An experimental clandestine grave: analysis of postmortem fractures and remains distribution of an intentional backhoe reinterment

• Main Author: Gilligan, Jamie
• Other Authors: Reinecke, Gary W.
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Forensic anthropology; Backhoe taphonomy; Heavy machinery; Primary burial; Remains dispersal; Secondary burial; Spatial analysis
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/33000

Throughout history and around the globe millions of people have succumbed to genocide, war crimes, and massacres. The victims of these atrocious events are often buried together in mass numbers. Perpetrators avoiding detection, often utilize heavy machinery including, but not limited to, bulldozers, dump trucks, track hoes, and backhoes, to generate these mass burials. These machines can be employed in the primary burial process as well as the secondary burial process. The utilization of heavy machinery in intentional reinterment and primary burials is well documented in human rights crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Iraq, Syria, and Cambodia. The use of heavy machinery in the intentional or unintentional excavation of human remains causes postmortem breakage to bone. This destructive process occurs due to accidents, construction activity, as well as a means to destroy and conceal evidence. This study looks at trauma inflicted from a reinterment of the remains of four juvenile Sus scrofa (pig). An experimental mass burial was created at Boston University’s Outdoor Research Facility. Months later, the grave was disturbed postmortem by a backhoe and transferred to a secondary inhumation site. The experimental mass grave was then exhumed following traditional forensic archaeological methodologies and mapped. This study analyzes backhoe taphonomy resulting from an intentional reburial of a mass grave and the distribution of remains after a secondary burial. The author hypothesizes that disarticulation and fragmentation of remains will occur as a result of backhoe burial and significant changes in horizontal and vertical plane of remains will occur. The author hypothesizes unique fracturing will occur from the trauma inflicted by a backhoe. Finally, the author hypothesizes that the frequencies of the number of fractures will differ between bones and the frequencies of fracture types will differ between bone types. This study shows that the backhoe causes disarticulation and fragmentation of remains. The frequency of fractures differed greatly between specimens. This research demonstrates that not all bone regions are equally damaged by a backhoe. The observed fractures included oblique, transverse, greenstick, posterior shear, mandibular body, linear, and diastatic fractures. Unique fracturing did not occur as numerous fractures were displayed. Additionally, this research is the first of its kind to investigate the effects of heavy machinery on clothed buried remains in a controlled environment. This study is also the first of its kind to investigate remains dispersal of known location in a primary and secondary burial in a controlled setting. Understanding how the compression, shear, and torsion forces from heavy machinery affect buried remains is of importance in today’s world. Many mass graves exist which have documentation that victims were buried with heavy machinery. These burials are still awaiting in-country stability for the exhumation of these mass graves. The author believes this research may aid in documenting war crimes and human rights violations. Unfortunately, genocide, war crimes, massacres, and mass inhumations are not terminating and the need for understanding the spatial distribution of remains in primary and secondary burials is pertinent for bringing voices to victims and families.