Find Books
Forensic Anthropology by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2018Provides comprehensive coverage of everything that students and practitioners need to know about working in the field of forensic anthropology.
Forensic Anthropology by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023Key topics and basic laboratory training for beginning students.
Forensic Anthropology and the United States Judicial System by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2019A guide to the interface between forensic anthropology and the United States legal system.
Background Sources
- Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences
- A Companion to Forensic Anthropology
- A Dictionary of Forensic Science
- Fundamentals of Forensic Anthropology
- A Companion to Paleopathology
- A Companion to Dental Anthropology
- Geoscientists at Crime Scenes: A Companion to Forensic Geoscience
- Encyclopedia of Forensic and Legal Medicine
- Handbook of Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology
- Silent Witness: Forensic DNA Evidence in Criminal Investigations and Humanitarian Disasters
- A Companion to the Anthropology of Death
- Comparative Skeletal Anatomy : A Photographic Atlas for Medical Examiners, Coroners, Forensic Anthropologists, and Archaeologists
Additional Resources
- Database for Forensic Anthropology in the United States, 1962-1991 (ICPSR 2581) This project was undertaken to establish a computerized skeletal database composed of recent forensic cases to represent the present ethnic diversity and demographic structure of the United States population. The intent was to accumulate a forensic skeletal sample large and diverse enough to reflect different socioeconomic groups of the general population from different geographical regions of the country in order to enable researchers to revise the standards being used for forensic skeletal identification.
- Age and Sex Estimation from the Human Clavicle in the American Population, 1912-1938 and 1986-1998 (ICPSR 25901) This study investigated skeletal maturation and gender dimorphism in the human clavicle in the American population.
- Tool Mark Analysis of Cut Costal Cartilage, 2009-2010 [United States] (ICPSR 28741) The study was designed to establish the potential error rate associated with the generally accepted method of tool mark analysis of cut marks in costal cartilage. Three knives with different blade types were used to make experimental cut marks in costal cartilage of pigs.
- Utility of Whole-Body CT Imaging in the Post Mortem Detection of Elder Abuse and Neglect in Maryland, 2007 (ICPSR 34201) The general and original hypothesis to be explored in this study was that multi-slice computed tomography (CT) imaging of decedents in whom elder abuse was suspected or reported might enhance the work of the medical examiner by providing novel information not readily available at conventional autopsy and/or by ruling out the need for complete conventional autopsy in cases in which abuse findings were negative, thereby providing: time and cost efficiencies, additional evidentiary support in the
- Written in Bone, Smithsonian Institution Written in Bone was a popular exhibit in the Museum for almost five years (February 7, 2009 to January 6, 2014); this website was developed originally to enhance the information available in the exhibit and continues as a freestanding entity now that the exhibit is closed.
- Investigating Forensics Interactive forensic anthropology cases: recovery, analysis, identification.
- Open Research Scan Archive (Penn Museum) The Open Research Scan Archive (formerly: Penn Cranial CT Database) contains high resolution (sub-millimeter) scans of human and non-human crania from the Penn University Museum and other institutions. The archive is continually growing as new scans are obtained, either of specimens held here at the Museum at Penn, or via contributions from other researchers and institutions
- Standard and Guidance for Forensic Archaeologists This standard and guidance document has been developed by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists [UK] and an advisory group comprising forensic archaeologists who had previously been accepted by the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners through a process of peer review.
- Forensic Anthropology Database for Assessing Methods Accuracy (FADAMA) The forensic anthropology database for assessing methods accuracy (FADAMA) is a FREE online forensic case database for documenting forensic anthropology methods and case outcomes. It serves the broader forensic anthropology community of practitioners, researchers and students. The main purpose of this database is to create avenues for forensic anthropology methods development and improvement by providing detailed data on method use, method outcomes, and individual and cumulative method accuracy.
- The Goldman Osteometric Data Set The Goldman Data Set consists of osteometric measurements taken from 1538 human skeletons dating from throughout the Holocene. Links to the data are at the bottom of this page. Links to sample provenience and dating information may be found in links below.
- Osteological Collections (Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe) The map of identified osteological collections created by FASE is a free-to-use source of information for researchers, students or anthropology enthusiasts. The map represents a short summary of information available for osteological collections from all over the world, with the main focus on modern identified collections.
- The Visible Human Project (National Library of Medicine) The NLM Visible Human Project has created publicly-available complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of a human male body and a human female body. Specifically, the VHP provides a public-domain library of cross-sectional cryosection, CT, and MRI images obtained from one male cadaver and one female cadaver. The Visible Man data set was publicly released in 1994 and the Visible Woman in 1995.
- Digitised Diseases Digitised Diseases is an open access resource featuring human bones which have been digitised using 3D laser scanning, CT and radiography. The resource focuses on a wide range of pathological type specimens from archaeological and historical medical collections, specifically examples of chronic diseases which affect the human skeleton for which many of the physical changes are often not directly observable within clinical practice.
- MorphoPASSE MorphoPASSE is a free, interactive program designed to estimate sex using morphological traits of the pelvis and skull. MorphoPASSE contains ordinal data collected from over 2,500 individuals from 15 skeletal collections that represent five broad geographical ancestral backgrounds. Both contemporary and historical samples are included, thereby making the database applicable to modern forensic casework, as well as bioarchaeological cases.
- Osteoware Osteoware is an easy to learn software program designed to assist in the documentation of human skeletal remains. It provides for the real-time data entry of quantitative and qualitative observations into a structured query language (SQL) relational database.
