ABSTRACT
Taphonomy is defined as the study of the phenomena that affect the remains of biological organisms at the time of and after death. The field was originally developed in the 1930s by palaeontologists attempting to explain the distribution of plant and animal fossils in the geological record (Efremov 1940). By the 1970s taphonomy was being applied to the study of prehistoric human remains, and more recently to human remains recovered in historic and forensic contexts (Stewart 1979; Behrensmeyer & Hill 1980; Brain 1981; Shipman 1981; Bonnichsen & Sorg 1989; Micozzi 1991; White 1992; Lyman 1994; Nawrocki 1995; Haglund & Sorg 1997, 2002; Galloway 1999; Pokines & Symes 2014). The application of taphonomy in medico-legal settings is somewhat different from its use in ancient contexts, with problems and concerns that are particular to processing recently deceased humans as a part of potentially criminal casework.
