Hlad Marta, Löffelmann Tessi, Griffith Jacob I, James Hannah F, Vercauteren Martine, Snoeck Christophe, Veselka Barbara
Archaeology, Environmental Changes, and Geo-Chemistry (AMGC), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Research Unit Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 2;19(12):e0310380. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310380. eCollection 2024.
Osteological data, such as biological sex, constitute a base for research in paleodemography and palaeopathology, as well as for understanding past socio-cultural practices. Despite extensive research efforts concerning cremated human remains over the past decades, an internationally acknowledged, standardized osteological protocol is not fully agreed upon. Furthermore, assessing cremation research practices from the literature is challenging because analysis reports are often written in the national languages of practitioners, which makes them difficult to access by an international audience. This study addresses this gap by directly reaching out to experts working with cremated human remains through an online questionnaire in Lime Survey. The aim is to identify and characterize patterns in cremation analysis practices. A particular emphasis was put on the methods of biological sex estimation. While the significance of these data is widely acknowledged, the ways in which they are obtained in practice are seldom examined. The results of this survey reveal an absence of standardization in protocols of analysis, and data collection, as well as in reporting on the cremated remains in publications and reports. Notably, the findings reveal regional preferences in methodological choices and inconsistent institutional training. A majority of respondents expressed a preference for traditional morphological methods over recently published metric and alternative methods for sex estimation. These variations underscore the complexity of establishing standardized cremation analysis protocols and highlight the importance of considering regional contexts and training in shaping future research practices.
骨骼学数据，如生物性别，构成了古人口统计学和古病理学研究的基础，也是理解过去社会文化习俗的基础。尽管在过去几十年里，人们对火葬后的人类遗骸进行了广泛的研究，但国际公认的标准化骨骼学协议尚未完全达成共识。此外，从文献中评估火葬研究实践具有挑战性，因为分析报告通常是用从业者的本国语言撰写的，这使得国际读者难以获取。本研究通过在Lime Survey中通过在线问卷直接联系处理火葬后人类遗骸的专家来解决这一差距。目的是识别和描述火葬分析实践中的模式。特别强调了生物性别估计的方法。虽然这些数据的重要性已得到广泛认可，但在实际中获取这些数据的方式却很少受到审视。本次调查结果显示，在分析协议、数据收集以及出版物和报告中关于火葬遗骸的报告方面缺乏标准化。值得注意的是，研究结果揭示了方法选择上的区域偏好以及机构培训的不一致。大多数受访者表示，相对于最近发表的用于性别估计的计量方法和替代方法，他们更喜欢传统的形态学方法。这些差异凸显了建立标准化火葬分析协议的复杂性，并强调了在塑造未来研究实践时考虑区域背景和培训的重要性。
