Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains

Anna Osterholtz is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  Her bioarchaeological research interests include the health consequences of trade, migration and interaction and the social role of violence.  She has worked extensively with commingled and fragmentary collections from around the world.  Kathryn Baustian is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research interests include bioarchaeological investigations focused on ancient social organization and the biological effects of culture change. She is also interested in forensic anthropology and the interpretation of violence in ancient and modern settings. Debra L. Martin is Lincy Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  Her interests include bioarchaeological approaches to understanding social processes that produce and reproduce poor health and violence within culturally defined and marginalized subgroups.

Chapter 1- Introduction

Chapter 2- Making Sense of Social Behavior from Disturbed and Commingled Skeletons: A Case Study from Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Chapter 3- Commingled Human Skeletal Assemblages: Integrative Techniques in Determination of the MNI/MNE

Chapter 4- Bioarchaeological Spatial Analysis of the Walker-Noe Crematory (15GD56)

Chapter 5- Into the Kettle:  The Analysis of Commingled Remains from Southern Ontario

Chapter 6- Crow Creek Bone Bed Commingling: The Relationship between Bone Mineral Density and Minimum Number of Individuals and Its Effect on Paleodemographic Analyses

Chapter 7- Extreme Processing at Mancos and Sacred Ridge: The Value of Comparative Studies

Chapter 8- Disarticulated and Disturbed, Processed and Eaten?  Cautionary Notes from the La Plata Assemblage   (AD 1000-1150)

Chapter 9- Partible, Permeable, and Relational Bodies in a Maya Mass Grave

Chapter 10- Unmingling Commingled Museum Collections: A Photographic Method

Chapter 11- Primary and secondary burials with commingled remains from archaeological contexts in Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey

Chapter 12- Commingled Bone Assemblages: Insights from Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy of a Bonebed at Karain B Cave, SW Turkey

Chapter 13- Normal Goat or Diseased Human? Disciplinary Boundaries and Methodological Traps in the Analysis of Fragmentary Remains at Franchthi Cave, Greece

Chapter 14-Taking Analyses of Commingled Remains into the Future:  Challenges and Prospects

"Overall, this volume is a major contribution in this area.....It will be an added resource to all those who work with human and animal remains in both archaeological and forensic contexts" (Bernadette M. Manifold, PaleoAnthropology, 2014)"I recommend the volume by Osterholtz and coworkers to practitioners in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.....the volume has much to offer in terms of ideas for dealing with commingling, and I am happy to recommend this book for all bioarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists" (John E. Byrd, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 155, 2014)