Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
J Forensic Sci. 2023 Jul;68(4):1372-1378. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.15301. Epub 2023 Jun 8.
In cases where human remains are unidentified because there is no initial identification hypothesis, limited contextual information, and/or poor preservation, radiocarbon ( C) dating may be a useful tool to further assist with identification. Through measuring the amount of C remaining in organic material, such as bone, teeth, nail, or hair, radiocarbon dating may provide an estimated year of birth and year of death for a deceased person. This information, may assist in, establishing whether a case of unidentified human remains (UHR) is actually of medicolegal significance and therefore, requires forensic investigation and identification. This case series highlights the application of C dating to seven of the 132 UHR cases in Victoria, Australia. Cortical bone was sampled from each case and the level of C was measured to provide an estimated year of death. Four of the seven cases analyzed contained the levels of C consistent with an archeological timeframe, one contained a level of C consistent with a modern (i.e., of medicolegal significance) timeframe, and the results for the remaining two samples were inconclusive. Applying this technique not only reduced the number of UHR cases in Victoria but also has investigative, cultural, and practical implications for medicolegal casework in general.
在人类遗骸因最初的身份假设、有限的上下文信息和/或保存状况不佳而无法识别的情况下，放射性碳（C）测年可能是进一步协助识别的有用工具。通过测量骨、牙、指甲或头发等有机物质中剩余的 C 的量，放射性碳测年可以为死者提供一个估计的出生年份和死亡年份。这些信息可能有助于确定身份不明的人类遗骸（UHR）是否确实具有法医学意义，因此需要法医调查和识别。本案例系列重点介绍了 C 测年在澳大利亚维多利亚州 132 例 UHR 案例中的 7 例中的应用。从每个案例中采集皮质骨，并测量 C 的水平，以提供估计的死亡年份。分析的 7 个案例中有 4 个案例中的 C 水平与考古学时间框架一致，1 个案例中的 C 水平与现代（即法医学意义上的）时间框架一致，其余 2 个样本的结果不确定。应用该技术不仅减少了维多利亚州的 UHR 案例数量，而且对法医学案例工作的调查、文化和实际方面也具有重要意义。
