10 years of anthropological case

work based in New South Wales

Denise Donlon

Department of Anatomy and Histology, & Department of Forensic Medicine

University of Sydney

New South Wales

Australia

Brief history of forensic anthropology in Australia

• Origins in 19th Century discipline of anatomy

• Closely linked to military action (in USA)

• Slow beginnings in Australia - no collections of war dead

- dependent on case work

Aims

• To present a survey of 10 years of anthropological casework from NSW - with an emphasis on the ancestry and antiquity of the cases.

• To draw attention to the importance of standard methods of recording and the production of a databank for this region.

Cases requested by:

• Museums +Aboriginal communities • National Parks & Wildlife Service • Consultant archaeologists• Police• Australian Defence Forces• NSW Department of Forensic Medicine

Aboriginal communities - repatriation from museums

National Parks and Wildlife ServiceOften recorded in situ

Consultant archaeologistseg. historic sites

Prince of Wales Destitute Children’s Asylum

PoliceExcavation + recording in situ

Australian Defence Forces

Recovery of war dead

War dead

Mass disasters Indonesian Tsunami 2004

-crash of Royal Australian navy’s Sea King helicopter 2005

- 9 dead

New South Wales Department of Forensic Medicine

• Approximately 100 cases in 10 years

Information collected

• Total number of cases• Ancestry/Race• Antiquity• Sex• Age• Stature• Taphonomic

Number of cases1992 - 2003

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

N

Year

Ancestry

European Non-European Mixed

Ancestry of forensic cases

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 2001 2002 2003

European Non-European Mixed

N

Year

Non-European

Aboriginal Asian Melanesian Polynesian

Non-European cases

0

1

2

3

4

5

Aboriginal Asian Melanesian Polynesian

N

Year

Is there a need for further study of ancestry?

1. Australia and neighbouring regions contain very diverse groups of people

2. Populations show regional variation in - sex, age, stature

3. Increasing problem of mixed ancestry

4. A mass disaster will result in diversity of ancestry

Problems in investigating ancestry in this region

• The lack of a skeletal collections representing the major group - Europeans

• Recent changes to the NSW Human Tissue Act 1983 make research on identified skeletons difficult without consent

• The repatriation of indigenous remains without documentation or standardised documentation

• Police and anthropologists may have a different understanding of ancestry/race

Antiquity

Prehistoric Historic Modern

Antiquity

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 2001 2002 2003

Prehistoric Historic Modern

N

Year

Antiquity• Estimating time elapsed since death is problematic and

very dependant on local environmental conditions

• Each of the following scenarios come under different legislation:

< 50 years for forensic cases>50 years for historic (non-Aboriginal) cases>50 but <100 years for historic Aboriginal cases>100 years for ‘prehistoric’ Aboriginal cases

Conclusions

• Increasing diversity of ancestry of cases being examined at the NSW Institute of Forensic Medicine.

• Great range and complexity of antiquity of cases

• This type of survey and subsequent research should provide support for expert witness testimony.

•

Further work• Need for a workshop of anthropologists to

discuss regionally appropriate methods of identification

• Need for a databank of Australian cases to build up population specific standards for assessment of age, sex and stature.

• Such a databank will provide the basis for future research and collaborative projects

• THANK YOU