Fragmentary yet informative: a methodological approach to bridging the gap between cremation and inhumation in bioarchaeology

The study of skeletal remains altered by thermal processes, such as burning and cremation, presents significant challenges, limiting the amount of information that can be extracted. This Doctoral project is aimed to develop an approach and workflow for studying these materials to maximise information retrieval by focusing on analyses best suited to their limitations. The challenges addressed include the progressive and total degradation of organic matter with increasing temperatures, the reorganisation of the crystalline matrix, the extreme fragmentation, and the difficulty in sourcing suitable skeletal elements for various analyses. The analyses explored in this project included the application of spectroscopy as a pre-screening technique, and the extraction of amelogenin for sex determination—a critical component in reconstructing an individual’s biological profile, especially when diagnostic skeletal regions are fragmented or deformed by heat. ZooMS was also used to determine the taxonomic classification of undetermined bone fragments. Additionally, strontium isotope analysis was employed to investigate the mobility and origin of individuals. Cremated bones, being more resistant to diagenesis than unburnt remains, provided a reliable substrate for this isotopic analysis. The proposed approach enables the selection of analytical methods that best exploit bone and dental fragments that, using traditional study methods alone, would not have provided significant information.