The article considers the ambiguous dynamics of the Łopuchowo Forest, a significant location of Holocaust commemoration among Israeli groups, as the location of the massacre of Tykocin Jews. Its site includes not only marked mass graves and a central monument(s), but also numerous smaller vehicles of memory placed there by Israeli visitors. The collection of lesser artefacts, affected over time by the acting materiality of an organic environment, contributes to the meaning of this forest memorial space. Following these material remnants through autoethnography, the Łopuchowo Forest is approached in terms of different connotations that forest evokes in the Polish and Israeli memory cultures. Considering the dichotomous notions of here (kan) and there (sham) at play in the Polish-Israeli imaginary, the article addresses the role of the Łopuchowo Forest as an Israeli traumascape.

ABSTRACT “Every day I bury children … not even whole children – just body parts.” These words from Sadi Barka, a lifelong gravedigger in Deir al-Balah, capture the unimaginable reality of mass graves in Gaza. Yet, in the midst of this devastation, former U.S. President Joe Biden – an avowed Zionist – dismisses Palestinian accounts of the death toll, reflecting a broader Western refusal to acknowledge Palestinian suffering. This article challenges conventional analyses of Christian Zionism, which is often reduced to a binary conflict between Europe and the Jew, with Palestine relegated to a passive backdrop. It argues instead that Palestinian erasure is rooted in the religious and political genealogy of Western identity itself. Christianity's appropriation of Judaism and its long-standing antagonism toward Islam cast both the Jew and the Arab/Muslim as the West′s constitutive “others.” Within this genealogy, the Zionist Jew “restored” to Palestine becomes the agent of Western Orientalist and Islamophobic violence, reconstituting Palestine as “Israel” - a symbolic nexus of Europe's racial, religious, and imperial logics.

ABSTRACT In the ancient Roman world, cattle played an integral role in daily agricultural tasks, providing the means necessary to plow fields, mill grains, and transport goods. The research presented here deals with the remains of 14 cattle discovered in a mass grave at the Roman villa of Vilauba in Catalonia, Spain. According to the archaeological record, it can be ruled out that the animals were slaughtered for consumption, banqueting, or sacrificial purposes. By investigating the metagenomic sequences generated from the bovine remains, we identified in three individuals a group I Clostridium strain, phylogenetically related to known producers of botulinum neurotoxins – suggesting that the Vilauba strain may have had toxigenic potential. Moreover, we discovered a Mycolicibacterium species phylogenetically related to known opportunistic pathogens. While no definitive conclusions can be drawn about disease, the phylogenetic placement of these taxa and the detection of Clostridium virulence-associated genes suggest a possible role beyond postmortem contamination. Collectively, these findings draw attention to atypical bacterial species, such as C. sporogenes, which are often overlooked in palaeogenomic studies due to their ambiguous status as environmental microbes, commensals, or potential pathogens. Their detection in animal remains highlights that they may represent a blind spot in our current understanding of livestock health. More broadly, this study underscores the current complexity of investigating such taxa and emphasizes the need for novel methods to disentangle the roles of these bacterial species.

The Civil War (1936–1939) and Franco's dictatorship (1939–1977) in Spain were characterized by mass violence and human rights violations. Hiding and destroying criminal evidence were systematic and intentional. Documentary sources were purged or destroyed, concentration camps were dismantled, and mass graves were eliminated or hidden. In recent decades, archaeology has contributed to revealing the Franco regime's repressive strategies. The focus on materiality, or the materiality turn, has greatly advanced the production of historical knowledge. Mass graves, concentration camps, labor camps, and prisons have been archaeologically investigated, producing new narratives surrounding contemporary Spanish history. Forensic archaeology has unearthed the traces of those who sometimes left no documents but left material evidence of their existence. This review aims to contribute to the studies of mass violence that reveal the technologies of exclusion, disappearance, and erasure of specific political and gender-neglected groups of society under Franco's repressive system.

The aim of this paper is to explore the procedures and basic principles of forensic investigations related to mass murders and extrajudicial executions, including forensic medicine and anthropology, as well as the importance of exhumations in the context of human rights violations. Forensic work in these cases is important for training young professionals and strengthening justice and transparency in the investigation process. Investigations of mass graves and crimes do not only concern the former Yugoslavia but also global examples, including cases in South America, Iraq and Ukraine. The text focuses on specific stages of the investigation: preliminary investigation, archaeological excavation and identification of remains. The investigation must be carefully organized, with adequate protection of witnesses and investigators. Forensic experts must be trained and prepared to deal with the ethical and legal dilemmas that may arise during these complex processes. It concludes that, despite different geopolitical contexts, minimum standards for exhumation must be respected, and families of missing persons should be provided with accurate information in accordance with human rights.

