1. What Do the Bones Say? Forensic Anthropology
Combining the scientific techniques of anthropology with the investigative strategies of forensics to identify missing person remains and solve crimes.
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 1 of 10

2. What information would help you to describe and identify a missing person?
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 2 of 10

3. Bones tell us many things
Age
Ethnicity
Gender
Height
Weight
Build
Pathologies like old injuries
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 3 of 10

4. Famous People in Forensic Anthropology
Wyman and Keep, doctors at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts Mildred Trotter, anatomy professor at University of Washington, St. Louis, Missouri
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 4 of 10

5. Jeffries Wyman and Nathan Keep
First recorded criminal case that used forensic anthropology was in 1849
Dr. John White Webster murdered Dr. George Parkman over a debt Webster owed
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 5 of 10
Webster burned Parkman’s body, put the
remains among 150 other bones in a
vault beneath his office at Harvard
Medical School

6. Wyman: Harvard anatomy professor Keep : Dentist
Wyman concluded that the remains matched Parkman’s height, weight, gender, age and build.
Keep matched teeth to dental records.
Webster was convicted of murder.
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 6 of 10

7. Dr. Mildred Trotter
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 7 of 10

8. Mildred Trotter Anthropologist and anatomist
Identified WWII soldiers’ remains at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii from 1948 to 1949
First female to attain rank of full professor at the University of Washington
Created formulas to estimate height of a person based on length of long leg bones
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 8 of 10

9. Long bones in your body include:
Tibia is the shin bone.
Femur is the thigh bone.
Ulna is the outer bone of the lower arm.
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 9 of 10

10. Our Task (see handout) Construction site unearths skeletal remains
One long bone is found – the ulna which measures 28.5 centimeters
To find the height of the person whose ulna
was found; and devise a formula for estimating a person’s height given the ulna length
Unit 5, Investigation 3
Activity 3.1, p. 10 of 10