ABSTRACT
In recent years debates over the politics of archaeology and ownership of ‘the past’ have received substantial attention in the archaeological literature. The role of forensic archaeology in present-day conflicts has however been neglected, perhaps because of the difficulties of writing about such an emotionally charged subject. Public interest in forensic techniques may be gauged by the prominence of reports in the popular media, especially during the 1990s, concerning the excavation of mass graves. The potential prurience of these reports has perhaps also contributed to mainstream archaeology avoiding the topic. However, the increasing worldwide use of forensic excavation to assess and attest to human rights violations highlights the importance of these archaeological techniques. I am not myself a forensic archaeologist, and I have no personal experience of forensic excavation techniques. My interest in this topic was stimulated by a visit, which I made in 1992, to the forensic excavations in Avellaneda cemetery, Argentina, where I was introduced to the work of the Argentinian Forensic Anthropology Team. This study demonstrates the importance of forensic archaeology to interpretive archaeologies, arguing that far from being a marginal element of archaeology, forensic archaeology engages with epistemological and ontological issues that are relevant to the discipline as a whole.
