ABSTRACT
Details of the various archaeological approaches to recovering evidence from individual graves are discussed in various texts too numerous to mention (e.g. Sigler-Eisenberg 1985; Hunter et al. 1996; Haglund 2001). A key factor in the development of the subject is that there has, until recently, been a difference in approach reflecting whether those undertaking such work have a UK or North American training. Within the UK intellectual and professional context, the grave itself, plus other forensic evidence contained within and around the grave, whether environmental or anthropogenic, is considered as important as the human remains themselves. In North America, the approach has, until recently, tended to view the excavation process as a means of recovering a body and did not accord the grave itself, and its fill, the same level of importance compared to the UK. In forensic terms there is a major distinction in that
the exhumation of human remains is simply the retrieval of remains, whether archaeological techniques are used or not. The excavation of human remains results in the retrieval of the remains, but also in the reconstruction of human activity at the site and beyond.
