ABSTRACT
Fire has long been utilized by humans for numerous activities ranging from food preparation and waste removal to body destruction. ‹e latter has been employed throughout history in situations involving ceremonialism, suicide, and homicide. Undeniably, heat and «ame can have a tremendous impact upon the so„ and hard tissues of the human body resulting in substantial modi cation. Exposure to heat results in a progression of change from the loss of so„ tissues to the alteration of hard tissues, culminating in change in the color, fragmentation, and shrinkage of the boney elements. ‹ese signatures are unique and serve as speci c indicators of exposure to re. ‹e condition of the tissues results from the interplay of two important variables: (1) the heating temperature, and (2) the duration of exposure to heat (Bennett-Devlin et al., 2006). ‹at said, re is a dynamic entity and as such it is not possible to unequivocally dictate the speci c impact it can have upon body tissues, though we can anticipate general patterns of destruction.
