The decomposition of materials associated with buried cadavers.
Janaway, Robert C.
Janaway, Robert C.
Publication Date
2008
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Abstract
A buried or dumped body may be accompanied by a range of materials, including clothing and other textiles, metals such as tools and weapons, as well as plastics and paper products. This chapter concentrates on clothing and metal fastenings associated with clothing. Bodies that have been subject to clandestine disposal may be clothed, semiclothed, or naked. Reconstructing the nature and position of this clothing is critical to understanding the circumstance of disposal as well as perhaps to assisting in establishing motive and offender behavior. In addition, clothing and personal effects may provide assistance in establishing identity, although this will need confirmation by dental records or DNA. Modern clothing, footwear, and accessories are made from a range of materials: natural and synthetic textiles, leather, plastic, and metal. Along with the body they may be subject to a range of depositional environment, including surface disposal and burial in a range of soil types and microclimates. These materials will respond and degrade at different rates often leading to differential preservation.
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Janaway RC (2008) The decomposition of materials associated with buried cadavers. In: Tibbett M and Carter DO (Eds.) Soil Analysis in Forensic Taphonomy: Chemical and Biological Effects of Buried Human Remains. Boca Raton: CRC Press: 153-202.
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Book chapter