ABSTRACT
Decomposition is a process that commences immediately following death and, depending on environmental conditions, will proceed until skeletonization has occurred (Evans 1963; Love and Marks 2002). The chemistry associated with decomposition and the destruction of soft tissue is complex (Clark, Worrell, and Pless 1997). Generally, the postmortem process traverses numerous stages before the body is reduced to a skeleton. The process may require days, months, or years to be complete, depending on the surrounding environment (Dix and Graham 2000) and following skeletonization may take hundreds of years for the final bone tissue and mineral phases to disappear (Micozzi 1991).
