What human bones from the past can tell us today

[Music]

i’m a forensic anthropologist

forensic anthropologists work worldwide

today

we help police forces in a number of

countries

we’re involved in much disaster

investigations such as earthquakes and

wildfires

and we also help teams to investigate

human rights such as genocide

forensic anthropologists really focus on

the body

mostly the skeleton and tragically an

orphan on the dead

but it’s amazing from one fragment of

bone after sifting tons of soil and tons

of debris

that fragment of bond can be sent to dna

analysis we might get a name

the bulk of our work is aimed to

identify the missing we need other

scientists of course i need people like

you that can help

it’s about giving the unknown a name

that is forensic anthropology

in this talk i will show some images of

skeletons

i don’t know if you ever wondered

when you go to a museum

is it right to see egyptian mummies

or skeletons

is it ethical to display human remains

in some conflicts

worldwide sometimes the skeletons are

the only teachers of that past

their voice

about what had happened the only

evidence

and it’s necessary to sometimes see

those remains

the next image will show a small grave

of six people

six men in this case that were shot in

1936 in spain to their political

ideologies

as archaeologists who are digging up

those graves

and anthropologists

analyzing those bones

we’re trying to create

a dignified burial

we’re trying to provide closure to

families if possible

and even justice if applicable

i’ve started working on these human

rights investigations for over 10 years

and only recently that i realized that

my great grandfather in spain was also

shot in the center of

spain he was taken from his house when

my grandmother was 12

and then taken for a walk as he called

it and shot and buried he’s still

missing

my grandmother in fact in her 90s has

never told me about this i only found

out through someone else

there’s silence

and these images really need to be seen

but let’s go back maybe over 20 years

ago

when my hair was different had more hair

i was slimmer and my bones were actually

different for sure

this in my hometown in ibiza in spain

i’m sure you’ve heard of this fantastic

island

but this island has also got a lot of

history

i started investigating graves that were

over 2000 years old

as a young student in archaeology and

anthropology

i realized that there’s so much

information we can obtain from our

skeletons

about lifestyle

about how many people are buried in a

grave about attitudes towards death and

dying that may also help us today

but certainly the information from the

skeletons can provide that insight into

the past as well as other types of

information such as objects

so let us go and think about our own

bodies now

think about your bones

your teeth

think about your lifestyle your living

conditions your activity

diet do you think that was going to

leave a trace on your bones

it will

if we had to x-ray all of you

we could probably age

more or less

sometimes the skeletons can be tricky

okay you could be a 60 year old with a

30 year old skeleton or vice versa

but

dentition can be used in children in

adolescence to estimate the age

fusion of bones one bone in an adult

can be between three to five segments in

a child

so we can examine aids through bone

fusion up to the age of 20 perhaps 25

then it’s a little bit of degeneration

after 30. but that’s okay

we can also look at biological sex not

gender

okay

hips are usually

wider due to pregnancy and childbirth in

women but not always

the skull can show different traits

so with the age of the person the

biological sex and if we measured upon

almost anyone in your body

we can tell how tall you are at least

within a range

these parameters are going to help

identify the dead we may be having 1 000

people missing in one location

but anthropology can help narrow down

that list of to say 30 people will of

course need dna analysis and other

techniques

we could sample your tooth

send it to a chemist we can tell where

you grew up potentially because where

you grow up has different signatures

chemical signatures in the soil in the

water in the air

the teeth are fascinating even by the

shape we can tell you perhaps what

continent you may likely come from

perhaps difficult today

but even how foods are prepared and

cooked

if you smoked a pipe if you played the

bagpipes for a long period of time of

course

we can also look at diet

dental decay

oral hygiene

and diet can also be told from your

bones

we can examine carbon nitrogen

we may know whether you’re a vegetarian

where you eat fish primarily

or certain amounts of meat

i can’t tell you if you play rugby

or horse ride

or play football or dance but what we

can do is we can look at the muscles

muscle activity they leave a trace in

your bones

bone is a living tissue

the bigger the muscle

the bigger the bone has to be muscle

needs to attach to something

okay so we can look at muscle activity

and look at patterns

okay so a professional tennis player for

example they’re playing arm

that bone would be 25 percent thicker

than their non-playing arm

but i can’t say that person is a tennis

player okay

think about disease

come up with an illness or disease in

your heads now

perhaps many of the ones you’re thinking

can also be

seen on the skeletons

infections

congenital disease

vitamin deficiency

joint disease of course

and fractures

this is a femur okay your thigh bone you

can see in the right hand right hand

side of the image that there’s

abnormality there okay and bones are

difficult to break

perhaps an engineer can look at bone

biomechanics and explain it through a

bit more what force is needed

but with this we can also look at care

and healing and medical access

but fractured patterns and trauma are

also important in human rights cases

relatives or society

doesn’t not necessarily just want to

know who that person is but they want to

know what has happened

whether it’s

death through a machete wound to the

skull or a gunshot

so wound

want to finish

with a case that we investigated this

may

in spain in the center of spain

not quite from the spanish civil war but

just after so that that is in the year

1939 and 1940 when these executions took

place

the historians

the families the community

and social anthropologists

gathered information about who is buried

in a particular location

now many times

these cases of spanish civil war people

are buried in fields

in forests

down in wales

or caves

so you’ve got that skill you can also

help

as archaeologists we were looking for 26

bodies

with their name their age and profession

archaeologists digging up

this cemetery civil cemetery with no

tombstones

we’re interpreting and reading the soil

is the soil compact

is it loose

has the color changed and then can

target certain areas

maybe they’re not the graves that you’ve

seen on the news it’s not a mass grave

of hundreds or thousands of people

their graves according to the number of

people that were shot one day

just out the cemetery wall

in fact you can still see the gunshots

or bullet holes in that wall and some of

the projectiles

okay

taken because of the political

ideologies

and

executed maybe one one group was

executed one day they were buried in the

same graves between one and seven people

will be found here

and as scientists we have to be

objective

about this

this is the image with all due respect

to the victim

of one of those deceased that we’re

looking for

you know what information we can obtain

from the bones and even as you brush and

remove the soil you see that gunshot

wound to the back of the head

but you’ll see there are objects these

are belt

perhaps you can see the white buttons

and there are other items such as

someone had pumpkin seeds seeds in their

pockets

or writing implements

or textiles clothing can tell you

whether they were shot in the summer or

the winter

and footwear

these objects actually provide a lot of

emotions for families but also for us as

professionals

the aim is really

to help

provide a name and a face to those

remains

so i want to say that forensic

anthropology

is a fascinating field we’re only part

of a team

that we’re there to provide a dignified

barrio

closure to families and justice

if possible

but there’s room for everybody

if you’re a linguist

if you’re an artist that wants through

art to make awareness of what’s happened

or pressure governments

room for those that work in construction

that can dig a trench with a mini digger

those that know about

underwater um diving because sometimes

there are cases where people bodies were

thrown in the water

there’s room for everybody

and

this work

shows us that with education that these

things should not happen again

it shows that people are always

remembered

and no matter what whether 100 years

later

someone will be there

to find someone’s body

and bring back their dignity

thank you

[Music]

[Applause]

you