ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the effects of burning on the hard tissues, because of the fact that bone and teeth fall more within the remit of the anthropologist and archaeologist and because of the relative complexity of the transformations of the hard tissues compared to the soft tissues. Burned human remains have been the focus of study by anthropologists and archaeologists for over 60 years. The context of discovery is important for practicing forensic anthropologists and archaeologists, because the location, recovery, and examination of burned human remains are often extremely challenging, occurring in scenes that are often highly significant in a judicial context. Many terms have sloppily been used interchangeably within the literature to describe burned human remains and their contexts such examples include burned remains, cremations, remains, and calcined remains. DNA is not the only biomolecular evidence of current interest to anthropologists and archaeologists investigating the potential of burned bone in human identification.
