forensic osteology

Reports on the work of forensic scientists who are excavating grave sites in James Fort, in Jamestown, Virginia, to understand who lived in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 1600s and 1700s; and uncovers the lives of a teenage boy, a ship's captain, a colonial officer, an African slave girl, and others.

Reports on the work of forensic scientists who are excavating grave sites in James Fort, in Jamestown, Virginia, to understand who lived in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 1600s and 1700s; and uncovers the lives of a teenage boy, a ship's captain, a colonial officer, an African slave girl, and others.

Relates the investigation of nine skeletons that were found in 1991 and identified as Tsar Nicholas and his family. Discusses the imprisonment and assassination of the family and Anna Anderson who claimed to be Grand Dutchess Anastasia.

In July 1991, nine skeletons were exhumed from a shallow mass grave near Ekaterinburg, Siberia. The site was a few miles from the Ipatiev House where the Tsar and his family, and retainers, had been murdered seventy-three years before. Authenticating these bones as those of the Romanovs added yet another chapter to the Russian Revolution of 1917. But when all the testing was done, and the bones were authenticated as those of the Russian royal family, it was discovered that two of the children were missing: one daughter and the son, Alexis, the tsarevich. Which daughter it was could not be determined but it was either Marie or Anastasia. After the bones were identified, fresh rumors persisted that Anna Anderson, who for sixty years had maintained she was Anastasia, really was the only surviving member of the royal family.

Providing examples from specific cases, this book discusses the studies of human body decomposition in body farms that determine postmortem interval, the period of time between death and discovery of the body.

Introduces the history, technology, and importance of the science of using human remains to solve crimes and includes actual forensic cases.

Uses actual cases, some drawn directly from headlines, to describe some of the advances and techniques being employed in the field of forensic anthropology at the beginning of the twenty-first century.