This article examines the characteristics of burial practices at the Kish-Dokhun site, located in the northwestern region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, based on the collective graves and ritual areas discovered during archaeological investigations conducted in 2020. The research of two graves revealed that they featured multiple interments. The study suggests that the collective nature of these burials was not a result of mass death events, but rather related to specific religious and ritual traditions. One three-tiered collective grave and another with repeated collective interments alongside an extended skeleton show parallels with certain Sarmatian and late Scythian burials. Due to their complex structure, these graves are considered unique within the region. The presence of ritual areas indicates that the observed burial practices were not limited to the physical act of interment but also carried social and religious significance. The collective and repeated burials recorded at the necropolis, along with the associated grave goods, were compared to Sarmatian and Alan burials at the Klin-Yar III necropolis near Kislovodsk, Sarmatian burials in the North Caucasus (Dagestan–Garabudaghkend), and those in the Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan, revealing significant parallels. At the same time, local burial customs and artifacts were also observed – such as secondary burials in jars, local ceramics, and other features. These analogies suggest that the Kish-Dokhun necropolis was located at a cultural crossroads, where burial traditions evolved through localized modifications influenced by various cultural interactions. The research concludes that the collective graves at Kish-Dokhun are not merely rare archaeological finds, but also manifestations of widespread and ritualized burial traditions in the region. They exhibit similarities with Sarmatian, late Scythian, and Alan burial forms, while also demonstrating local architectural and ritual particularities.

A persistent rumor claims that beneath the foundations of the four strategic villages built during Argentina’s last dictatorship in Tucumán, the military buried corpses of the disappeared. This article aims to explore how the memory of what happened during the dictatorship is intertwined with, persists through, and is altered by the infrastructure built by the military. In other words, it examines the interaction between memories of violence and material traces in the aftermath. The article analyzes how the content of rumor continues to affect the very spatiality of the strategic villages but also the community of people who know and share the rumor. It is also explored how this spatiality reveals a very complex network of suspicions about the population still living inside the strategic villages. Finally, the article shows that silence prevails inside the strategic village and explore who silence help to create and maintain distance from violent episodes. Both rumor and silence surrounding the alleged mass graves activate and expose the underlying tensions in a territory still deeply affected by state-sponsored violence.

Bone density is considered one of the many factors influencing bone structure and DNA preservation. For this reason, it is of interest in fields such as anthropology, palaeontology, and genetics. This study describes a method for bone density assessment by gradient centrifugation in Sodium Poly-Tungstate (SPT) solutions (from 2.1 to 2.6 g/cm3). Fifty milligrams of bone powder (size range of 20–50 µm) were used, with an average recovery of 89.9 (IC = 3.3% at 95% of probability). In the first phase of the experiment, the protocol was applied to ten femurs: three exhumed from the WWII mass grave of Ossero, three aged (43–50 years old) femurs from a museum collection and four fresh controls. In the subsequent phase, the analysis was extended to three petrous bones, three metacarpals, and three metatarsals exhumed from the WWII mass grave. The SPT density gradient profiles revealed marked differences among the three femur sample sets: more than 80% of the powder from control femurs was recovered in fractions with a density ≤ 2.2 g/cm3, whereas approximately 45% of the femurs from the mass grave showed a density > 2.6 g/cm3. The remaining three aged femurs displayed peculiar density patterns. Among the other bone types, metatarsals showed the lowest density values, followed by petrous bones and metacarpals. To detect degradation signatures, all nineteen bone powders were also analysed by ATR-FTIR. The femurs from the mass grave exhibited spectral features consistent with mineral recrystallisation and degradation of the organic phase, whereas the other three aged femurs showed peculiar spectral profiles; metacarpals, petrous bones and metatarsals showed intermediate spectra. PCA was applied to SPT and ATR-FTIR data, revealing correlations that support the SPT method as a novel tool for bone quality assessment. Although based on a limited sample size, this preliminary work demonstrates that SPT gradient analysis is an effective, low-cost, rapid and reliable method for assessing bone density, with potential applications in different disciplines studying aged bone samples. Lastly, principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a correlation between bone density and the yield of DNA recovered from the ten femoral specimens.

