Death in Flames
Human Remains from a Domestic House Fire from Early Iron Age, Denmark
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4675952 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lise Harvig (University of Copenhagen, corresponding author), J Kveiborg (0000-0002-5946-4905, Department of Archaeological Science and Conservation Moesgård Museum Højbjerg Denmark), Niels Lynnerup (0000-0002-7771-5376, University of Copenhagen) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 701-710 |
| Publication date | 2015-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Osteoarchaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1047-482X • E-ISSN: 1099-1212 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/oa.2335 |
| OpenAlex | W2120886734 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 22 |
This paper presents osteoarchaeological analyses of the human skeletal material from a burnt down house in Jutland, Denmark, dated to the first century bc. We describe how the osteological analyses of this complex site were approached and illustrate how we reconstructed the death of the human victims. Besides basic osteological analyses, we also tried to reconstruct the posture of the deceased humans using 12-in. posable wooden mannequins. Along with bones from several domestic animals, skeletal elements from six human individuals were recovered. All individuals were located in the eastern end of the house-the byre end. The demographic structure indicates a small family household. Our posture reconstruction further proposes that they did not die of asphyxiation while sleeping: At least two of the individuals were lying face down, trying to protect themselves. Two other individuals were lying on their side in crouching positions, which cannot be ruled out as examples of pugilistic attitude. However, we suggest this is rather unlikely. The humans could have died as they failed to rescue their invaluable animals from the fire. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Ancient history · Archaeology · Forensic engineering · Geography · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Poison control · Violent death · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Engineering · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Medicine
The reliability of osteometric techniques for the sex determination of burned human skeletal remains
Bone Color as an Interpretive Tool of the Depositional History of Archaeological Cremains
Forensic Cremation Recovery and Analysis
Handbook of Archaeological Sciences
Implications of heat-induced changes in bone on the interpretation of funerary behaviour and practice
Distinguishing Remains of Human Cremations from Burned Animal Bones
Computed Tomography and Computed Radiography of Late Bronze Age Cremation Urns From Denmark
The estimation of sex on the basis of the talus and calcaneus
Length of the dental root and the diameter of the tooth neck as odontometric parameters for sex determination
Archeology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |