New Standardised Visual Forms for Recording the Presence of Human Skeletal Elements in Archaeological and Forensic Contexts

Abstract

Even though visual recording forms are commonly used among human osteologists, very few of them are published. Those that are lack either detail or manipulability. Most anthropologists have to adapt these or develop their own forms when they start working on skeletal material, or have to accompany the visual forms with detailed, often time consuming, textual inventories. Three recording forms are proposed here: for adult, subadult and newborn skeletons. While no two-dimensional form will fit the requirements of every human osteologist, these forms are sufficiently detailed and easy to use. Printed or downloaded, they are published here in the belief that, with feedback from the anthropological community at large, they have the potential to become standard tools in data recording.

Keywords

• archaeology
• recording forms
• taphonomy
• bone form
• bone presence