Buried remains

Janaway, R. C. (1996). The decay of buried remains and their associated materials, in Studies in Crime An Introduction to Forensic Archaeology (J. Hunter, C. Roberts, and A. Martin, Eds.). London Routledge, 58-85. 

Potential Determinants of Postmortem and Postburial Interval of Buried Remains... 

Initial reports on arthropods associated with buried remains arose from the opportunity provided by cemetery exhumations to identify insect fauna in the grave. One of the first published entomological studies of buried human remains reported on the various insect fauna encountered in 150 disinterments (Motter 1898). The study was useful in providing information on both the fauna of the graves and the stages of decomposition encountered upon exhumation (Bornemissza 1957). The majority of species identified were from orders Diptera and Coleoptera however, a comprehensive list of other identified species was also included for each disinterment. 

Additional studies involving pig carcasses has since confirmed that buried carrion demonstrate a distinct difference in the pattern of insect succession compared with what occurs on surface carrion (Turner and Wiltshire 1999). One such study established a database of insect succession and demonstrated the potential of certain species to act as determinants of postmortem interval for buried carcasses (VanLaerhoven and Anderson 1999). Dipteran species, with the exception of the family Calliphoridae, were identified as the most useful indicator species allowing for an estimation of the minimum PMI in a shallow burial environment. This assumption is based on the hypotheses that once insects are able to locate buried remains, they will colonize, feed, and develop in a normal, predictable sequence. 

Decomposing remains are directly affected by the surrounding environment, and, in the case of buried remains, the soil represents the matrix. A burial environment can be defined as the chemical, biological and geological conditions that prevail in that particular location (Janaway 1996, p. 58). The chemical conditions can refer to factors such as soil pH, redox potential, ion exchange capacity, and oxygenation. Biological conditions are mostly... 

The aim of this chapter was to review the techniques and methods currently available to forensic investigators that can potentially estimate postmortem interval or postburial interval. The estimation of time of death or deposition is one of the most important factors that forensic experts are regularly asked to determine. Although numerous methods are available in the early postmortem period (i.e., forensic pathology), once the remains become decomposed the determination of PMI becomes much more difficult to estimate. Furthermore, the methods used to estimate the PMI of exposed remains cannot always be applied to buried remains. As a result, substantial research has been conducted in recent years in an attempt to identify an accurate method for estimating PMI or PBI of remains discovered in burial environments. 

In contrast to the relatively constant number of hydrogen bonds per residue, a set of proteins must bury variable amounts of apolar surface area in order to show convergence (Murphy and Gill, 1991). At the temperature at which the apolar contribution to AH° is zero, no variation would be observed in AH° per residue and the constant polar contribution is all that should be observed. The breakdown into polar and apolar interactions can also be viewed in terms of buried surface area. Proteins bury an increasing amount of surface area per residue with increasing size, but the increase is due to increased burial of apolar surface, whereas the polar surface buried remains constant. This is illustrated in Fig. 2 for 12 globular proteins that show convergence of AH°. These proteins bury a constant 39 2 A2 of polar... 

Palms are an ancient group of plants. Fossil (buried remains) palm leaves have been found that date from the age of dinosaurs. 

---