Rapid technological advancements have significantly enhanced DNA analysis. A key innovation is Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), also known as Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS), which followed classic Sanger (CS) sequencing. Compared to CS, NGS offers higher sensitivity, resolution, and throughput, making it particularly valuable for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. The high copy number, matrilineal inheritance, and non-recombining nature of mtDNA, especially its hypervariable regions (HV), make it highly relevant in forensic investigations. NGS has introduced streamlined protocols and improved low-level heteroplasmy detection in mtDNA sequencing. However, with any new technology, its informativeness and authenticity must be evaluated against traditional methods. This study compared mitotypes from degraded WWII skeletal remains recovered from a Slovenian mass grave, using the same DNA extraction method to minimize pre-sequencing variability. Femurs were mechanically and chemically cleaned, pulverized, and fully demineralized. DNA was extracted and purified using EZ1 Advanced XL and quantified with an in-house protocol. CS sequencing was performed using BigDye Terminator Kit v1.1 and ABI PRISM™ 3130 Genetic Analyzer, while NGS was conducted with the Precision ID mtDNA Control Region Panel and Ion GeneStudio™ S5 System. Comparison of mitotypes revealed that NGS identified low-level heteroplasmies undetectable by CS, particularly in length heteroplasmy. However, since Ion Torrent™ Suite 5.10.1 is prone to errors, certain NGS variants had to be disregarded.

Objective: Evaluation and verification of morphological and osteometric methods for the sex diagnosis of skeletons of subadult individuals by comparison with molecular genetic sex determinations. Material: 53 individuals (almost exclusively subadult individuals) buried in a medieval mass grave in Creuߥn, Germany. Methods: Morphological methods referring to the morphology of the pelvis, mandible and facies auricularis, an osteometric method on the pelvis and molecular genetic sex determination by the detection of X- and Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs). Results: None of the morphological and metric characteristics tested achieved the required minimum assurance level of 75%. Conclusions: None of the tested methods is a reliable criterion for determining the sex of subadult individuals of the studied skeletal series. Significance: In the literature, morphological sex diagnosis on childrens skeletons is repeatedly criticised, but is a common subject of anthropological investigation. In this paper, once again, attention is drawn to the unreliability of the methods, using the skeletal remains from a medieval mass grave in Creuߥn, Germany. Limitations: The study is limited to the skeletal series presented in this paper and cannot automatically be applied to other skeletal series. Other series from different geographical locations or chronological classifications could lead to different results. Suggestions for further research: Critical consideration of morphological and osteometric sex diagnosis in skeletons of other subadult individuals.

Abstract Isotopes of strontium, oxygen, and carbon were analyzed in human tooth enamel from two Postclassic sites in the central Peten lakes region, Guatemala, to examine patterns of mobility and diet during a time of social unrest. Excavations at both sites, Ixlu and Zacpeten, have revealed evidence for purposeful dismemberment and interment of individuals. This study examines a possible shrine surrounded by rows of skulls at Ixlu, and a mass grave of comingled individuals interred at Zacpeten. The interments coincide with a period of conflict and warfare between two dominant polities, Itza and Kowoj. The 14 sampled individuals at Ixlu were young males, six of whom isotopically match the Maya Mountains of central Belize/southeastern Peten. At Zacpeten, isotopic signatures of adults and children (n = 68) suggested that many were either local or came from other parts of the Maya lowlands, but not the Maya Mountains. In the Late Postclassic, the Zacpeten individuals were exhumed, defiled, and deposited in a mass grave, probably by Kowojs. Although temporally and geographically related, the Ixlu and Zacpeten burials represent two distinct cases of ritual violence that reflect the tumultuous political landscape of the Postclassic period.

