Availability: Available to external students in first semester.

Residential School: Nil.

Coordinator: A/Professor P. Brown

Online level: 0

Objectives: Students who successfully complete this unit should:

• obtain an overview of the procedures available to forensic osteologists. These include methods used to determine sex, assess age at death, estimate stature, determine ethnic origin, and document health status and evidence of trauma;
• obtain a detailed knowledge of the problems associated with the application of forensic osteological procedures in Australia;
• be able to critically assess and apply appropriate forensic procedures;
• be able to prepare and complete a case report.
• have a detailed knowledge of human skeletal and dental anatomy.

Content: This is a combined reading and practical unit which will explore issues in forensic anthropology in an Australian context. Students are sent a variety of forensic materials, including casts of bones, photographs, radiographs and descriptive data, and from these they are expected to establish the identity and life history of the deceased. Students will be expected to apply a variety of established and experimental procedures for sex identification, stature and age estimation, racial identification, facial reconstruction and body weight estimation as well as identifying evidence of trauma and disease. Students who have any difficulty in working with human skeletal materials should not enrol in this unit.

Assessment: Assessment 1: Case Report worth 30%, Assessment 2: Case Report worth 30%, Exam worth 40%.

Prescribed Books:
Mays, S. 1998. The Archaeology of Human Bones. Routledge.