Dawnie Wolfe Steadman
Biographic Data
| ID | 79014 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dawnie Wolfe Steadman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dawnie Wolfe |
| FAMILY NAME | Steadman |
| SIGNATURE | STEADMAN D W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tennessee at Knoxville |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0812-0739 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 116 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
From a Small Plot in Knoxville to a Worldwide Footprint
The first outdoor human decomposition research facility was established by Dr. William Bass in 1980 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Initial research at the Anthropology Research Facility (ARF) examined some of the large-scale environmental factors that contribute to decomposition and time since death estimates. As taphonomic research grew into a holistic and interdisciplinary field, the importance of macro-and microenvironmental fact…
Ancestral Diversity in Skeletal Collections
African Americans comprise approximately 13% of the U.S. population, 6% of missing persons, and 51% of homicide victims (Kochanek et al. 2019; National Crime Information Center [NCIC] 2018; U.S. Census Bureau 2010). However, African American remains are underrepresented in the documented skeletal samples resulting from body donations to U.S. taphonomic research facilities. If forensic anthropologists are to rise to the challenge of identifying re…
Estimating age‐at‐death in burnt adult human remains using the Falys–Prangle method
OBJECTIVES: The Falys-Prangle-method assesses age-related morphological changes to the sternal clavicle end (SCE), enabling the observation of mature adults from the 5th decade onwards in unburnt human skeletal remains. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of the Falys-Prangle-method on burnt human remains. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two SCE of 40 cremated individuals (out of 86) from the William M. Bass collection of the F…
Revisiting metric sex estimation of burnt human remains via supervised learning using a reference collection of modern identified cremated individuals (Knoxville, USA )
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to increase the rate of correctly sexed calcined individuals from archaeological and forensic contexts. This is achieved by evaluating sexual dimorphism of commonly used and new skeletal elements via uni- and multi-variate metric trait analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two skeletal traits were evaluated in 86 individuals from the William M. Bass donated cremated collection of known sex and age-at-death. Four diff…
Considerations for Stable Isotope Analysis of Human Hair
Stable isotope analysis of postmortem hair is performed in order to make inferences about an individual's diet and geographic travel history prior to death. During analysis and interpretation, investigators assume that the hair collected from a postmortem environment has not been altered by exposure conditions and that the isotopic "signatures" of hair prior to exposure are preserved in postmortem samples. In order to confidently make inferences …
Age-at-Death Estimation for Modern Populations in Mexico and Puerto Rico through the Use of 3D Laser Scans of the Pubic Symphysis
Reliable age-at-death estimates from the adult skeleton are of fundamental importance in forensic anthropology, because it contributes to the identity parameters used in a medicolegal death investigation. However, reliable estimates are difficult because many traditional aging methods depend on a set of population-specific criteria derived from individuals of European and African descent. The absence of information on the potential differences in…
Forensic Postmortem Interval Estimation from Skeletal Muscle Tissue
Lipidomic analyses of human skeletal muscle tissue were conducted to detect biomarkers of time-dependent postmortem degradation and to test the predictive capacity of lipids in human skeletal muscle cell membranes. High-resolution mass spectrometry analytical platforms were used to isolate phospholipids in muscle cell membranes that are specific to the corpse tissues and not invading microbes, thus eliminating potential noise from the surrounding…
Who Needs Data? I've Got Experience
Who Needs Data? I've Got Experience! Dawnie Wolfe Steadman key words Forensic Anthropology, Quantitative Methods, Medicolegal Casework, Human Identification, Skeletal Analysis In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a blistering report on the current state of forensic science oversight and practice in the United States. The report skewered the current scientific integrity and standards of a number of forensic subdisciplines, including …
Age-at-Death Estimation for Modern Populations in Mexico and Puerto Rico through the Use of 3D Laser Scans of the Pubic Symphysis
Reliable age-at-death estimates from the adult skeleton are of fundamental importance in forensic anthropology, because it contributes to the identity parameters used in a medicolegal death investigation. However, reliable estimates are difficult because many traditional aging methods depend on a set of population-specific criteria derived from individuals of European and African descent. The absence of information on the potential differences in…
Who Needs Data? I’ve Got Experience
