Culture Matters: Archaeology, Environment and Forensic Interpretation

Expert Profile

Sophia Perdikaris is an environmental archaeologist with a specialty in the analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. She is interested in people-environment interactions and how heritage work can inform sustainability questions for the future. Environmental sustainability is a challenge for every community, including communities in Antigua and Barbuda. Working toward sustainability means understanding human and environmental change over time: what is changing, how it is changing, why it is changing, and what we can do to mitigate change, adapt to change, or both. As a director of the Human Eco dynamics Research Center (CUNY Graduate Center) and director of the Barbuda Research Complex (Cardington, Barbuda, West Indies), she is focusing on a trans disciplinary approach to explore issues of sustainability projects combining the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts in a collaborative research perspective that connects scientists, local communities, and youth. Her early work concentrated on the transition from the Viking Age to medieval times in northern Norway and how the early commercialization of the cod fisheries affected the people and the economy of the area. She has been excavating in Norway for the last 12 years, in Iceland for seven years, and in Barbuda for six years, and takes students with her in the field to Barbuda.

Foreground

The session has been started with a brief introduction about the expert of the session, Sophia Perdikaris. She has opened her talk by explaining some basic terminologies like what is anthropology, how anthropology is branched into the four fields as  Archaeology, Physical /Biological Anthropology, Cultural/ Social anthropology, and linguistics. Then she told the listeners about forensic anthropology, archaeology, and their significance in forensic investigation. She has also discussed some interesting cases of Red Hook Naval Cemetery, Rail Shelter in New Jersey, Crypt in the Basement at Christopher Street, Bundle Burials in Jarigole, and many more. So let's see the glimpse of her talk from this short article

Anthropology and Archeology

Anthropology is the study of people, their origins, their development, and contemporary variation. But we have a different approach to understanding certain things. Anthropology has 4 fields out of which archaeology is being confused with anthropology in some countries. Applied anthropology is the combination of 2 fields of anthropology. Basically, we use a combination of forensic physical anthropology and forensic archaeology. Anthropology and archaeology are 2 disciplines of forensic anthropology. In some countries, archaeology is more about a classical civilization big building architecture kind of work. While in anthropology we’re dealing with being human. 

Forensic anthropology is the set of methods about identifying the remains that came from physical anthropology but yet archaeology is a methodology that we use when we actually do recovery in the case of forensic anthropology. We use archaeological examples so that we can learn from people past from humans of the past and the importance of archaeological human remains. Forensic archaeology is the formation of assemblages of biological material evidence created b criminal activity.

Types of Site

• Surface scatters of remains never buried.
• Buried sites of person deliberately buried or incorporated naturally into the environment.
• Mass disasters ( Air craft crashes sites, mass suicide )
• Cemeteries 

Individual Belief and Religion

Our body is made up of 200 bones. And death is often thought of as the end of life. Our body still has a long way to go. Throughout the world, each culture has created unique rituals to acknowledge the death of a loved one. Some people burn their dead, some bury them and some including the early Egyptians mummify them. 

• The majority of people buried in a cemetery are Christians that are facing east.
• Depending on the geographic location of the buried many Jewish people bury their deceased facing west because they want to face the land of Israel.
• A similar burial pattern is present among Muslims. Many Muslims are buried in a west-facing position so they are facing perpendicular to mecca.
• There are claims that certain ministers such as priests, cardinals, and bishops are buried in a west-facing position.
• This is due to the belief that they will combine to look after their flocks even in the alter life and guide them when the second coming arrives.

Role of Forensic Archaeology

It is the detailed investigation and collection of evidence. For forensic anthropology, the understanding of the recovery scene and its context is created for the analysis and the analytical strategy of the evidence. Thus, the detailed forensic archaeological approach will always provide the best context for analysis. 

Relation of Archeology with Environment

It helps in investigating that which plant and animal species present at that historic time. It also helps in investigating cases of artifacts, where artifacts are absent from the surveyed site. In cases of earth movement such as erosion, environment archaeology plays an important role. With the help of this relationship between these two, we can study complex ways in which humans in the past interacted with the past.

Personal Note

The session was so informative. Knowing about the significance of archaeology in forensic science was really interesting and the speaker has detailed it so beautifully and in an easy-to-understand way. The scenarios which she has been discussing in this session were really thought-provoking. I personally enjoyed this session so much and I would be so pleased to recommend my readers to visit the youtube channel forensic 365 and to get detailed learning from the expert itself.

Note: For the detailed information and session recording kindly visit  the Youtube Channel Forensic 365