- National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) NamUs is a national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases across the United States. Funded and administered by the National Institute of Justice and managed through a cooperative agreement with the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas, all NamUs resources are provided at no cost to law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, allied forensic professionals, and family members of missing persons.
- Geometric Morphometric Classification of Crania for Forensic Scientists This website contains downloads for the software 3D-ID as well as a 3D coordinate database with modern cranial remains.
- eSkeletons eSkeletons provides an interactive environment in which to examine and learn about skeletal anatomy through our osteology database.
- FOROST The FOROST project aims to develop a globally accessible metabase serving records and images of forensic osteology specimens that can be used as a reference for forensics workers worldwide.
- 3Skull 3Skull (or ThreeSkull) facilitates the capture of three-dimensional landmark coordinates using a Microscribe digitizer.
- ABDOU ABDOU uses transition analysis to provide age estimates from skeletal indicators with explicit probabilities.
- Fordisc Fordisc is a computer program that uses statistical methods to estimate sex, ancestry, and stature from skeletal measurements. Fordisc employs multivariate statistical classification methods including linear discriminant function analysis.
- (hu)MANid (hu)MANid is a FREE, web-based GUI that is designed to evaluate sex and ancestry of human mandibles.
- Isolocate Isolocate is the next-generation tool for determining the region of origin for bone and tooth isotopes of unknown individuals. The GUI will provide the statistical likelihood for an one given sample to originate from a variety of world-wide populations.
- KidStats Application to make sub-adult age and sex estimations based on long-bone measurements using MARS and FDA models.
- Atlas of Tooth Development and Eruption Age estimation by teeth.
- WinID WinID is a dental computer software that can assist forensic odontologists’ human identification efforts. WinID makes use of dental and anthropometric characteristics to rank possible matches.
- Teeth Identification Module (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) This web site includes two practice modules for deciduous and permanent teeth identification.
- Practice Lab on the Skull Skull bone and feature quiz.
- Anthropomotron – Forensic Anthropology Estimates Made Easy Anthropomotron gathers and simplifies calculations used by anthropologists to estimate the height and body mass of an individual based on a few key measurements of their skeleton. For example, the user can enter the length of a femur and Anthropomotron will provide an estimate of the individual’s full standing height tailored to their sex and ancestry.
Find Films
- Frontline: Post Mortem (dvd) Every day, nearly 7,000 people die in America, and the rate of autopsies, the gold standard of death investigation, has plummeted. As a result, not only do murderers go free and innocent people go to jail, but the crisis in death investigation in America is also a threat to public health. FRONTLINE reports the results of a joint investigation with ProPublica, NPR, and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley.
- Post Mortem: Forensic Science (streaming: Academic Video Online) Post Mortem delves into the world of forensic science, and looks at some of the latest techniques in high-tech sleuthing. Fingerprints, fibers, blood-- forensic investigators turn these elements into compelling evidence, working routinely with police in their efforts to solve crimes.
- Following Antigone: Forensic Anthropology and Human Rights Investigations (streaming, Academic Video Online) This documentary, produced by Equipo Argentino de Anthropologia Forense and WITNESS, discusses a massacre during at El Mozote.
- 60 Minutes: Leave No One Behind (streaming, Academic Video Online) 60 Minutes II reports on teams of investigators on a forensic search for lost war heroes. Vicki Mabrey reports.
- Unearthing Evil (streaming, Academic Video Online) Even in times of war there has to be limits. But sometimes all boundaries are crossed and crimes of war are committed. These constitute crimes against humanity. Unearthing Evil is a confronting program that explores the work of Australian archaeologist Richard Wright, who led the teams that evacuated mass graves in the Ukraine and Bosnia. The evidence was used to reconstruct the chilling events that took place and to support the prosecution of the perpetrators.
- The Woman in the Iron Coffin (streaming, Academic Video Online) In 2011, construction workers were shocked to uncover the remains of a woman in an abandoned lot in Queens, New York. So great was her level of preservation, witnesses first assumed they had stumbled upon a recent homicide. Forensic analysis, however, revealed a remarkably different story. Buried in an elaborate and expensive iron coffin, the body belonged to a young African American woman who died in the first half of the 19th century.
- FBI Marks 20 Years of Training at the 'Body Farm' The Forensic Anthropology Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, has been training FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT) members for 20 years on techniques they can apply at crime scenes.
- TED Talk: How Vultures Can Help Solve Crimes Can a bird that symbolizes death help the living catch criminals? In this informative and accessible talk, forensic anthropologist Lauren Pharr shows us how vultures impact crime scenes -- and the assistance they can provide to detectives investigating murders.
- Secrets of the dead. Jamestown's dark winter (streaming, Academic Video Online) Archaeologists at the site of an early American colony discovered the remains of a young woman, dating back to 1609, buried in the trash layer of a cellar. Now, 400 years later, a cellar excavation has uncovered numerous bone fragments -- all belonging to this adolescent female. With the help of forensic anthropologists, the extraordinary and frightening story of this young woman comes to life.
- Forensic DNA Examiner, FBI (streaming, Academic Video Online) Brandon is a Forensic DNA Examiner with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Working out of Arlington, VA, Brandon is tasked with examining the DNA evidence from cases ranging from counter-terrorism to murders and missing persons. After selecting the relevant evidence for testing, Brandon then decides which evidence will be used in trial cases.