1 Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. *Correspondence to: Dawnie Wolfe Steadman, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 1621 Cumberland Avenue, Strong Hall Room #502A, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA. E-mail: [email protected] KEY WORDS: forensic anthropology, quantitative methods, medicolegal casework, human identification, skeletal analysis. Human Biology, Winter 2018, v. 90, no. 1. doi: 10.13110/hu…
Validation of the Total Body Score/Accumulated Degree-Day Model at Three Human Decomposition Facilities
A few studies have examined the accuracy of the Megyesi et al. (2005) total body score/accumulated degree-day (TBS/ADD) method; however, no study has investigated the validity of the method using human remains at known ADD intervals. The current study validates the TBS method for human cadavers placed in three different human decomposition facilities in the United States. Twenty-eight donated cadavers, with known ADD and dates of death, in the fi…
Hard Evidence
Hard Evidence
Bayesian Modeling of the Occupation Span of the Averbuch Site in the Middle Cumberland Drainage, Tennessee
The application of Bayesian models to suites of radiocarbon dates can provide important refinements over standard approaches toward calibration and seriation of dated feature contexts. We have modeled a number of older radiocarbon dates submitted in the 1980s along with a recent set of accelerator mass spectrometry dates from the Averbuch site (40DV60), a Mississippian village in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee occupied in the fourteent…
Pre-Columbian mycobacterial genomes reveal seals as a source of New World human tuberculosis
The demographic, socio-economic and temporal contextualisation of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona collection of identified human skeletons (UAB collection)
Identified human skeletal collections are those in which basic demographic data (sex, age and biological origin) are known and are crucial for developing and testing osteological methodologies. It is important that the identified collection be contextualised, and in this way the collection will be considered a reference collection. To contextualise a collection requires documentation of the basic demographic data of the individuals (sex, age, yea…
Estimation and evidence in forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology typically uses osteological and/or dental data either to estimate characteristics of unidentified individuals or to serve as evidence in cases where there is a putative identification. In the estimation context, the problem is to describe aspects of an individual that may lead to their eventual identification, whereas in the evidentiary context, the problem is to provide the relative support for the identification. In either…
The Political, Social and Scientific Contexts of Archaeological Investigations of Mass Graves in Spain
Warfare related trauma at Orendorf, a middle Mississippian site in west‐central Illinois
Skeletal evidence of nonritual interpersonal trauma in the central Illinois valley is currently limited to the terminal prehistoric period in the region. Sixteen percent of the entire Norris Farms Oneota skeletal sample died violently, presumably because they intruded upon small groups of Mississippians who had not yet abandoned the region. Archaeological evidence of palisades, however, suggests that the region was embroiled in conflict before th…
Statistical basis for positive identification in forensic anthropology
Statistical basis for positive identification in forensic anthropology
Forensic scientists are often expected to present the likelihood of DNA identifications in US courts based on comparative population data, yet forensic anthropologists tend not to quantify the strength of an osteological identification. Because forensic anthropologists are trained first and foremost as physical anthropologists, they emphasize estimation problems at the expense of evidentiary problems, but this approach must be reexamined. In this…
Bone loss and osteoporosis
Mississippians in motion? A population genetic analysis of interregional gene flow in west-central Illinois
Population genetic and biological distance studies of Late Woodland and Mississippian populations from west-central Illinois have provided insight into a number of prehistoric demographic processes at the regional level. However, a formal analysis of diachronic interregional gene flow has not been attempted within a population genetics framework. In this study, cranial measurements of 489 individuals from 13 skeletal samples across the central an…
Bioarcheology of the South Central United States
Bioarcheology of the South Central United States. Edited by Jerome C. Rose. Fayetteville, AR: Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 55. 1999. 297 pp. ISBN 1-56349-086-2. $30.00 (paper)
A forensic Analysis of Human Remains From a Historic Conflict in North Dakota
Warfare related trauma at Orendorf, a middle Mississippian site in west‐central Illinois
Skeletal evidence of nonritual interpersonal trauma in the central Illinois valley is currently limited to the terminal prehistoric period in the region. Sixteen percent of the entire Norris Farms Oneota skeletal sample died violently, presumably because they intruded upon small groups of Mississippians who had not yet abandoned the region. Archaeological evidence of palisades, however, suggests that the region was embroiled in conflict before th…
