Accurate and semi-automated reassociation of intermixed human skeletal remains recovered from bioarchaeological and forensic contexts

Abstract

Commingled remains describes the situation of intermixed skeletal elements, an extremely common occurrence in contemporary forensic cases, archaeological mass graves, as well as fossil hominin assemblages. Given that reliable identification is typically impossible for commingled contexts, a plethora of previous studies has focused on the development of refined methods for reassociating the bones of each individual skeleton. Here, a novel virtual approach for quantifying the degree of three-dimensional shape compatibility between two adjoining bone articular surfaces is put forth. Additionally, the integrability of this method with traditional osteometric techniques is evaluated. We focus on the paradigm of the hip joint, whose articulating bone elements (the femur and the innominate bone) are crucial for reconstructing the biological profile of unidentified human remains. The results demonstrate that this new semi-automated methodology is highly accurate both for large commingled assemblages (such as those resulting from mass disasters or burials) as well as smaller-scale contexts (such as those resulting from secondary burials).