Considering Conservation of Human Skeletal Remains in Archaeological Contexts

Abstract

The articles in this issue present bioarchaeological case studies from across the globe, including North and Central America, East Asia, Europe, and the Near East. Some bioarchaeology projects are new and others are decades old, but common challenges emerge as researchers apply conservation standards to real situations in the field: a lack of training or resources for long-term curation of human remains, the lag between excavation and analysis of remains, and environmental challenges that include melting permafrost, tropical storms, and a variety of pests such as molds, fungi, bats, snakes, and insects. The studies also address ethical considerations about the use of digital images of human remains, molecular and isotopic methods that require the destruction of human tissue samples, the ability of fast-paced cultural resource management (CRM) projects to address the needs of descendant communities, and the responsibility that we have to the people we study. Techniques for addressing these challenges include new computer programs, more advanced photographic software, and research on the effects of conservation techniques that provide new “standards” for bioarchaeologists. We highlight the importance of each contribution and discuss the future of conservation in bioarchaeology.

Care of Ancient Human Remains. Conservation and Management With 3d Modeling and DBMS

“…There are different diagenetic and taphonomic conditions to which human remains have been subjected over the millennia. At the same time, the moment of their discovery led to changes in the chemical-physical stability that they had reached during the laying (Cassman, Odegaard & Powell, 2006;Beaubien, 2019;Freiwald & Miller Wolf K. A., 2019). For these reasons, from the moment of their identification and subsequent extraction by archaeologists and anthropologists, the finds have undergone new changes depending on the new conditions.…”