“Body farm time machine”: results from taphonomic study of burial and underwater contexts

Abstract

Experimental taphonomy and neotaphonomic monitoring have become two relevant tools in interpreting modifications, and most especially in forensic investigations. Research facilities, where human decomposition experiments are carried out under controlled situations, provide a better understanding of the tapho–forensic history of cadaveric remains under specific environments and in different situations or even climates. There are, however, limitations of time to monitoring, such as space for experimentation and ethics, that do not always allow to carry out these types of investigations. The study presented here investigates the early post mortem modifications of the cadaveric state using animal models (pig autopods) simulating different forensic scenarios in accelerated time, under controlled climatic parameters, in different environmental contexts. This study was carried out under semi-arid conditions programmed in a climatic chamber. The aim of this study is to open a new range of knowledge in experimental taphonomy. As results of this experiment, different types of cadaveric states (such as total skeletonization, skeletonization with dry putrid matter, saponification and mummification) were obtained related to the type of contexts in which animal models were deposited (submerged or buried in wet or dry sediment).