Forensic Archaeology - Assignment Example

?Forensic Archaeology From the word forensic, many people would conjure up images of most popular crime series CSI where Gill Grissom ponders a crimescene and searching clues hidden in skeletal remains of the victim. In contrast to such perceptions indoctrinated by entertainment, are the realties of 2004 tsunami killing around 230,000 people, Bali bombings and killings, tortures and rapes between 1998 and 2003 at Solomon Islands as a result of natural and human caused disasters. Popular but somewhat not realistic perception and understanding of forensic science has brought much awareness in public and government and has influenced the court system, that it is now called “CSI effect” (Toobin, 2007). Forensic archaeology, defined and considered a specific emerging field, consists of tools, techniques and methods, developed for archaeological research purposes, to assist legal investigations. Forensic archaeologists are usually the members of faculty of archaeology deployed to work in close coordination with expert search teams, forensic entomologists, forensic botanists and forensic pathologists to find and investigate buried evidence at crime scenes. Forensic archaeology assists in investigating genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, mass disaster victim recovery, and repatriation of war dead (Hunter & Cox, 2005). Forensic archaeology helps to discover and solve the events pertaining to a specific crime scene or disposal site. Generally, each crime scene brings its own unique set of questions requiring answers to unveil the truth as the circumstances of each investigation differ considerably. The questions may include but not limited to the way grave was dug, identities of buried persons, during for which bodies remained buried and presence of any other material in graves that may assist investigations. Constrained by limitation of time and opportunities to access the evidence site, forensic archaeologists devise specific strategies and employ appropriate techniques or a series of methods to optimize the evidence for search and recovery of truth. Thus forensic archaeologist strive to identify the understand the events prior to and around the death and burial, method of death and tools used for burial, and thus help to identify the party or parties involved in crime (Miller, 2010). Usefulness of Involving Archaeologists Forensic archaeology has several key roles in international war crime investigations including searching, locating and confirming the site such as mass graves, surface scatters and execution sites; excavation, recording, retrieval, recovery, preservation and analysis of evidence. These roles provide sufficient information to determine the existence or refute of a crime, identification of the human remains, their ethnicity, culture, geographical origin, time frame of death and reconstruction of crime scene, the actions of perpetrator and perpetrator’s identity. Such information helps in successful criminal prosecution and identification of victims (Oxenham, 2008). Repatriation of missing and identification of dead in a genocide or war has been the main focus of such forensic archaeological investigations taken place from a humanitarian view. It is worth mentioning that the evidence, which was initially thought to be of humanitarian interest, is now used to assist criminal war investigations. In such investigations, the extent to which evidence is required may not be established at initial stages, thus resulting in maximum evidence recovery, high standards of evidence integrity and ability to preserve evidence are emphasized to mitigate any associated risks. Maximum evidence recovery helps to identify victims, reconstruct crime scene and corroborate the witness statements. There are many benefits of collection and analysis of evidence including recovery of remains for proper burial, identification of remains, repatriation of missing, human rights and deterrence to similar incidences. Different artifacts retrieved from crime scene provide information on past events surrounding the crime. Oxenham (2008) is of the opinion that the recent debates on whether Armenian massacres were genocides, and the revisionist theories of holocaust are result of lack of evidence till German government issued list of persons executed on concentration camps. The death toll in Srebrenica massacre remained a topic until the excavated bodies were tallied and admissions by perpetrators at International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia started providing facts. The collect and analysis of evidence helps to counter any assumptions and conspiracies about crime and provides information and evidence for criminal prosecution. In this manner, the responsibility of investigators rise manifolds than the domestic crimes. Archaeologists use systematic processes to reach such outcomes by retrieving and recovering maximum evidence for human identification and criminal prosecution. Foci of Forensic Archaeology The concept of forensic archaeology was first developed by Morse, Course and Smith in 1976 to assist law enforcement agencies in crime investigation (Bass, 1978). This was further refined in next 30 years as the field archaeologists transformed research and rescue archaeology to a forensic dimension. Since 1980s, forensic archaeology has developed and emerged as a distinguished discipline that is internationally accepted. Forensic archaeology plays a critical role in uncovering the crime and works in harmonization with other research fields such as geophysics, taphonomics, and GIS and landscape analysis (Cox, Flavel, Hanson, Laver & Wesseling, 2007). The main