ABSTRACT
Under normal circumstances, burial of human remains is a common cultural means of disposal. Human burials also can result from natural phenomena such as animal caching, sheet wash, leaf fall, or various forms of mass wasting such as avalanches, slides, debris flows, and slumping (Skinner, 1987). As a criminal means of disposition of human remains, burial is relatively infrequent. Figures for U.S. State of Washington serve to illustrate. For the period 1981 through 1990, of the 1,960 murders for which deposition information is available, only 27 (1.38%) were recovered from burials (Homicide Information Tracking System (HITS)). Legally condoned, manmade mass burials occur only under extraordinary circumstances, when they are deemed necessary for humanitarian or sanitation purposes. Mass burials in the aftermath of the August 1999 earthquakes in Turkey are but one example (Thieren and Guitteau, 2000).
