Forensic Taphonomy The Postmortem Fate of Human Remains, Second Edition

Overview. Forensic Taphonomy in Practice. The Taphonomic Revolution: Taphonomy as an Integrating Principle in Forensic Anthropology. Decomposition. Chemistries of Soft Tissue Decomposition. Chemistries of Bone and Tooth Decomposition. Adipocere: A Taphonomic Perspective. Taphonomic Impacts on Cadaver Dog Searches. Molecular Taphonomy and DNA. Modeling Core and Peripheral Processes in Human Decomposition: A Conceptual Framework. Basic Microenvironmental Contexts. Soil. Marine and Fresh Water Contexts. Vegetation. Mass Graves. Glacial Ice. Freezing, Thawing, and Cold Temperatures. Differentiating Taphonomic Origin of Osseous Remains. Taphonomic Agent Roles and Signatures. Microbes. Insect Involvement. Insects and Other Scavengers, Hair and Fiber. Mold and Fungus. Small/Medium Mammal Defleshing. Canids Revisited. Birds. Rodents Revisited. Water Current. Burial environments. Fire. Postmortem Interval and Sequences. Decomposition and Postmortem Interval. Bone Weathering in Human Remains. Discriminating Perimortem and Postmortem Effects. Insects. Modeling Decomposition and Accumulated Degree Days. Testing Universality of ADD, TBS, and Decomposition Rate. Microbial Community Change Associated Human Decomposition. Postmortem Interval and Bacterial Metagenomics of Bone. Regional Taphonomy. Developing Frameworks for Regional Forensic Taphonomy. Decomposition and Taphonomy in Southern Illinois. California Central Coastal Morphology Decomposition. Decomposition and Taphonomy in Central Texas. Decomposition and Taphonomy in Northern California. Decomposition and Taphonomy in Colorado. Two decades of NecroSearch Taphonomic Investigation. Decomposition and Taphonomy in Northern New England. Methodological Issues in Recovery and Examination. Standards in Forensic Taphonomy. Forensic Archaeology Standards for Taphonomic Data. Collecting Environmental and Biological Data. Descriptive Taphonomy in the Lab. Taphonomic Issues with Blunt Force Trauma Including Gunshot Wounds. Taphonomic Issues with Sharp Force Trauma Interpretation. Taphonomic Issues in Identification of Historic Remains

Biography

William D. Haglund is a forensic anthropologist and author of numerous publications on forensics. He received his BS degree in Biological Science from the University of California, Irvine and his PhD in Physical Anthropology from the University of Washington, Seattle. In December 1995 he became the United Nations' Senior Forensic Advisor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia. His work with the United Nations and PHR have included investigation of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity and genocide. He has organized and directed forensic assessments and investigations in numerous countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, Rwanda, Somaliland, Georgia/Abkhazia, the former Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Haglund's numerous publications have addressed issues such as outdoor scene processing for human remains, taphonomy, and human identification. Among these are two co-edited volumes: Taphonomy: the Postmortem Fate of Human Remains and Advances in Forensic Taphonomy: Method, Theory, and Archaeological Perspectives. He is also a co-author of the Medicolegal Death Investigator Training Manual. He has been an affiliate member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medical Examiners, is a past three-time president of the Washington State Coroner/Medical Examiner's Association, and is a fellow of the Physical Anthropology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Marci Sorg is a research Associate Professor in the University of Maine, Orono’s Department of Anthropology. She is also part of the Climate Change Institute in the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. Sorg is medical and forensic anthropologist specializing in health policy, particularly as it concerns public health, public safety, and the investigation of death and injury. She directs the Center’s Rural Drug and Alcohol Research Program, which monitors epidemiological indicators of substance abuse, particularly drug related deaths. Sorg is a board-certified forensic anthropologist, serving the state offices of chief medical examiner in Maine—since 1977—as well as those of New Hampshire, Delaware, and Rhode Island in the recovery and examination of human remains. She also assists museums and other public sector organizations in evaluating skeletal materials. Kerriann Marden has been working with human skeletal remains since 1998, and has been author or coauthor on more than a dozen forensic anthropology cases in four states. She was a registered medicolegal death investigator for five years, and she is currently an active member of D-MORT, the mortuary response team of the National Disaster Medical System, assisting in the identification and analysis of human remains in mass disasters. Dr. Marden has also conducted extensive analysis of prehistoric human remains. She was awarded Smithsonian Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships to conduct research at the National Museum of Natural History, and has examined Native American remains at the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the Maxwell Museum at the University of New Mexico, and the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. She has an ongoing program of research in forensic osteology analysis of trauma, dismemberment, and reassociation of human remains. She is currently Director of Forensic Sciences Program and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University.