Abstract
In this paper, the author summarizes the basic principles for analyzing the environments surrounding human remains given the excavated condition of bones, based on the idea that disparities in bone movement arise depending on whether the environment surrounding a body at the time of its burial was “filled” or “unfilled” (Nara, 2007). The author refers to the environments surrounding human remains from the time of their burial to the completion of skeletonization as either “filled” or “unfilled,” and, by presenting instances in which unfilled environments transform into filled environments during the course of skeletonization, the author notes the need to view environmental change in terms of time. Furthermore, it is considered that two patterns exist for “partially unfilled environments” in which a portion of the remains are unconcealed: conditions occurring in a transformation of an unfilled environment into a filled environment (such as landslides, etc.), or conditions occurring at the time of the burial of the body due to factors such as wrapping, etc. In addition, the author proposes a methodology that allows for the differentiation of each pattern as well as the re-creation of specific environmental changes by studying the excavated condition of human bones in view of temporal change. The author tested this methodology against 42 sets of human bones from the middle to late Jomon period unearthed at the Kitamura Site, conducting an analysis of the environment surrounding said remains. First, it was demonstrated that sinkage occurs even in filled environments due to decomposition of the body, that bones move depending on their burial position, and that pottery covering the face or the stone under the head were factors in bone movement. The results were that clearly discernable human bones made up 95.2% of the test specimens, and that the majority of analyses of environments surrounding human remains utilizing bones were valid.
