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The purpose of this study was to examine the controversial personage of Dr. Josef Mengele, who was the chief physician of the Third Reich's Polish extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Until very nearly the completion of this project, virtually no scholarly research had been conducted pertaining to Mengele's life, and therefore, the value of this inquiry is easily discernable. After forty years of eluding Israeli assassins and Nazi hunters, principally in several South American countries, Mengele's alleged remains were discovered, and subsequently exhumed for forensic analysis, near Sao Paulo, Brazil, in early June 1985. In the aftermath of intensive forensic examination, performed by an international team of experts, which included American, West German, and Brazilian scientists, the skeletal remains were pronounced to be those of Mengele within a reasonable scientific certainty. Skeptics not only had misgivings about the initial reports of Mengele's death, but also questioned the veracity of the preliminary medical report, pointing to both errors of omission and commission contained in the report's findings. Despite additional dental evidence discovered nearly one year after the disinterment of the Brazilian remains, which incidentally provided positive identification of the remains as those of Mengele, skeptics continued to discount the expert's opinions and resumed the search for Mengele with renewed vigor. It was concluded that the Brazilian remains were indeed those of Mengele. While the uncertainty over Mengele's apparent death has been resolved, it is recommended that further research be conducted into Mengele's pre-war life, as well as his clandestine post-war existence.

This research is a comparative analysis of oral health from three historic African-American cemeteries in Georgia. The Area 1 (9CH1168), Area 2 (9CH875) and the Avondale (9BI164) cemeteries were excavated and relocated from 2008-2010. The aggregate population consists of 486 individuals, spanning pre-and-post-Reconstruction eras. Statistical and bioarchaeological techniques are used to address the hypothesis that differential nutrition and subsequent health outcomes significantly vary (as estimated from dental analyses), based on the cemetery’s composition, location, and individuals social status. Oral pathological conditions were characterized in an effort to identify variation between populations, while moving beyond a monolithic narrative of the African-American experience in the post-Bellum South. A statistical range of variation within and between the cemeteries was observed, revealing differences in the frequency of pathologies between cemeteries based on age and sex. Maladies most greatly afflicted Avondale’s population, Area 1 experienced the least and Area 2’s females had the most oral pathologies.

Prior to European contact, the Straits Salish people. an ethnolinguistic group centred on present day Victoria in southwestern British Columbia, built a distinctive form of grave. The burial cairn and mound. a phenomenon occurring 1500-1000 years before present, consist of an arrangement of rocks and soil placed over the deceased. The Rocky Point site is the largest remaining intact site of this kind on southern Vancouver Island. I hypothesize that the external attributes of these burial features - their location and shape - are important signifiers of the social identity of the person buried within. Patterns in burial cairn morphology are identified with a cluster analysis. The geographical placement of the resulting feature types is subject to a GIS-based spatial analysis. The resulting model is interpreted through a humanistic model of social theory, addressing underlying social structures that culminated in the creation of the Rocky Point cemetery.

