May 24, 2021 Book Open Access

Efthymia Nikita

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  <identifier identifierType="DOI">10.5281/zenodo.4782968</identifier>
  <creators>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Efthymia Nikita</creatorName>
      <nameIdentifier nameIdentifierScheme="ORCID" schemeURI="http://orcid.org/">0000-0003-2094-5047</nameIdentifier>
      <affiliation>The Cyprus Institute</affiliation>
    </creator>
  </creators>
  <titles>
    <title>AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BURNED HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS</title>
  </titles>
  <publisher>Zenodo</publisher>
  <publicationYear>2021</publicationYear>
  <subjects>
    <subject>cremation</subject>
    <subject>human osteology</subject>
    <subject>osteoarchaeology</subject>
    <subject>bioarchaeology</subject>
  </subjects>
  <dates>
    <date dateType="Issued">2021-05-24</date>
  </dates>
  <resourceType resourceTypeGeneral="Book"/>
  <alternateIdentifiers>
    <alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="url">https://zenodo.org/record/4782968</alternateIdentifier>
  </alternateIdentifiers>
  <relatedIdentifiers>
    <relatedIdentifier relatedIdentifierType="DOI" relationType="IsVersionOf">10.5281/zenodo.4782967</relatedIdentifier>
  </relatedIdentifiers>
  <rightsList>
    <rights rightsURI="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</rights>
    <rights rightsURI="info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess">Open Access</rights>
  </rightsList>
  <descriptions>
    <description descriptionType="Abstract">&lt;p&gt;This document is the fourth in a series of guides aimed at promoting best practice in different aspects of archaeological&lt;br&gt;
science, produced by members of the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center&lt;br&gt;
(STARC) of The Cyprus Institute. The current document was largely developed in the context of two projects: People&lt;br&gt;
in Motion and Promised. The implementation of People in Motion involved the laboratory study of a large commingled&lt;br&gt;
and partially burned skeletal assemblage from Byzantine Amathus, Cyprus, which came to light in the context&lt;br&gt;
of excavations led by the Cypriot Department of Antiquities. Osteological work on this assemblage was co-funded&lt;br&gt;
by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation&lt;br&gt;
Foundation (EXCELLENCE/1216/0023). In addition, Promised aims at promoting archaeological sciences in the&lt;br&gt;
Eastern Mediterranean, with funding from the European Union&amp;rsquo;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme&lt;br&gt;
under grant agreement No 811068.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The study of burned skeletal remains is particularly challenging due to the extensive alteration of the bones, manifesting&lt;br&gt;
as warping, discoloration, shrinkage, and fracturing. These macroscopic changes express underlying structural and&lt;br&gt;
chemical alterations. As a result, the application of traditional osteological methods (morphological, metric, chemical,&lt;br&gt;
molecular, histological and others) is largely inhibited or should be extremely cautious. Nonetheless, the study of&lt;br&gt;
burned skeletal assemblages can offer unique insights to funerary practices and technologies, as well as the manipulation&lt;br&gt;
of dead bodies. In line with the above, the aim of this guide is to cover various aspects of the study of burned&lt;br&gt;
skeletal assemblages. It should be seen as a supplement to the &amp;lsquo;Basic guidelines for the excavation and study of human&lt;br&gt;
skeletal remains; STARC Guide no. 1 &amp;rsquo; and the &amp;lsquo;Excavation and study of commingled human skeletal remains; STARC Guide&lt;br&gt;
no. 2&amp;rsquo;. The current guide is meant to serve only as a general outline and the described field and lab-based methods&lt;br&gt;
should be modified depending on the context and characteristics of each assemblage under study.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;
A number of excellent volumes have been published in the past years, compiling experimental and case studies on the&lt;br&gt;
retrieval and examination of burned skeletal remains in archaeological and forensic contexts (Fairgrieve 2008; Schmidt&lt;br&gt;
and Symes 2015; Symes et al. 2012; Thompson 2015). Much of the information presented here has been drawn from&lt;br&gt;
these resources, as well as from other publications and the author&amp;rsquo;s professional experience. References are given&lt;br&gt;
throughout the current document but the aim is by no means to provide an exhaustive account of the literature.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;
This document is an open resource and it is anticipated to be updated at regular intervals. I would greatly appreciate&lt;br&gt;
any feedback and recommendations for future improvement&lt;/p&gt;</description>
  </descriptions>
  <fundingReferences>
    <fundingReference>
      <funderName>European Commission</funderName>
      <funderIdentifier funderIdentifierType="Crossref Funder ID">10.13039/100010661</funderIdentifier>
      <awardNumber awardURI="info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/811068/">811068</awardNumber>
      <awardTitle>Promoting Archaeological Science in the eastern Mediterranean</awardTitle>
    </fundingReference>
  </fundingReferences>
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