovery techniques. To address the theoretical and methodological intersection and divergence of these two fields, a case study involving the recovery of remains from a historic...
The Intersection of Multiple Conflicts: The Excavation of an F-4C Crash Site in the Midst of the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield (2019)
This is an abstract from the "A Multidimensional Mission: Crossing Conflicts, Synthesizing Sites, and Adapting Approaches to Find Missing Personnel" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Between 2014 and 2017, archaeologists with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) excavated an active rice paddy in northwest Vietnam in search of two missing U.S. service members from the Vietnam War. The incident aircraft, an F-4C, was shot down on March 15,...
Introduction to Exploring Globalization and Colonization Through Archaeology and Bioarcheology NSF REU Site (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Globalization and Colonialism through Archaeology and Bioarchaeology: An NSF REU Sponsored Site on the Caribbean’s Golden Rock (Sint Eustatius)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Exploring Globalization and Colonization Through Archaeology and Bioarchaeology National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site located on the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius (Statia)...
Is There Strength in Numbers? An Evaluation of the Complementary Roles of Archaeologists and Anthropologists in Forensic Contexts (2017)
This paper explores the training and education that forensic anthropologists and forensic archaeologists have traditionally received, and how it is put into practice in forensic contexts. The substantial differences in theory, method, and practice between the two sub-disciplines will be summarized and how these differences shape what each can contribute in the field will be discussed. This paper will argue that although some overlap between the two sub-disciplines exists, contemporary...
A Latin American choreography: entanglements of solidarity and collaboration for a forensic archaeology (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Weaving Epistemes: Community-Based Research in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A Latin American choreography: entanglements of solidarity and collaboration for a forensic archaeology Latin America was and still is one of the most prominent areas for the development of forensic archaeology and anthropology. It is a common sense between researchers of the field that this latin america perspective started...