Background/Objectives: The Plague of Justinian marked the beginning of the First Pandemic (541-750 CE), yet no genomic evidence of Yersinia pestis has previously been recovered from the Eastern Mediterranean, where the outbreak was first recorded. This study aimed to determine whether Y. pestis was present in a mid-6th to early 7th century mass grave in Jerash, Jordan, and to characterize its genome within the broader context of First Pandemic strains. Methods: We analyzed samples from multiple individuals recovered from the Jerash mass grave. Initial screening for potential pathogen presence was conducted using proteomics. Select samples were subjected to ancient DNA extraction and whole genome sequencing. Comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses were conducted to assess strain identity and evolutionary placement. Results: Genomic sequencing recovered Y. pestis DNA from five individuals, revealing highly similar genomes. All strains clustered tightly with other First Pandemic lineages but were notably recovered from a region geographically close to the pandemic's historical epicenter for the first time. The near-identical genomes across diverse individuals suggest an outbreak of a single circulating lineage at the time of this outbreak. Conclusions: This study provides the first genomic evidence of Y. pestis in the Eastern Mediterranean during the First Pandemic, linking archaeological findings with pathogen genomics near the origin point of the Plague of Justinian. Summary Sentence: Genomic evidence links Y. pestis to the First Pandemic in an ancient city.

This essay examines Israel’s longstanding violence against Palestinian corpses, revealing how death offers no protection from settler-colonial domination. Offering a historical overview from the 1948 Nakba to the present genocide in Gaza, it traces Israel’s systematic practices of desecrating the Palestinian dead, including the creation and concealment of mass graves, the establishment of “cemeteries of numbers,” and the withholding of bodies to suppress mobilization and use them as bargaining chips. These practices have served to erase Palestinian historical and geographical presence, punish and fragment families and communities, and suppress collective mourning and resistance. The author argues that Israel has used the Palestinian corpse as a central site of control and violence throughout decades of Palestinian political mobilization, and that it has converged the range of crimes it carries out against the dead in its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

This article describes the case of the personal items found in common graves dated between 1939 and 1956 after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), located in Paterna's cemetery (Spain). It was important in this study to know the state of the conservation of the objects and to obtain clues about their origin and use just as in a forensic study. This would allow the moral restitution of the historical memory of the victims of the war conflict. The multi-technique strategy has included light and electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Materials of the early 20th century used in pencil sharpeners, glasses, cutlery, lighters, rings, and buttons or medications contained in small bottles and boxes have been identified and have enabled the lives of their owners to be reconstructed during their imprisonment and execution. All these objects exhibited a thin layer of adipocere, a well-known compound in forensic science formed during the decomposition of human and animal corpses. Interestingly, rare corrosion processes have been identified in two of the objects analyzed, which are linked to their proximity to the decomposing corpses of the deceased. Copper sulfides and/or sulfates have been identified in the lighter, and scholzite, a zinc and calcium phosphate, has been identified in the glasses.

This theoretical article outlines the main ideas and concepts of “necroheritage”, focusing particularly on remains, artefacts, mass graves, clandestine burial sites and killing sites as a specific type of cultural-natural heritage. It introduces the concept of “necrocide” in the context of mass killings and genocides to refer to the mechanical and chemical destruction of remains and graves intended to conceal mass crimes and obstruct or at least impede the identification of victims. The project highlights also the importance of “exhumates”, meaning artefacts and ecofacts extracted from graves during exhumations that serve as evidence of crimes and provide deep insights into the past lives of humans and environmental changes caused by human intervention. The article further considers postanthropocentric ethics, to address artefacts, ecofacts and various nonhuman entities that participate in or bear witness to processes of destruction and decomposition. By integrating heritage, forensics and ecological studies, necroheritage addresses historical, social, ecological and ethical considerations, providing critical insights into the ontology of human and nonhuman remains and things; the ecology of (mass) graves; religious and spiritual aspects of remains and sites; and memory. It proposes future-oriented strategies for contemplating, researching, managing and commemorating mass killing sites.

The first months of World War II in Gdańsk Pomerania saw the mass murder of local intellectual elites, of people with mental disorders or disabilities and of representatives of the small Jewish community. The Germans usually hid the victims’ bodies in mass graves. About 30 places of execution from this “bloody autumn of 1939” were destroyed in the second half of 1944, as part of Aktion 1005, an operation to conceal evidence of the crimes. In this paper, we present the historical context for the characteristics of the necrosol from one mass grave in the Szpęgawsk Forest, which was destroyed/desecrated by the Germans at the end of 1944. The research proves that even the destruction of mass graves by exhuming the bodies and burning them leaves material traces that allow for the reconstruction of the organisation of the crime and the methods of covering it up.

