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(FR) La collection de crânes humains hébergée dans l'ostéothèque du Laboratoire d'Anthropologie et de Génétique humaine, située au sein de la Faculté des Sciences de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) est dépourvue de contexte historique sur sa création. Parmi les vestiges humains composant cette collection, certains sont accompagnés d'informations telles que des étiquettes de socle illisibles ou des annotations sur les crânes, indiquant des provenances belges ou extra-européennes, et spécifiquement le Congo. Cette situation soulève la problématique de comprendre comment et pourquoi ces restes humains rassemblés au moment de l’époque coloniale belge se retrouvent aujourd'hui à l'université, ainsi que leur devenir. Ce travail établit un inventaire précis de l'ostéothèque de l'ULB et replace sa création dans son contexte d'origine. En parallèle du recensement, l’environnement scientifique et historique dans lesquels s'inscrivent les collections de la Société d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles sont abordés. Au total, 261 crânes humains ont été inventoriés au sein de l'ostéothèque. Dans le but d'affiner leur identification, une sélection arbitraire de 14 spécimens a fait l'objet d'une analyse bioanthropologique approfondie. Cette étude a permis de réaliser une diagnose sexuelle, une estimation de l'âge au moment du décès, ainsi qu'une détermination de l'origine géographique en se basant sur l'appartenance de l'individu à des groupes biogéographiques spécifiques. Les méthodes sélectionnées sont traditionnellement employées en bioanthropologie. À cela a été ajoutée une approche médico-légale grâce à la consultation d'experts. Les résultats soulignent la nécessité d'affiner les méthodes d'identi-fication de l'origine biogéographique en recourant à des analyses isotopiques ou génétiques. Cette étude vise à générer une base de données factuelle, sur laquelle pourront s'appuyer des réflexions futures concernant l'éthique de la conservation des restes humains extra-européens, ain, (EN) The collection of unidentified human skulls at ULB: contextual research and bioanthropological analysis.The collection of human skulls housed in the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie et de Génétique humaine, located within the Faculty of Sciences of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), lacks any historical context regarding its creation. Some of the human remains are accompanied by information such as illegible base labels or annotations on the vaults, indicating Belgian or non-European origins, and specifically from Congo. This situation raises the question of how and why these human remains, collected during the Belgian colonial era, are now to be found at the university, and what is to become of them. This work establishes a precise inventory of the ULB collection and places its creation in its original context. Alongside the inventory, the scientific and historical context of the collections of the Société d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles was studied. A total of 261 human skulls were inventoried. In order to refine their identification, an arbitrary selection of 14 specimens was subjected to in-depth bioanthropological analysis. This study made it possible to carry out a sexual diagnosis, estimate the age at the time of death, and determine the geographical origin on the basis of the individual's membership of specific biogeographical groups. The selected methods are traditionally used in bioanthropology. A forensic approach was added by consulting experts. The results highlight the need to refine the meth-ods used to identify biogeographical origin, by providing isotopic or genetic analyses. This study has generated a factual database on which to base essential reflections on the ethics of conserving non-European human remains, as well as the question of repatriating these individuals to their country of origin or to their community., Doctorat en Sciences biomédicales et pharmaceutiques (Médecine), info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Déterminer le sexe biologique d’un individu à partir de ses restes squelettiques constitue une tâche essentielle pour tout anthropologue travaillant en contexte archéologique ou forensique, étape au cours de laquelle il fait appel à des méthodes de diagnose sexuelle reproductibles, fiables et validées. Toutefois, lorsque la préservation optimale des éléments diagnostiques osseux n’est pas assurée, tant la disponibilité que la performance de ces méthodes s’en trouvent limitées, et ce d’autant plus s’il s’agit de restes immatures ou brûlés. À cet égard, développer une méthode de diagnose sexuelle en se fondant sur un élément osseux à la fois fortement dimorphique et aux atouts taphonomiques avérés représente une voie prometteuse pour identifier le sexe de restes fragmentés. À partir d’une approche morphométrique alliant ostéométrie et outils digitaux, le présent travail se propose de contribuer à cette discussion en évaluant le dimorphisme sexuel de la base du crâne (i.e. os occipital et temporaux), y compris celui du labyrinthe osseux de l’oreille interne. Il s’appuie sur l’analyse d’un corpus de 611 crânes et de 121 labyrinthes appartenant à des sujets européens – immatures et adultes – d’âge et de sexe connus. Cette étude révèle, en