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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology pp 1072–1077Cite as

Burned Remains in Forensic Contexts

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Introduction

Burned human remains may be found in a variety of contexts (Fairgrieve 2008, 2010; Schmidt & Symes 2008). Such remains recovered from a “forensic context” have relevance to a legal inquiry as do cases where a death is suspicious must be investigated. In many countries, legislation is in place which states that any death that is not attended by a physician must be investigated (e.g., in the Province of Ontario, Canada, see the Coroner’s Act; RSO 1990 c. C.37, s.31). Under such an investigation the investigative authorities attempt to answer the following five questions:

  1. 1.

    Who the deceased was?

  2. 2.

    How the deceased came to his or her death?

  3. 3.

    When the deceased came to his or her death?

  4. 4.

    Where the deceased came to his or her death?

  5. 5.

    By what means the deceased came to his or her death?

Burned skeletal remains may be difficult to locate, recover, analyze, and interpret. For example, remains associated with mass disasters, such as plane crashes, train derailments, domestic...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Science, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada

    Scott Fairgrieve

Authors
  1. Scott Fairgrieve
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Correspondence to Scott Fairgrieve .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Fairgrieve, S. (2014). Burned Remains in Forensic Contexts. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_152

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_152

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2

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