Abstract

Human remains provide definitive and intimate evidence bearing witness to the history of violence from the Pleistocene to the present (Chacon and Mendoza 2007a, 2007b; Fiorato et al., 2000; Larsen 1997; Martin and Freyer 1997; Verona 2007; Walker 2001; this volume). Osteological indications of violence include depressed cranial fractures, facial fractures, broken ribs, defensive parry fractures, scalping, decapitation, dismemberment, torture, mutilation, trophy-taking, embedded projectiles or projectile damage and demographic variation reflecting the specific targets of violent acts (Kimmerle and Baraybar 2008; Lambert, 2007; Larsen 1997; Lovell 1997). As Lambert (2007: 202) states, the skeletal record of the injured or dead is the end point of a violent exchange. Our task is a reconstructive effort that relies on multiple lines of independent contextual evidence.