Virtual anthropology: Forensic applications to cranial skeletal remains from the Spanish Civil War.

Biological and forensic anthropologists face limitations while studying skeletal remains altered by taphonomic alterations and perimortem trauma, such as in remains from the Spanish Civil War. However, virtual anthropology techniques can optimize the information inferred from fragmented and deformed remains by generating and restoring three-dimensional bone models. We applied a low-cost 3D modelling methodology based on photogrammetry to develop novel forensic applications of virtual 3D skull reconstruction, assembly, restoration and ancestry estimation. Crania and mandible fragments from five Spanish Civil War victims were reconstructed with high accuracy, and only one cranium could not be assembled due to extensive bone loss. Virtual mirroring successfully restored reconstructed crania, producing 3D models with reduced deformation and perimortem trauma. High correlation between traditional and virtual craniofacial measurements confirmed that 3D models are suitable for forensic applications. Craniometric databases of world-wide and Spanish populations were used to assess the potential of discriminant analysis to estimate population ancestry. Our protocol correctly estimated the continental origin of 86.7 % of 15 crania of known origin, and despite low morphological differentiation within European populations, correctly identified 54.5 % as Spanish and 27.3 % of them with high posterior probabilities. Two restored crania from the Civil War were estimated as Spanish, and one as a non-Spanish European. Results were not conclusive for one cranium and did not confirm previous archeological hypotheses. Overall, our research shows the potential to assess the presence of foreign volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and highlights the added value of 3D-virtual techniques in forensic anthropology.

A urinary stone from the early medieval site of Riner, Catalonia.

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents the differential diagnosis of a calcified mass found in the pelvic cavity of an adult male dating to the 10th century AD. MATERIALS: Skeletal remains of an adult male exhumed from the cemetery associated with the early medieval church of Riner (Solsonès, Catalonia). METHODS: The structure and composition of the mass were examined by x-ray imaging, microscopic stereoscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry analysis. RESULTS: The examination reveals a light brown kidney-shaped calcification with well-defined margins, irregular hypodense zones, and several thin concentric layers. The obtained spectra showed a mixture of carbonate apatite (with a high level of carbonation) and calcite in all the sections studied. CONCLUSION: The calcification most likely corresponds to a urinary calculus of infectious origin. SIGNIFICANCE: Given the insights that urinary calculi can provide towards understanding consequences of infection and environmental conditions, this case will be of interest to other researchers wishing to initiate comparative analyses. LIMITATIONS: The discussion of the etiology of the stone is limited by the lack of preservation of certain elements such as struvite.

Arteriosclerosis in paleopathology. Are macroscopic findings well known?

Although clinical atherosclerosis is fairly common, it is a surprisingly uncommon finding in anthropology. Several cases have been reported in the anthropological literature but most of them are referred to X-ray studies and to computerized tomographic imaging but, as far as we know, no macroscopic findings useful to anthropologists have been published before. We present a case of an adult male skeleton scattered on a wooded area with remains of partially mummified soft tissues between right tibia and fibula in which macroscopic findings showed a cylindrical structure that could be confused with a root or a branch. This cylindrical structure was diagnosed as an arterial segment and microscopic findings revealed calcified eccentric fibroatheromatosis. We hope this case will improve the knowledge of this macroscopic appearance and thus be useful to anthropologists.