foci of forensic archaeology include Potential gravesites such as in case of clandestine burial Surface body disposals such as hidden in woods or with other materials Dislocated remains of skeleton Buried items Mass graves to investigate war crimes. Forensic Archaeological Investigation Process Different techniques including survey, excavation, identification of evidence, evidence recovery and analysis that form the basic core of field archaeological methodology have given new dimension to crime scene investigation. Investigation of mass graves is the main focus of forensic archaeology in international war crimes. The main consideration for this, however, is the identification and employment of a systematic process for war crime investigation that can be consistently applied universally. Oxenham (2008) argues that like in field archaeology, the process of investigation can be broken in to multiple stages as discussed below. Mission Planning. This involves planning and management for the costs, resources and activities for on-site investigations. The political pressures surrounding international war crime investigations require substantial return on time and money invested to reach a conclusion based on retrieved and recovered evidence. Search and Location. The searching and locating the site of interest from a huge area can save lot of time and money and can render efficient results in time. Site marking requires methods such as physical examination, observation and remote sensing of anomalies. For example, mass graves in Srebrenica massacre were located due to disturbed soil through aerial photography and reconnaissance of the area. Confirmatipn. The next step is to determine that the searched and located sites are actually relevant to the investigation required. For example, mass graves need a proof from presence of human remains. Recovery. After the relevancy of the site has been established, it is critical to identify, record and retrieve the evidence from the site. The evidence may not be limited to human remains but may include ordnance, clothing and other remains, each require a unique method of retrieval, recovery and preservation. Identification, Analysis, Preservation and Conservation. Excavating graves, retrieving evidences and human remains becomes a futile effort if these are not properly identified, recognized, recorded and preserved for use of law enforcement agencies and courts. The skills that archaeologists use are: Understanding of removal, safety and stability issues of the disturbed soil Familiarity with advantages and disadvantages of heavy machinery to explore mass graves Finding and recovering objects in disturbed soil. Computerized recording of images of evidence The process above can successfully be employed to forensic archaeology for identification, reconstruction, analysis and presentation of such evidence of war crimes in courts. Main Techniques of Forensic Archaeology Forensic archaeologists are field archaeologists having expertise in field and related technological methods to help understand and decrypt available evidence. These methods include but are not limited to geophysical prospecting, aerial mapping, satellite imagery, surveying and excavation (Connor, 2007). Few of the most frequently employed methods are discussed below: Surveying. In field, archaeologists survey the site to collect information on the possible location and spread of the evidence on historical cultures. Same is employed in forensic archaeology to locate, map and reconstruct the site of graves in three dimensions. Photogrammetric Surveys. Aerial photography, satellite imagery including thermography are used to detect changes in soil to study a site under observation. These help archaeologists to devise an action plan for detailed study on ground. Stratigraphy. Stratigraphy is the systematic and sequential study of layers on test site (stratification). The excavation on the test site allows to determine the material and its relation with each layer. This provides information with regard to the dating of burial environment and the buried victim. Figure 1 : Stratigraphy Environmental Profiling. Environmental profiling includes Palynology and Entymology studies. In field archaeology, Palynology is the study of microscopic organic compositions that do not dissolve in hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids, where as Entymology, a branch of anthropodology, is the study of insects. In forensic archaeology, Palynology involves study of environment where the crime was executed and entymology helps to give an approximation of time of death. Forensic Taphonomy. In field archaeology, this method used in Palaeontology to study extinction of animals from their fossils and the manner in they gets preserved over natural environment. In forensic archaeology, it involves the study of process and timeframe of decomposition and examination of decay, fossilization and immediate preservation due to weather and related environmental factors after death. The figure below shows the effects of burial of muscle tissues in an acid soil (triangles) and alkaline soil (squares) indicating the great contrast between the pH values of burial sites and the associated temporal changes (Oxenham, 2008). The rate of soft tissues buried in acidic (triangles) and alkaline (square) sites is shown in figure below (Oxenham, 2008). Osteoarchaeology. A forensic archaeological method that help to determine the age, sex, ethnicity, other features and trauma during life from the remains and bones of human body evidence. Pelvic bones, skull and long bones help in sex identification from skeleton remains. Sex identification techniques are either