Owsley D W, Ubelaker D H, Houck M M, Sandness K L, Grant W E, Craig E A, Woltanski T J, Peerwani N
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
J Forensic Sci. 1995 May;40(3):341-8.
The recovery and analysis of human remains from the Branch Davidian Compound, Mount Carmel, Texas, was a multidisciplinary team effort. This presentation deals with one aspect of the forensic anthropological contribution to this collaborative endeavor--the examination and inventory of human skeletal remains and the interpretation of these osteological data. Briefly described first are the content and format of the skeletal inventory and the examination procedures used for data collection. Two subsequent sections illustrate the use of these data to determine (a) age, sex, ancestry, stature, and other distinguishing characteristics, and (b) the presence and nature of any premortem, perimortem, and postmortem trauma. The next section shows how these findings assist in establishing positive identification through, for example, comparison with medical, dental, and other background records, especially comparison of premortem and postmortem radiographs of bones or dentition. In this context, we consider also the sorting of commingled remains, which includes preliminary assessment of rapidly decomposing remains prior to autopsy to preserve information crucial to identification.
对得克萨斯州卡梅尔山大卫教派庄园内人类遗骸的发掘与分析是一个多学科团队的共同努力。本报告论述了法医人类学在这一合作项目中的一个贡献方面——对人类骨骼遗骸的检验与清点以及对这些骨骼数据的解读。首先简要介绍骨骼清点的内容与格式以及用于数据收集的检验程序。随后的两个部分阐述了如何利用这些数据来确定：（a）年龄、性别、祖先、身高及其他显著特征；（b）生前、濒死期及死后创伤的存在情况及性质。下一部分展示了这些发现如何通过与医疗、牙科及其他背景记录进行比对，尤其是通过对骨骼或牙列的生前和死后X光片进行比对，来协助进行身份确认。在此背景下，我们还考虑了混合遗骸的分类，这包括在尸检前对迅速腐烂的遗骸进行初步评估，以保存对身份确认至关重要的信息。
