What Do We Tell the Sheriff? by Stubblefield and Scharf

Part II – A First Assessment

The sheriff’s officers and the hiker lead you to the scene. By the time you arrive, there is only half-an-hour of daylight remaining. In the somewhat secluded glade of trees you see scattered bones. While the sheriff’s officers hurriedly photograph the scene, you map the bone scatter and determine that the bones are human. One of your team members compiles a preliminary inventory as you collect each bone:

• 3 skulls
• 6 femora
• 4 os coxae
• 2 humeri
• 2 tibiae
• 5 scapulae

Refer as needed to your handout entitled “Human Skeletal Elements” (MS Word doc format) for the locations of these bones in the human skeleton.

Write answers to the following questions in your notebook:

• 1. How could you determine if these bones were human?
• 2. How many bones are in the collection? (This is the NISP or Number of Identified Specimens.)

Determine how many individuals these bones represent, and answer the following questions in your notebook:

• 3. What is the maximum number of individuals who could be represented by these bones?
• 4. What is the MNI (the Minimum Number of Individuals—the lowest number of individuals needed to account for the bones present)?
• 5. Why is MNI important?

Now share your answers with members of your group and tell me:

• 6. Did you get the same answers as other group members? Why or why not?

After discussing this as a whole class, go to Part III.

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