Changes in Bone Density During the Post-Mortem Interval for the Individuals of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery

Summary

Quantitative techniques for estimating age and sex at death are becoming more popular with the increased use of computed tomography scans and radiographs on forensic human remains. A gap in the research makes practical applications of post mortem imaging limited to those individuals whose time since death is known, as there has yet to be a parallel study examining changes in bone density during the post-mortem interval. This study examines archaeological human remains from the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery of the same age and sex that were excavated in the same year in order to study the effects of burial on post mortem bone density. The tali of the individuals were scanned by computed tomography and an equation was calculated by regression to help predict years since burial. The goal of the study is to determine how bone density changes in the post-mortem interval in a historic cemetery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bookends: What We’ve Learned in the Twenty-two Years Separating Archaeological Excavations of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

Keywords

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 291