INVESTIGATORS

Forensic Archaeology Investigators

Analyz Zamora
Pre-Science Forensic Science
11/8/14
Professor Garcia

Everyone wonders how and why Archaeologist and Forensics Death Investigators work together.
Forensic archaeologist work with the police and other agencies to help locate evidence at a crime
scene using the skills normally used on archaeological sites to uncover evidence. Some people
may say that Archaeologist and Forensics is different and lands in different courses, yes they
both work with dead corpses but they both do very different things. Forensic archaeologists
locate, excavate and record buried remains, each case is unique in its own way. The role of the
archaeology in forensic death investigation has focused on excavation techniques and
documentation of context.
Archaeologist is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and
analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind. Archaeologist
study human prehistory and history from the development of the first stone tools in eastern
Africa 4 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is a subfield of anthropology,
the study of all human culture. From million-year-old fossilized remains of our earliest human
ancestors in Africa, to 20th century buildings in present-day New York City, archaeology
analyzes the physical remains of the past in pursuit of a broad and comprehensive understanding
of human culture. They relate to familiarity with stratigraphy and soils, collection and
conservation of artifacts, and special areas of interest, such as taphonomy. Forensic Death
Investigators sometimes called simply forensics, forensic science encompasses many different
fields of science, including anthropology, biology, chemistry, engineering, genetics, medicine,
pathology, phonetics, psychiatry, and toxicology. The related term criminalistics refers more
specifically to the scientific collection and analysis of physical evidence in criminal cases. This
includes the analysis of many kinds of materials, including blood, fibers, bullets, and
fingerprints. Forensic scientists often presents expert testimony to courts, as in the case of

pathologists who testify on causes of death and engineers who testify on causes of damage from
equipment failure, fires, or explosions. Around 1970s and 1980s criminal investigators began to
contact archaeologists to help with crime scenes but usually the scenes where clandestine burial.
It wasnt until 1988 that evidence was used from forensic archaeology for the first time in court
in the United Kingdom. A little less than a decade later in 1996, forensic archaeologists were
employed by International Commission on Missing Persons. Over the past year archaeologist
have become more involved in different types of investigations like the excavation of mass
burials of victims of modern wars and recovery of mass fatality events. Archaeology and
Forensics, both participate in the location and excavation of buried remains, recovering remains,
personal effects, weapons, stolen goods, and other potential evidence of the crime or mishap. The
forensic archaeologist studies and predicts the survival of items buried within the ground to
explain the pattern of evidence found. When dealing with human remains the traditional
disciplines associated with archaeology can also be of benefit to an investigation and the study of
osteoarchaeology. The evidence begins when an object that leads the investigators to believe that
a crime or suspicious death has occurred. The investigator contacts the Forensic Archaeologist
when human remains are found or scattered on the ground. The archaeologist will test a potential
theory at the crime scene that a witness saw and will try to determine if their story is true or not.
Archaeologists conduct a Surface Survey here they inspect the ground where the body was
found collecting evidence of past human behavior, Archaeologists have experience locating
evidence and reconstructing the original crime scene and positioning the body to find the real
answers to what actually happened to the victim. The way they record the evidence is by
gridding squares to record or map the scene and the location of all the evidence that was found,
they can also take pictures to show what they found. Mapping a scene, the surrounding area and

the location of all the evidence is an important part of recovery and crime scene work. The
second to last step is Evidence Interpretation is when their so close to catching their killer.
Forensic archaeological interpretation focuses on several key areas like context; association;
provenience; time elapsed since deposition; and site/scene formation. When they are done with
the case they report a writing which is a formal description of an event or investigation. A
forensic archaeology report explains what an investigator did how they did it and what they think
the evidence showed. The report is important because it must explain the results of the
investigation to a judge and maybe a jury who will not attend a crime scene and observe the
investigation first-hand.
The definition of Forensic Archaeology The application of simple archaeological recovery
techniques in death scenes involving a buried body or skeletal remains. Forensic Archaeology
Investigators do drawn from context and association can prove crucial and may contribute to
reliable assumptions of human behavior at scenes, between the killers and the victims to the
crime scenes. Forensic Anthropologists have been the primary crime investigators because of
their expanding role, from being in a laboratory and onto the crime scene. According to the
Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, forensic archaeology is "an expanding branch of
archaeological investigation in which the methods and approaches of archaeology are applied to
legal problems and in connection with the work of courts of law". (Darvill) Forensic
archaeologists are recruited by the government or other law enforcement agency in hopes of
utilizing their skills of archaeologist in order to solve crimes. Forensic archaeologists can take
evidence from the crime scene such as human remains and discover many important clues that
the law enforcement officers may have otherwise never found out. Forensic archaeology can help
to solve crimes by uncovering facts about a crime such as the time it took place as well as using

these facts to confirm whether suspects are telling the truth. Forensic archaeologists can be used
to help find missing people, solve homicides or even on a larger scale such as with war crimes.
(Stark) There are various differences between forensic archaeology and traditional archaeology.
A few of these differences are that forensic archaeology is usually more recent, it isn't limited to
what is underneath the ground, and the importance of attention to details is much higher because
of it's use in the legal system (Stark). Forensic archaeologists help in criminal investigations by
uncovering human remains and discovering clues that help solve the crime (Stark). As seen in
the example of the Kurdish Genocide, forensic archaeology can be used for single crimes or on a
much larger scale such as war crimes and mass graves (Pringle).

Blau, Soren, and Douglas H. Ubelaker. Handbook of Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology.
Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast, 2009.
Connor, Melissa A. Forensic Methods: Excavation for the Archaeologist and Investigator.
Lanham: AltaMira, 2007.
Darvill, Timothy. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Oxford UP, 2008.
Haglund, William. "Archaeology and Forensic Death Investigations." Historical Archaeology
35.2 (2001): 26-34. JSTOR. 2001. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25616890>.
Pringle, Heather. "Witness to Genocide." Archaeology Magazine. Jan. 2009. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.archaeology.org/0901/etc/iraq.html>.
Stark, Jules. "What Is Forensic Archaeology? | EHow.com." EHow. Web. 16 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.ehow.com/about_5554508_forensic-archaeology.html>.