The population shuffle in the central Illinois valley
A new population genetics method is applied to discriminate between processes of extraregional gene flow and intraregional biological continuity within and among three temporally sequential prehistoric Native American cultures in the central Illinois valley. Within a population genetics framework, the impact of regional and interregional cultural changes on local population structure can be quantified and the magnitude of biocultural interaction …
Bayesian Modeling of the Occupation Span of the Averbuch Site in the Middle Cumberland Drainage, Tennessee
The application of Bayesian models to suites of radiocarbon dates can provide important refinements over standard approaches toward calibration and seriation of dated feature contexts. We have modeled a number of older radiocarbon dates submitted in the 1980s along with a recent set of accelerator mass spectrometry dates from the Averbuch site (40DV60), a Mississippian village in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee occupied in the fourteent…
Statistical basis for positive identification in forensic anthropology
Forensic scientists are often expected to present the likelihood of DNA identifications in US courts based on comparative population data, yet forensic anthropologists tend not to quantify the strength of an osteological identification. Because forensic anthropologists are trained first and foremost as physical anthropologists, they emphasize estimation problems at the expense of evidentiary problems, but this approach must be reexamined. In this…
Estimation and evidence in forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology typically uses osteological and/or dental data either to estimate characteristics of unidentified individuals or to serve as evidence in cases where there is a putative identification. In the estimation context, the problem is to describe aspects of an individual that may lead to their eventual identification, whereas in the evidentiary context, the problem is to provide the relative support for the identification. In either…
Ancestral Diversity in Skeletal Collections
African Americans comprise approximately 13% of the U.S. population, 6% of missing persons, and 51% of homicide victims (Kochanek et al. 2019; National Crime Information Center [NCIC] 2018; U.S. Census Bureau 2010). However, African American remains are underrepresented in the documented skeletal samples resulting from body donations to U.S. taphonomic research facilities. If forensic anthropologists are to rise to the challenge of identifying re…
The Political, Social and Scientific Contexts of Archaeological Investigations of Mass Graves in Spain
The demographic, socio-economic and temporal contextualisation of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona collection of identified human skeletons (UAB collection)
Identified human skeletal collections are those in which basic demographic data (sex, age and biological origin) are known and are crucial for developing and testing osteological methodologies. It is important that the identified collection be contextualised, and in this way the collection will be considered a reference collection. To contextualise a collection requires documentation of the basic demographic data of the individuals (sex, age, yea…
Estimating age‐at‐death in burnt adult human remains using the Falys–Prangle method
OBJECTIVES: The Falys-Prangle-method assesses age-related morphological changes to the sternal clavicle end (SCE), enabling the observation of mature adults from the 5th decade onwards in unburnt human skeletal remains. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of the Falys-Prangle-method on burnt human remains. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two SCE of 40 cremated individuals (out of 86) from the William M. Bass collection of the F…
Who Needs Data? I’ve Got Experience
1 Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. *Correspondence to: Dawnie Wolfe Steadman, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 1621 Cumberland Avenue, Strong Hall Room #502A, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA. E-mail: [email protected] KEY WORDS: forensic anthropology, quantitative methods, medicolegal casework, human identification, skeletal analysis. Human Biology, Winter 2018, v. 90, no. 1. doi: 10.13110/hu…
Revisiting metric sex estimation of burnt human remains via supervised learning using a reference collection of modern identified cremated individuals (Knoxville, USA )
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to increase the rate of correctly sexed calcined individuals from archaeological and forensic contexts. This is achieved by evaluating sexual dimorphism of commonly used and new skeletal elements via uni- and multi-variate metric trait analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two skeletal traits were evaluated in 86 individuals from the William M. Bass donated cremated collection of known sex and age-at-death. Four diff…
Who Needs Data? I've Got Experience
Who Needs Data? I've Got Experience! Dawnie Wolfe Steadman key words Forensic Anthropology, Quantitative Methods, Medicolegal Casework, Human Identification, Skeletal Analysis In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a blistering report on the current state of forensic science oversight and practice in the United States. The report skewered the current scientific integrity and standards of a number of forensic subdisciplines, including …
