The Effects of Experimental Whole-Body Burning on Histological Age-at-Death Estimation from Human Cortical Bone and Dental Cementum

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The objective of this study is to explore the effects of thermal alteration on the microstructure of human bones and teeth through whole-body experiments in various fire-death scenarios. Understanding how thermal alteration can affect microstructure has implications for the use of microscopic analysis in applied contexts including for human vs. nonhuman differentiation, age-at-death estimation, season-of-death estimation, and histotaphonomic interpretation. The results of this study show some microscopic changes post-burning, however, no discernable patterns related to temperature or time of burning were established. The results also showed that histological age-at-death estimation methods could be applied to bones and teeth post-burning. These results also show that the presence and amount of soft tissue on remains affect the degree of burning and the amount of bone remaining for analysis. ABSTRACT: Whole-body donations (n = 6) were placed in various experimental fire-death scenarios to understand the histological effects of thermal alteration on bones and teeth. Midshaft samples of the femur, 6th rib, and metatarsal were removed from each donor pre- and post-burning to examine histomorphometric differences and test established age-at-death estimation methods. Dental samples were taken post-burning to test the applicability of dental cementum analysis for age-at-death estimation. Significant differences in osteon area or Haversian canal area between some pre- and post-burn samples were found although no patterns related to temperature or element were observable. The femoral age estimates across pre- and post-burn samples were 91% accurate across all donors. The point age estimates from the ribs compared to known age were significantly different (t(10) = 6.88, p < 0.001) with an average difference of −18.53 years. Dental age estimates of post-burn samples were not significantly different from the known donor age (t(3) = −0.74, p = 0.512) with an average difference of −3.96 years. Overall, the results of this study show that thermally altered remains can be used for histologic age-at-death analysis of cortical bone and dental cementum, within certain burning parameters.