Abstract
Insects collected from human remains are an important source of information about the peri- and postmortem events and they are the object of attention of two disciplines. Forensic entomology deals with insects collected from remains of forensic interest and funerary archaeoentomology with insects from archaeological contexts. In the collections of human remains (mummies, bones, etc.) belonging to museums or other institutions, insects can be found and can be used to make some interpretation about the past. This is possible only if the specialist is able to distinguish between the insects associated with the living subject or with the body decomposition and the pests colonizing the body stored in the collection. This paper, starting from the analysis of 42 human individuals belonging to three Italian osteological collections (Bologna, Parma, and Cagli), provides a working scheme to distinguish between “old” and museophagous insects in order to reduce the misinterpretations of the entomofauna associated with human remains.
Highlights
The study of insects and other arthropods from archaeological contexts provides useful elements to better describe past scenarios and events, cultural traditions, environments and climates
In 1996, Jean Bernard Huchet suggested the possibility of using insects, as in forensic entomology, in funerary contexts of archaeological interest defining a new discipline: funerary archaeoentomology (Huchet, 1996)
The research of entomological specimens from the human remains reveals a different pattern of prevalence of insect on the bones (Table 1) ranging from the 35% of the Bologna’s remains to the 100% of the Cagli’s individuals
Summary
The study of insects and other arthropods from archaeological contexts provides useful elements to better describe past scenarios and events, cultural traditions, environments and climates. Archaeoentomology is a multitopic discipline dealing with different subjects depending on the archaeological contexts and the kind of questions or hypotheses at which is requested to answer. In 1996, Jean Bernard Huchet suggested the possibility of using insects, as in forensic entomology, in funerary contexts of archaeological interest defining a new discipline: funerary archaeoentomology (Huchet, 1996). Most of the studies focus their attention to South America and Europe (mainly France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, UK) archaeological sites but this kind of cluster can be ascribed to the distribution of the scientists dealing with this topic and their projects and not with the real presence of insects associated with the archaeological site. It is worth mentioning that funerary archaeoentomology has been applied to human remains and to animal carcasses when they have been used in funerary or religious rituals as for example as offerings (Giordani et al 2020; Huchet et al 2013)
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