Validation of the Total Body Score/Accumulated Degree-Day Model at Three Human Decomposition Facilities
A few studies have examined the accuracy of the Megyesi et al. (2005) total body score/accumulated degree-day (TBS/ADD) method; however, no study has investigated the validity of the method using human remains at known ADD intervals. The current study validates the TBS method for human cadavers placed in three different human decomposition facilities in the United States. Twenty-eight donated cadavers, with known ADD and dates of death, in the fi…
The population shuffle in the central Illinois valley
A new population genetics method is applied to discriminate between processes of extraregional gene flow and intraregional biological continuity within and among three temporally sequential prehistoric Native American cultures in the central Illinois valley. Within a population genetics framework, the impact of regional and interregional cultural changes on local population structure can be quantified and the magnitude of biocultural interaction …
Bioarcheology of the South Central United States
Bioarcheology of the South Central United States. Edited by Jerome C. Rose. Fayetteville, AR: Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 55. 1999. 297 pp. ISBN 1-56349-086-2. $30.00 (paper)
Mississippians in motion? A population genetic analysis of interregional gene flow in west-central Illinois
Population genetic and biological distance studies of Late Woodland and Mississippian populations from west-central Illinois have provided insight into a number of prehistoric demographic processes at the regional level. However, a formal analysis of diachronic interregional gene flow has not been attempted within a population genetics framework. In this study, cranial measurements of 489 individuals from 13 skeletal samples across the central an…
Bone loss and osteoporosis
Statistical basis for positive identification in forensic anthropology
Forensic scientists are often expected to present the likelihood of DNA identifications in US courts based on comparative population data, yet forensic anthropologists tend not to quantify the strength of an osteological identification. Because forensic anthropologists are trained first and foremost as physical anthropologists, they emphasize estimation problems at the expense of evidentiary problems, but this approach must be reexamined. In this…
Statistical basis for positive identification in forensic anthropology
The Political, Social and Scientific Contexts of Archaeological Investigations of Mass Graves in Spain
Warfare related trauma at Orendorf, a middle Mississippian site in west‐central Illinois
Skeletal evidence of nonritual interpersonal trauma in the central Illinois valley is currently limited to the terminal prehistoric period in the region. Sixteen percent of the entire Norris Farms Oneota skeletal sample died violently, presumably because they intruded upon small groups of Mississippians who had not yet abandoned the region. Archaeological evidence of palisades, however, suggests that the region was embroiled in conflict before th…
Estimation and evidence in forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology typically uses osteological and/or dental data either to estimate characteristics of unidentified individuals or to serve as evidence in cases where there is a putative identification. In the estimation context, the problem is to describe aspects of an individual that may lead to their eventual identification, whereas in the evidentiary context, the problem is to provide the relative support for the identification. In either…
The demographic, socio-economic and temporal contextualisation of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona collection of identified human skeletons (UAB collection)
Identified human skeletal collections are those in which basic demographic data (sex, age and biological origin) are known and are crucial for developing and testing osteological methodologies. It is important that the identified collection be contextualised, and in this way the collection will be considered a reference collection. To contextualise a collection requires documentation of the basic demographic data of the individuals (sex, age, yea…
Pre-Columbian mycobacterial genomes reveal seals as a source of New World human tuberculosis
Hard Evidence
Hard Evidence
Bayesian Modeling of the Occupation Span of the Averbuch Site in the Middle Cumberland Drainage, Tennessee
The application of Bayesian models to suites of radiocarbon dates can provide important refinements over standard approaches toward calibration and seriation of dated feature contexts. We have modeled a number of older radiocarbon dates submitted in the 1980s along with a recent set of accelerator mass spectrometry dates from the Averbuch site (40DV60), a Mississippian village in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee occupied in the fourteent…
Who Needs Data? I've Got Experience
Who Needs Data? I've Got Experience! Dawnie Wolfe Steadman key words Forensic Anthropology, Quantitative Methods, Medicolegal Casework, Human Identification, Skeletal Analysis In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a blistering report on the current state of forensic science oversight and practice in the United States. The report skewered the current scientific integrity and standards of a number of forensic subdisciplines, including …
