Counting human bone fragments using landmarks: Camposanto case study

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ABSTRACT

Disarticulated human bone fragments can be encountered in various scenarios where fragmented skeletal material has been disturbed by anthropogenic (i.e. grave robbing, disaster recovery), animal scavenging (i.e. with surface deposits), or natural forces (i.e. flooding, erosion). The physical anthropologist should aim to classify as diagnostic as many human bone fragments as possible. The Camposanto cemetery (Venice, Italy) was used to assess a landmark method to determine its applicability to human fragmented assemblages (archaeological, humanitarian, or forensic). A total of 7,330 fragments, of which 59% were smaller than 5 cm and 1.7% were larger than 10 cm, returned a MNI of 24 individuals (16 adults, five children, and three infants). The study concluded that a modified version of the landmark schema, particularly the cranium and pelvis, is required to classify a greater number of fragments as diagnostic.

KEYWORDS:

• Bioarchaeology
• MNI
• commingling
• plague grave
• fragment counts

Acknowledgments

This study would not have been possible without the support of the following individuals and institutions: Zuzana Obertová, UWA | Gerolamo Fazzini, Archaeoclub | Massimo Dadà and Alessandro Asta, Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna |Participants of the 2015–2019 Bioarchaeology field-school seasons.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Human ethics

This project was reviewed by the Human Ethics office at the University of Western Australia [RA/4/1/9004].