Differential Diagnosis Between Crusching/Burying Peri-Mortem and Fragilization/Fragmentation Post-Mortem Bone Lesions? Comparison of Osteo-Archaeological and Forensic Anthropological Data

Abstract

Study Goals: The goal of this study was to determine if there were traumatic bone lesions allowing the
differentiation, during an forensic anthropology examination, of accidental crushing/burying peri-mortem lesions
from taphonomic post-mortem lesions linked to the fragilization/fragmentation of buried bones.
Material and method: This analysis was based on 5 forensic autopsy cases of mortal accidental crushing carried
out in the department of pathological anatomy and forensics of the R. Poincaré de Garches Hospital between 2003
and 2008 (on a total of 2,075 autopsies), on 2 human skeletons from the Late Bronze Age exhumed at the Midea
archeological site in Greece, and on a literature review (traumatologic or autopsic analyses following earthquakes
of mining accidents).