Age-at-Death Estimation for Modern Populations in Mexico and Puerto Rico through the Use of 3D Laser Scans of the Pubic Symphysis
Reliable age-at-death estimates from the adult skeleton are of fundamental importance in forensic anthropology, because it contributes to the identity parameters used in a medicolegal death investigation. However, reliable estimates are difficult because many traditional aging methods depend on a set of population-specific criteria derived from individuals of European and African descent. The absence of information on the potential differences in…
Who Needs Data? I’ve Got Experience
1 Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. *Correspondence to: Dawnie Wolfe Steadman, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 1621 Cumberland Avenue, Strong Hall Room #502A, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA. E-mail: [email protected] KEY WORDS: forensic anthropology, quantitative methods, medicolegal casework, human identification, skeletal analysis. Human Biology, Winter 2018, v. 90, no. 1. doi: 10.13110/hu…
Validation of the Total Body Score/Accumulated Degree-Day Model at Three Human Decomposition Facilities
A few studies have examined the accuracy of the Megyesi et al. (2005) total body score/accumulated degree-day (TBS/ADD) method; however, no study has investigated the validity of the method using human remains at known ADD intervals. The current study validates the TBS method for human cadavers placed in three different human decomposition facilities in the United States. Twenty-eight donated cadavers, with known ADD and dates of death, in the fi…
Age-at-Death Estimation for Modern Populations in Mexico and Puerto Rico through the Use of 3D Laser Scans of the Pubic Symphysis
Reliable age-at-death estimates from the adult skeleton are of fundamental importance in forensic anthropology, because it contributes to the identity parameters used in a medicolegal death investigation. However, reliable estimates are difficult because many traditional aging methods depend on a set of population-specific criteria derived from individuals of European and African descent. The absence of information on the potential differences in…
Forensic Postmortem Interval Estimation from Skeletal Muscle Tissue
Lipidomic analyses of human skeletal muscle tissue were conducted to detect biomarkers of time-dependent postmortem degradation and to test the predictive capacity of lipids in human skeletal muscle cell membranes. High-resolution mass spectrometry analytical platforms were used to isolate phospholipids in muscle cell membranes that are specific to the corpse tissues and not invading microbes, thus eliminating potential noise from the surrounding…
Estimating age‐at‐death in burnt adult human remains using the Falys–Prangle method
OBJECTIVES: The Falys-Prangle-method assesses age-related morphological changes to the sternal clavicle end (SCE), enabling the observation of mature adults from the 5th decade onwards in unburnt human skeletal remains. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of the Falys-Prangle-method on burnt human remains. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two SCE of 40 cremated individuals (out of 86) from the William M. Bass collection of the F…
Revisiting metric sex estimation of burnt human remains via supervised learning using a reference collection of modern identified cremated individuals (Knoxville, USA )
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to increase the rate of correctly sexed calcined individuals from archaeological and forensic contexts. This is achieved by evaluating sexual dimorphism of commonly used and new skeletal elements via uni- and multi-variate metric trait analyses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two skeletal traits were evaluated in 86 individuals from the William M. Bass donated cremated collection of known sex and age-at-death. Four diff…
Considerations for Stable Isotope Analysis of Human Hair
Stable isotope analysis of postmortem hair is performed in order to make inferences about an individual's diet and geographic travel history prior to death. During analysis and interpretation, investigators assume that the hair collected from a postmortem environment has not been altered by exposure conditions and that the isotopic "signatures" of hair prior to exposure are preserved in postmortem samples. In order to confidently make inferences …
Ancestral Diversity in Skeletal Collections
African Americans comprise approximately 13% of the U.S. population, 6% of missing persons, and 51% of homicide victims (Kochanek et al. 2019; National Crime Information Center [NCIC] 2018; U.S. Census Bureau 2010). However, African American remains are underrepresented in the documented skeletal samples resulting from body donations to U.S. taphonomic research facilities. If forensic anthropologists are to rise to the challenge of identifying re…
A forensic Analysis of Human Remains From a Historic Conflict in North Dakota
Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (15 works) · Geography (15 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Biology (10 works) · Demography (10 works) · Population (10 works) · Forensic and Genetic Research (9 works) · Forensic anthropology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works)