The Effects of Experimental Whole-Body Burning on Histological Age-at-Death Estimation from Human Cortical Bone and Dental Cementum

Simple Summary The objective of this study is to explore the effects of thermal alteration on the microstructure of human bones and teeth through whole-body experiments in various fire-death scenarios. Understanding how thermal alteration can affect microstructure has implications for the use of microscopic analysis in applied contexts including for human vs. nonhuman differentiation, age-at-death estimation, season-of-death estimation, and histotaphonomic interpretation. The results of this study show some microscopic changes post-burning, however, no discernable patterns related to temperature or time of burning were established. The results also showed that histological age-at-death estimation methods could be applied to bones and teeth post-burning. These results also show that the presence and amount of soft tissue on remains affect the degree of burning and the amount of bone remaining for analysis. Whole-body donations (n = 6) were placed in various experimental fire-death scenarios to understand the histological effects of thermal alteration on bones and teeth. Midshaft samples of the femur, 6th rib, and metatarsal were removed from each donor pre- and post-burning to examine histomorphometric differences and test established age-at-death estimation methods. Dental samples were taken post-burning to test the applicability of dental cementum analysis for age-at-death estimation. Significant differences in osteon area or Haversian canal area between some pre- and post-burn samples were found although no patterns related to temperature or element were observable. The femoral age estimates across pre- and post-burn samples were 91% accurate across all donors. The point age estimates from the ribs compared to known age were significantly different (t(10) = 6.88, p < 0.001) with an average difference of -18.53 years. Dental age estimates of post-burn samples were not significantly different from the known donor age (t(3) = -0.74, p = 0.512) with an average difference of -3.96 years. Overall, the results of this study show that thermally altered remains can be used for histologic age-at-death analysis of cortical bone and dental cementum, within certain burning parameters.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effects of thermal alteration on the microstructure of human bones and teeth through whole-body experiments. The results show some microscopic changes post-burning and suggest that histological age-at-death estimation methods can be applied to bones and teeth post-burning. The presence and amount of soft tissue on remains affect the degree of burning and the amount of bone remaining for analysis.