Patterns of Mortuary Practice Associated with Genocide: Implications for Archaeological Research

Abstract

Forensic investigations of genocide address many of the same research questions raised by bioarchaeologists, but the express application of mortuary study theory to international war‐crimes investigations has not been reported, nor have modern examples served as the basis for reexamining mass death in the archaeological record. Data drawn from single, multiple, and mass graves in Bosnia and Iraq illustrate the behavioral processes associated with mass death resulting from genocide. Strong associations are evident between burial agent and differential mortuary practices. Considerate interments are seen exclusively in burials executed by friendly forces (“self”), while erratic commingling and mass interments result solely from the agency of enemy forces (“other”). Patterns of mortuary practice are sufficiently distinct as to identify agent of burial when the details of grave creation are unknown. These findings allow the reinterpretation of two mass interments in the archaeological record with evidence of interpersonal violence—the Towton battlefield grave and the Crow Creek massacre site.