Erin Martin

Enc 1102
March 1, 2015
This draft does not include blue highlights showing revision because it is completely
unfinished and was, unfortunately, submitted on accident multiple times as my
final draft.

Annotated bibliography: Commingled Human Remains

Commingled human remains are defined as the remains of more than one individual
within the same geographic location which have become disarticulated and may obstruct
the view or analysis of another. Human remains identification is a very complex field;
however, adding multiple remains to one site complicates matters indefinitely. As time
goes on, even the most organized human remains deposits, such as burial sites and grave
yards, can become extremely commingled due to natural causes, such as landslides, and
tornados, or human interaction, including grave robbers and scavengers
In this annotated bibliography, the articles have been pulled from various
scholarly journals including the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the Journal
of Archeological Sciences, and Forensic Science International, accessed via OneSearch
on the University of Central Florida library database. The articles discuss either the
necessity of new and improved methodology within the field of commingled human
remains identification or, the debate between older, more dated, methods and the
innovative methods being developed using the technological advancements of the last
few decades. The topics discussed within each article will range from new methods in
determining demographic profiles to guidelines for victim identification following mass
fatality incidents, in order to give the reader an authentic idea of the diverse and complex

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science that is commingled human remains analysis and the infinite circumstances in
which it is necessary.

Adams, Bradley J. [b1] (analytic), and Lyle W. [b2] (analytic) KONIGSBERG.

"Estimation Of The Most Likely Number Of Individuals From Commingled
Human

Skeletal

Remains

(English)." American

Journal

Of

Physical

Anthropology 125.2 (0001): 138-151.FRANCIS. Web. 1 March. 2015.

This article, written by, by Bradley J. Adams and Lyle W. Konisberg, professors of
anthropology at the University of Tennessee, explores three separate methods for
comparing the Most Likely Number of Individuals within a commingled human
skeletal remains deposit as well as providing examples and giving details of each
based from a case study from Lodge 21 at the Larson site. The authors compare
the Lincoln index, Minimum number of individuals, and Most likely number of
individuals; the results of this detailed how MNI was found to yield the most
accurate results. This is then explained within the context of the Lodge 21 case
where protohistoric inhabitants were massacred and left to decompose in a mass
grave. The main point of this article is to explain each method of analysis,
compare them via multiple algorithmic studies, and to publicize their findings at
the Larson site for fellow anthropologists to utilize within their own studies. The
claims made within this article were given more credibility by the testimony of
the results as applied to the case study from Lodge 21.

Byrd, John E. "Commingled And Disarticulated Human Remains: Working Toward

Improved Theory, Method, And Data." American Journal Of Physical
Anthropology 2 (2014): 309. Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.
This article written by Anna Osterholtz, Kathryn Baustian, and Debra Martin,
members of the American Association of Anthropologist, is a review of a book
written by John E. Byrd, the head anthropologist at the Central Identification
Laboratory in Hawaii. This is rather misleading based on the facts that the title of
the article is identical to the title of the book with no indication that it is merely a
review; there is an abstract outlining only the main idea of the book and, the
author is listed as John. E. Byrd until the end of the article when the editors are
credited with their ideas. This is wholly problematic since the review was
extremely positive and full of information that seems excessively useful to
anthropologists and archeologist conducting research on commingled human
remains. However, upon further research, the book written by John Byrd is
seemingly impossible to aquire and the article within the American Journal of
Physical Anthropology gave no indication of how to access the book; this is quite
unprofessional and leaves room for question regarding the credibility of this
source.

Gonzalez-Rodriguez, J, and G Fowler. "A Study On The Discrimination Of Human

Skeletons Using X-Ray Fluorescence And Chemometric Tools In Chemical

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Anthropology." Forensic Science International 231.1-3 (n.d.): Science Citation
Index. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.
This article, written by G. Fowler and J. Rodriguez-Gonzalez, professors at the
University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom, describes a new scientific method
used to separate commingled skeletal remains into individual skeletons with
accuracy. This method is very innovative and completely unlike others outlined in
this bibliography. This method is called XRF analysis; XRF analysis is a type of
non-destructive analysis that uses the energy production of atoms to determine
which bones belong to a certain individual. Atoms within certain individuals often
behave in a similar manner, leading to an average amount of energy given off
from that certain individual; this average may vary from individual to individual.
By using the electromagnetic spectrum as a means of comparison, the energy
levels of individual bones can be measured and compared to that of other bones,
leading to the formation of articulate human skeletons. Although this method is
extremely new and not highly tested thus far, the research summarized within this
article explains that it has had a very high rate of success in testing so far and
shows an extremely small margin of error. This claims made in this article are
made credible by the highly revered journal in which they were published and the
high level of education possessed by the researchers and authors.

Karell, M, et al. "Commingled Human Remains: A New Approach Of Pair Matching

Using Mesh To Mesh Comparison Of 3D Surface Models." American Journal Of

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Physical Anthropology 153.(n.d.): 155. Science Citation Index. Web. 17 Mar.
2015.
This article was written by M. Karell, H, Langstaff, B. Osipov, C Minghetti, M.
Frelat and EF. Kranioti, professors of various sciences at the University of
Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. The authors begin the article by denouncing
the practice of separating commingled human remains based solely on visual pairmatching; they follow this with the proposal of a new method using virtual 3D
models of long bones to compare the likelihood of a match within an unknown
sample. By creating virtual 3D models of known samples, it is possible for
scientists to compare the most similar and likely matches of unknown samples.
This is done by using the quantification of morphological similarities to rule out
statistical impossibilities on the virtual model to eliminate the need to rule out
each bone one at a time. The authors created an experiment using the humerus of
23 known samples and 15 unknown samples; they found that the virtual 3D
models were matched to the correct pair a large percentage of the time, leaving
little room of a high margin of error. Although the results of this study were
positive, the authors admit that this method is in need of further testing before
being implemented on a large scale within the anthropological community. This
article is given credibility by the large number of highly educated individuals who
collaborated on the research and also the reputation of the journal in which it was
published.