morphological or metric based. Stable Isotopes. The chemical composition of human tissues can provide information on food and drinks a person takes during the entire life from examining the isotopic ratios. This information can be used to establish the possible geological origin of the body under investigation. The recent residency and long term geological origin of a person can be determined by examining the chemical composition of the human tissues. The food and water that a human consumes from a particular geographic location can be studied from elemental and isotopic ratios in human tissues. Biochemical turn over rate of different tissues provide information on residency record of any individual’s entire life for different periods and geographic locations. Katzenberg and Krouse (1989) conducted chemical analysis of stable isotopes of sulphur and carbon from hairs of five different countries Brazil, India, Japan, Canada and Australia and suggested that such forensic method can be used to determine the geographic origin. Teeth from archaeological sites can be subjected to isotopic analysis to determine the oxygen measure in hydroxyl carbonic appetite of tooth enamel. Teeth do not remodel and their oxygen ratios remain constant since their maturation and are resistant to chemical and environmental degradation over time. This help to identify the origin, geographic location and life style of the individual remains. In cases, where individual can not be identified on basis of finger prints, odontology, physical anthropology, DNA profiling and other traditional methods, Stable Isotopes provide information that can help to identify the geographic origin of evidence. Also in forensic archaeology, this method is extensively employed to determine the effects of drugs in investigating a crime. Case Study Rwanda located in Africa is home to two main tribes Hutus and Tutsis sharing same language, territory and religion. In 1994, Rwandan President Habyalimana died in a plane crash believed to be shot downed. This followed the senseless genocide of the Rwandan history leaving 800 thousand people dead, four million internally displaced and two and half millions as refugees with majority as Tutsis. Hutus were ordered to kill any Tutsi they see, thus people turned against each other. Women killed their beloved ones, students their class fellows, workers their employees and doctors their patients (Ferllini, 2007). Roman Catholic Church and Home Saint Jean were two main sites in Kibuye that were investigated using forensic techniques. These two sites contained four gravesites of which the biggest one was excavated. Investigators comprised of the team managed by Physicians for Human Rights under sponsorship of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Archaeologists using forensic methods conducted site identification, mapping, photographing and excavation in coordination with forensic physical anthropologists and forensic pathologists. A total of 493 bodies were recovered from the graves; however, it was difficult to identify each body. Only eleven surviving members of family were able to identify their loved ones through jewelry or cloths. Six had their identification cards with them. DNA profiling was used to identify the bodies; however, only two of family members could be sample from survivors. From the available evidence and the testimony of survivors, Clement Kayishem was found guilty of genocide and was given life imprisonment. Conclusion Undoubtedly, archaeology is applicable beyond its tradition role in a forensic setting (Davis, 1992). The use of archaeological techniques and methods in investigation of war crimes is possible and has potential to improve collection of evidence and its analysis to reach a logical conclusion (Dirkmaat & Adovasio, 1997). Forensic archaeology is not just the transfer of archaeological techniques to forensic arena rather these involve systematic employment of such techniques on scientific basis. Such war crime investigations bring a great deal of political pressure with them that require an ethical, lawful and reliable manner of investigation to bring the truth at front. References Toobin, J. (2007, May 07). The CSI effect: The truth about forensic science. The New Yorker. Oxenham, M. (2008). Forensic approaches to death, disaster and abuse. (1 ed.). Brisbane: Australian Academic Press. Bass, W. (1978). Exhumation: The method could make the difference. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 47, 6–11. Katenzberg, A., & Krouse, R. (1989). Application of stable isotope variation in human tissues to problems in identification. Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal, 22, 7-19. Davis, J. (1992). Forensic archaeology. rchaeological Reviews from Cambridge, 11(1), 152-156. Dirkmaat, C., & Adovasio, M. (1997). The role of archaeology in the recovery and interpretation of human remains from an outdoor forensic setting. In: Haglund, D. and Sorg, H. (Eds.) Forensic Taphonomy: The Post-Mortem Fate of Human Remains. CRC Press, London, pp : 39-64. Hunter, J., & Cox, M. (2005). Forensic archaeology: Advances in theory and practice. (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. Miller, F. (2010). Forensic archaeology. (1 ed.). Dusseldorf: Springer-Verlag. Cox, M., Flavel, A., Hanson, I., Laver, J., & Wesseling, R. (2007). The scientific excavation and analysis of mass graves. (1 ed.). Cambrdige: Cambrdige University Press. Ferllini, R. (2007). Forensic archaeology and human rights violations. (1 ed.). Illinois: Charles-Thomas Publishers. Connor, M. (2007). Forensic methods: Excavation for the archaeologist and investigator. (1 ed.). Plymouth: AltaMira Press. Read More