A Replicative Cremation Experiment

Abstract

Cremation can be carried out on dry bone, green (or recently defleshed) bone, or bone in the flesh. Previous experimenters in cremation replication (Baby, 1954; Binford, 1963) argued that dry bone cremation can be readily differentiated from green bone and in-flesh cremations, but did not provide criteria for differentiating creamation of green bone from in-flesh cremation. This paper, based on the cremation of four green humeri and four fleshed upper extremities, suggests that the bone residue of green bone cremation can be differentiated from that of in-flesh cremation.