The aim of this thesis is to establish a chronological framework for the grave-goods, and hence the graves, from all known Anglo-Saxon burial sites in the Upper Thames Region. Such a framework is considered essential to any reconstruction of early Saxon activity in the area and especially to any solution of the problems which surround the origin and early development of Wessex. It is based on a detailed typological study of material from 168 sites within a defined area. This area is bounded approximately on the west by the source of the Thames and the Cotswolds scarp, on the north by the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire county boundary, on the east by the Thames/ Ouse watershed and the Chilterns scarp, and in the south by the Kennet Valley. The thesis is presented in three volumes, text (I), catalogue (II), and illustrations (III). The text is divided into three parts. Part I is introductory. The subject is set in the context of broader problems and previous hypotheses, and the value of the material to be analysed is assessed. The physical identity of the Upper Thames Region, the problems and methods of cataloguing sites, and the history of their discovery and recording are briefly discussed. Part II, in which the typology and chronology of the grave-goods are established, forms the core of the thesis. It consists of seventeen chapters and a summary chronological chart. The first chapter considers some general methodological problems and outlines the fundamental points of archaeological chronology for the period, on which that of the Upper Thames Region depends. Chapter 2 is a long analysis of brooches. The greatest attention is given to the manufacture and chronology of cast saucer brooches, but the dating of disc brooches is also set on a firmer basis, and there are important comments on all remaining forms (penannular, annular, button, great and small square-headed, small-long, and miscellaneous). Chapters 3 to 8 deal with the other objects found principally in women's graves (pins, finger rings and bracelets, necklaces, combs, toilet items, and bags, boxes, and girdlehung objects); they include discussion of the function of some of these items as well as their dating. Chapter 9 is about belt-equipment. The weapons found in men's graves are discussed in chapters 10 to 14 (swords, seaxes, shields, spears, and miscellaneous); in chapter 12 the first attempt at a typology of English shield bosses, based on computerised numerical taxonomy, is presented, while in chapter 13 Dr. M.J. Swanton's recently published typology of spearheads receives detailed criticism. Knives are briefly considered in chapter 15. Chapter 16, an analysis of the pottery, includes several modifications of Dr.J.N.L.Myres' work. This part concludes with chapter 17 on vessels of glass, metal, and wood. The chronologies thus established help to provide a date of burial for about one third of the catalogued graves and to indicate a date-range for the use of most sites. These data form the basis for deductions, made in Part III, about the history of the Saxon settlement in the Upper Thames Region. The background to this discussion is set out briefly in two sections, one on the nature of the Roman settlement in the Region, the other a critical survey of documentary evidence pertaining to the period. The synthesis deals in turn with the archaeology of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, and its possible historical interpretation. It is argued that the initial settlement during the first quarter of the fifth century consisted of a group of Saxons hired as foederati, who were posted at and near Dorchester-on- Thames; in the second quarter of the century their leaders usurped authority from their erstwhile British employers and assumed control of a wide area, planting out groups of settlers, probably including many new immigrants, during the second half of the century throughout most of the Region. These settlements grew in size, number, and wealth; their prosperity is reflected in the emergence of well furnished graves, probably belonging to leading families, the most spectacular of which is the early seventhcentury 'princely' burial at Cuddesdon near Dorchester. During the fifth and sixth centuries the Upper Thames Region appears to have been most closely connected with the other Saxon settlement along and south of the Thames, but in the sixth century connections with the Midlands, especially the West Midlands, were established, and there is some evidence of direct contact with East Kent. In the seventh century the Upper Thames shares the uniform material culture associated with 'Final Phase 1 or 'Proto-Christian' cemeteries. Direct connections between this evidence and documentary history are few, though it is argued forcibly that there is no evidence that the battle a of Badon had any effect on the Saxon settlement of the Upper Thames Region. The archaeological evidence also suggests that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entries relating to the battles fought by Ceawlin and Cuthwulf should not be taken at face value. In a final section the documentary evidence for the history of Wessex is specifically examined in the light of the archaeological conclusions. It is suggested that during the second half of the sixth century one of the leading families of the Upper Thames Region asserted its power not only over an enlarged Upper Thames Region, but also over Hampshire and Wiltshire, thus founding the royal dynasty of Cerdic and Cymric and creating what became known as the kingdom of the West Saxons.

The investigation of mass graves involves aspects of high political, judicial, and emotional impact. Understanding how bodies held within mass graves change between the time they are deposited and the time they are discovered (the realm of forensic taphonomy) is vital for competent collection of evidence and accurate evaluation of the scene. This thesis explores these issues by detailing experimental research undertaken to better understand the affects of environmental factors on low-density, orderly placement mass graves. Issues pertaining to how decomposition of bodies in contact differs from that of single bodies, intentional disturbance, and temperature change were examined experimentally using pigs as human analogues over a period of almost one year outside of Edmonton, Canada. There are three primary avenues in which the information obtained can be applied to the real world: estimation of elapsed time since death, planning mass grave investigations and reducing evidence loss, and evaluating post-burial disturbance or intentional vandalism.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Maria Franklin. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

