Bone finds: a challenge to forensic science

Abstract

The study presented here is based on 176 forensic dental reports compiled between 1993 and 2001. The bulk of the research took place in 1997, when major construction at Potsdamer Platz and Lehrter Bahnhof in central Berlin required the excavation of considerable quantities of earth. As building proceeded here, at 'Europe's biggest construction site', it revealed not only a large number of long bones, but also a great many skulls and skull fragments. In five instances, complete skeletons were unearthed. Many of the bones ultimately proved to be of animal origin. The police were not instructed to open a single criminal investigation. Identifying and piecing together the material in this context makes tremendous demands of forensic osteology. Establishing the nature of these finds beyond reasonable doubt, and putting a name and date to them, calls for interdisciplinary co-operation between experts in odontology, anthropology, anatomy, radiology and veterinary medicine, not to mention historians.