Flaherty Taylor, Rando Carolyn, Watts Rebecca
Department of Anthropology University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States.
Institute of Archaeology University College London, United Kingdom.
Sci Justice. 2023 Jan;63(1):63-73. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2022.11.007. Epub 2022 Nov 25.
Dehydration is a taphonomic process that affects nearly all skeletal remains, yet there is a dearth of evidence on this process within the forensic taphonomy literature. When considering the forensic implications of skeletal dehydration, a particular area of concern is sharp force trauma due to its global prominence in forensic cases. In an attempt to address these literature gaps and quantify the effects that dehydration has on skeletal elements, a controlled experiment subjected Sus domesticus (i.e., domestic pig) radii samples (n = 36) to laboratory-induced dehydration after they were inflicted with knife trauma. All samples were photographed pre- and post-dehydration; bone section and kerf mark length, width, and area were then measured from these photographs using ImageJ. Statistical analysis of pre- and post-dehydration samples showed that all measurements experienced significant (p ≤ 0.001) shrinkage, with bone sample area shrinking an average of 8.8 % and kerf mark area an average of 29.7 %. Alterations in length, width and area between the kerf marks and bone samples showed a weak, moderate, and strong correlation, respectively. These findings suggest that anthropological analysis may be affected by dehydration-induced shrinkage, highlighting the necessity of continued research into the effects of dehydration on skeletal trauma.
脱水是一种影响几乎所有骨骼遗骸的尸体变化过程，但在法医尸体变化文献中，关于这一过程的证据却很匮乏。在考虑骨骼脱水的法医意义时，一个特别令人关注的领域是锐器伤，因为它在法医案件中普遍存在。为了填补这些文献空白并量化脱水对骨骼的影响，一项对照实验对遭受刀伤后的家猪（即野猪）桡骨样本（n = 36）进行了实验室诱导脱水处理。所有样本在脱水前后均进行了拍照；然后使用ImageJ从这些照片中测量骨截面和切口痕迹的长度、宽度和面积。对脱水前后样本的统计分析表明，所有测量值均出现了显著（p≤0.001）收缩，骨样本面积平均缩小8.8%，切口痕迹面积平均缩小29.7%。切口痕迹与骨样本之间的长度、宽度和面积变化分别呈现出弱、中、强相关性。这些发现表明，人类学分析可能会受到脱水引起的收缩的影响，凸显了继续研究脱水对骨骼创伤影响的必要性。