In this study, four dogs from three graves from the Iron Age burial field Broa in Halla 48: 1 will be analysed. What can an osteological analysis of the dog’s skeletons tell about them? How big were they, how old, and were there some diseases? Can the relationships between dogs and the individuals from the graves be seen? How were the dogs killed? What can the dog tell us about society in Broa Halla during the Iron Age? Why were dogs buried with hu mans? Is it a hunting companion who faithfully follows its owner to life after death or is it a symbol of something? This study has examined similar tombs from Sweden to see if there are any similarities and/or differences. Such an example is Halla Broe 46:1 which has been interpreted to be part of the same burial ground as Broa Halla. Examination and comparison of the graves from Vendel and Valsgärde is added as well. The conclusion in this essay is that the graves have dogs that are large with a shoulder-height between approximately 60-73 centimeters. They have probably been used in hunting with horses when the graves also have horses in them. Larges dogs in this size are first seen in archeological materials from the iron age. Two of the dogs have some similarities with the greyhound type but this can not be conclusory proven due to the deteriorated state of the remains. This type of dogs shows that the humans in the graves have had a high societal standing in the community in Broa at their time and shows to contact with other places and import. This can also be evidence of breeding that targets different uses of dogs.

Cette étude a pour but d’appréhender l’évolution de la sépulture ainsi que l’analyse des différents lieux d’inhumation et des populations enterrées à Paris entre le XIIIe et le XVe siècle à partir des inscriptions funéraires recensées dans le recueil de l’Epitaphier du vieux Paris. Les établissements religieux de la capitale se distinguent dans leur politique funéraire ainsi que dans leur façon de gérer l’accueil des sépultures laïques. Inexistantes jusqu’au XIIIe siècle, les inhumations ad ecclesiam se généralisent et s’installent de façon durable au cœur du lieu du culte. En conséquence de cette évolution significative des pratiques funéraires, de nouveaux groupes sociaux influents accèdent enfin à une sépulture de prestige. Les officiers royaux et gouvernementaux qui reposent désormais aux côtés des membres de la famille royale et des dignitaires ecclésiastiques sont à l’origine de l’expansion des chapelles funéraires familiales. Malgré son influence croissante dans la vie économique et politique de la capitale, la bourgeoisie rencontre encore des difficultés à s’imposer dans le domaine funéraire et reste souvent dans l’ombre des grands officiers royaux. Le lieu d’inhumation revêt une importance considérable pour l’ensemble des parisiens fortunés qui n’hésitent pas à faire preuve de générosité envers les communautés religieuses pour établir leurs sépultures à peu de distance de l’autel afin de bénéficier des messes et des prières destinées à assurer leur salut. En effet, comme le prouve l’analyse formelle des tombeaux et épitaphes parisiennes, le salut de l’âme du défunt est au cœur des représentations funéraires. Le tombeau doit solliciter les suffrages des vivants mais également transmettre le souvenir de l’existence terrestre et de l’importance sociale du défunt. / This study aims at showing the evolution of sepulchres and at analysing different burial places and populations burried in Paris between the 13th and 15th century through the funerary inscriptions listed in the collection : the Épitaphier du vieux Paris. Religious establishments of the capital city can be identified through their funerary policies and through the treatment of their secular sepulchres. Non-existent until the 13th century, ad ecclesiam burials become more widespread and remain at the centre of places of worships. As a result of the significant evolution of funerary practices, new social groups of influence have access to presitigious sepulchres.Royal and governmental officers who now rest by the royal family and ecclesiasts sides originated the expansion of funerary chapels for families in churches of the capital city. Despite its increasing influence on the economic and political life of the capital city, the « bourgeoisie » still faces hardships in forcing itself on the funerary area and remains in the shadow of the so-called royal officers. The burial location is of a major importance for most wealthy Parisians who show their generosity towards religious communities so then their graves can be placed as close as possible from the altar and get masses and prayers that can guarantee their salvation. Indeed, as proven through the accurate analysis of tombs and epitaphs of Paris, salvation for the dead is at the core of funerary representations. Graves must appeal the living to pray but also share the memory of life on earth and reveal the social place of the deceased.