Abstract Plague and famine are two of the worst killers in human history. Both struck the Czech lands in the Middle Ages not long after each other (the famine of 1318 CE and the plague of 1348–1350 CE). The aim of our study was to try to relate the mass graves found in the vicinity of the Chapel of All Saints with an ossuary in the Kutná Hora–Sedlec site to these two specific events. For this purpose, we used stratigraphic and archaeological data, radiocarbon dating, and Bayesian modeling of 172 calibrated AMS ages obtained from teeth and bones of 86 individuals buried in the mass graves. Based on the stratigraphic and archaeological data, five mass graves were interpreted as famine graves and eight mass graves were interpreted as plague graves. Using these data and the calibration of the radiocarbon results of the tooth-bone pairs of each individual, we constructed the Bayesian model to interpret the remaining mass graves for which no contextual information was available (eight mass graves). In terms of Bayesian model results, the model fits stratigraphic data in 23 out of 34 cases and in all seven cases based on calibration data. To validate the model results on archaeologically and stratigraphically uninterpreted data, ancient DNA analysis is required to identify Yersinia pestis.

Abstract The need to respect and (physically) protect the dead is well established under international and national laws and extends to human remains found in mass graves. Once mass graves are discovered, and prior to any investigation, the dead in mass graves should be secured to an extent through the protection of the site itself. Should investigations follow (due to human rights abuses or breaches of international humanitarian or international criminal law), then the dead, if excavated, are in the custody and protection of the investigating authorities. Following successful identification of human remains, their return to the next of kin may be possible, or appropriate reburial may ensue. Engagement with mass graves is complex: no two mass graves are the same, and contexts differ, as may the legal framework governing mass graves. Building on the Minnesota Protocol, international standards for a rights-informed response to human remains found in mass graves are proffered by the Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation . A new research project now collates information to generate a digital global map of mass graves and asks how and to what extent this holds protective value. Such regularized mass grave mapping was advocated by former United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard; indeed, mapping is increasingly employed in human rights contexts as a protection and justice-monitoring measure. By combining legal, forensic and anthropological insights in responding to the question of data collation in relation to mass graves, this paper sheds light on ways of both conceptualizing and operationalizing digital mapping of mass graves and appraises what kind of protection this may hold for the dead. Structured into four main interrelated sections, the paper briefly anchors data collation as a protection measure under international legal provisions; it then examines the challenges associated with the curation and creation of a global map of mass graves by adopting anthropological, forensic and legal lenses on the subject of mass graves and the data generated surrounding the dead. In a third step, the paper outlines the methodological challenges encountered during the pilot phase of the study, before then offering analysis and discussion on our preliminary findings, where we conclude that the informative value of mass grave mapping holds protective potential, particularly in the absence of physical protection. As well as offering an original inquiry that fits well with the theme of “protection of the dead”, the paper investigates the very boundaries of protection measures in the context of mass graves and what value they may hold. Such contribution to knowledge and practice is increasingly pressing in situations where physical protection of the dead is not forthcoming, and as an avenue to offer some (albeit incomplete) protection mechanisms for emerging mass grave landscapes: migratory deaths and the threat of mass fatalities arising from extreme climatic events.

Mass graves: a mass grave is defined as the site that includes a large number of buried human remains ،while the cemetery is defined under the Iraqi national law as “the land or place that includes the remains of more than one martyr who was buried or hidden permanently without following the provisions legitimacy and the human values ​​that must be observed when burying the dead in a way that is intended to hide the signs of a crime of genocide committed by an individual, group or organization, and constitutes a violation of human rights.” In order to prevent individuals from committing acts that threaten the criminal regime, it was represented by the worst forms of violence, which claimed the lives of many Iraqi people, represented by executions and the liquidation of references and religious scholars.

After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Francisco Franco's dictatorship left a lasting imprint on Spain, with his narrative reflected in monuments and mass graves. The transition period (1975–1981) following Franco's death saw an amnesty that stifled accountability for past crimes, shrouded in private memory. Recent years have witnessed a surge in mass grave exhumations in Spain, aiming to reveal the buried truths of the nation's history, and revealing hidden atrocities. This article delves into forensic exhumations as a tool for transitional justice, typically used in legal proceedings to assign responsibility for civilian atrocities. Despite legal barriers like the Amnesty Law (1977) shielding pre-1976 cases from prosecution, private exhumations offer justice for victims' families. By fostering community collaboration at open exhumation sites, these efforts encourage the revision of collective memory and acknowledgment of past injustices. Through a transparent and collaborative process, forensic specialists merge scientific findings with testimonies, illuminating the fates of the disappeared and fostering truth and reconciliation.