The elusive universal post-mortem interval formula

Vass, Arpad A.

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.04.052

Cited by 152 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These factors included season of death, climatic variation within a temperate zone, coffin burial, clothing/wrapping, burial depth, microbiome health and composition, diet, infectious disease and penetrative trauma (Rodriguez andBass 1983, 1985;Mant 1987;Mann et al 1990;Campobasso et al 2001;Vass 2011;Zhou and Bayard 2011;Ferreira and Cunha 2013). The common feature of these variables is that they affect the rate of bodily decomposition, but not the overall level of putrefaction experienced by the bones (Rodriguez andBass 1983, 1985;Janaway 1996;Rodriguez 1997;Campobasso et al 2001;Vass 2011;Zhou and Bayard 2011;Ferreira and Cunha 2013). Only processes that sufficiently reduce the level of putrefaction experienced by a bone, such as rapid extraneous soft tissue loss, will affect bacterial bone bioerosion (Jans et al 2004;Nielsen-Marsh et al 2007).…”

Section: Bacterial Bioerosion and Archaeological Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Funerary Treatment and Bacterial Bioerosion in European Archaeological Human Bone

Booth

2015

Archaeometry

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A central problem in funerary archaeology is interpreting how the corpse was manipulated in the immediate post mortem period. The extent of bacterial bioerosion to the internal bone microstructure has been proposed as a means to infer the early post mortem history of a corpse, as it has been suggested that this form of bone diagenesis is produced by an organism's putrefactive gut bacteria. Under this model, different forms of funerary treatment would be expected to leave characteristic signatures of bioerosion in archaeological bone. Here, we tested the extent to which bacterial bioerosion of ancient human bones reflected funerary treatment, through histological analysis of 301 archaeological human bone thin sections from 25 European archaeological sites. We found that bioerosion was significantly influenced by whether a bone originated from a neonatal individual or an anoxic context. When these remains were excluded, bioerosion was controlled by archaeological phase in a manner consistent with known early post mortem treatment and forensic models of bodily decomposition. These findings suggest that microscopic analyses of bone have useful applications in reconstructions of funerary processes and provide some insight into factors that may control the persistence of organic biomolecules and fossilization.

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Section: Bacterial Bioerosion and Archaeological Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Funerary Treatment and Bacterial Bioerosion in European Archaeological Human Bone

Booth

2015

Archaeometry

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“…As expected the VOCs changed over time both within and among species and by tissue type. Environmental conditions including oxygen availability, temperature, substrate pH if buried or in contact with soil or water, among others, would also have an effect on the VOC profile over time [25]. These differences may be significant when developing training aids for canines or an instrumental detector.…”

Section: Comparison Between Fresh and Decomposed Animal Tissue Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the volatile organic compounds present in the headspace of decomposing animal remains, and compared with human remains

Cablk

Szelagowski

Sagebiel

2012

Forensic Science International

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“…Further research is needed to find additional cell death precision and accuracy necessary for the calculation of the postmortem interval. these methods include the measure of volatile fatty acids in the soil solution, which may aid in determining a long time since death interval [11,12], as well as the analysis of amino acids, neurotransmitters, and decompositional by-products [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%