premier lieu, comment le dimorphisme sexuel de la base du crâne s’exprime de manière plus marquée sur l’os temporal et ce dès le pic pubertaire. En outre, les résultats obtenus concourent à démontrer que ce dimorphisme chez l’adulte est également appréhendable et quantifiable dans un environnement virtuel. Par ailleurs, ce travail livre un faisceau d’arguments qui tendent à prouver qu’une méthode de diagnose sexuelle indépendante de l’âge ne peut être établie sur le labyrinthe osseux, mais qu’au contraire celle-ci doit prendre en compte les particularités d’expression de son dimorphisme sexuel d’une part chez le sujet immature et d’autre part chez l’adulte. Au cours de cette analyse, un certain nombre de modèles prédictifs de diagnose s, Assessing the biological sex of an individual from its skeletal remains is an essential task of any anthropologist working in archaeological and forensic context that involves using reproducible, reliable, and validated sex estimation methods. When the optimal preservation of the remains is however affected, availability and accuracy of those methods are consequently limited, even more for subadults or burnt remains. In that matter, estimating sex relying on a highly dimorphic bony element that show taphonomic assets represents a promising path for sex identification of fragmentary remains. Through a morphometric approach, combining osteometry and new digital tools, this research contributes to this discussion by evaluating the sexual dimorphism of the cranial base (i.e. occipital and temporal bones) including the bony labyrinth of the inner ear. It is based on the analysis of 611 skull and 121 bony labyrinths of Western-European individuals, subadults and adults, of known age and sex. Firstly, this study reveals how the sexual dimorphism of the cranial base reaches higher degree on the temporal bone as soon as the puberty sets off. The results also shows that this dimorphism is visible and quantifiable on the adult cranial base in a virtual environment. Moreover, this work demonstrates that an age-independent sex estimation method cannot be designed on the bony labyrinth, but that the specific modalities of its sexual dimorphism in subadults and in adults should be considered. Thanks to this analysis, various predictive models of sexual diagnosis have been established and validated. Usage guidelines are also given. The accuracy of sex estimation equations was found to be as follows: 13 models on the adult cranial base (77-87%); 3 models on the adult bony labyrinth (76-83%) and 4 on the subadult labyrinth (76-84%). Thus, this study provides new tools of sexual diagnosis whose qualities and characteristics are adapted to the analysis of human fragmentary remains, eit, Doctorat en Histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This paper presents an updated view on the morphological and functional significance of the human respiratory system in the context of human evolutionary anatomy. While usually the respiratory system is treated either from a craniofacial perspective, mostly in the context of nasal evolution and air-conditioning, or from a postcranial perspective featuring on overall thoracic shape changes, here we pursue a holistic perspective on the form, function, integration, and evolutionary change of the entire organismal system in hominins. We first present a brief review of the most important morphological structures, their function, and its potential integration and interaction with the nasal cavity and thoracic skeleton. This is followed by an overview of the most important improvements in methods for the comparative study in recent humans and fossil hominins. We then overview and list a compendium of hominin fossil material currently available for the study. We propose four functional categories of hominin respiratory system configurations that differ potentially with respect to size, shape, biomechanics and/or bioenergetics. Finally, we discuss these and speculate on possible ways for future research into an anatomical system that, despite its under-investigated status, is central to the understanding of the form and functions of the hominin organism and its paleobiology., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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Estimating sex from burnt human remains is a challenging task in bioanthropology, mainly due to their high level of alteration and fragmentation. Protected within the petrous part of the temporal bone, the bony labyrinth may be particularly valuable for assessing the sex of burnt remains. This prospective study aims at testing predictive models, already found reliable on unburnt bony labyrinths, to burnt specimens. Six discriminant functions were applied on six bony labyrinths of donated adult cadavers of known sex, before and after outdoor burning experiments. Comparisons between unburnt and burnt measurements were executed using Mann–Whitney U tests while shape and size differences induced by fire exposure were examined through a geometric morphometrics (GM) analysis. Predicted sex on unburnt bony labyrinths was consistent with known sex in five cases while a systematic misclassification for males was highlighted on burnt specimens. Higher values of shrinkage were found in males for two measurements included in the equations. GM analysis revealed significant differences in centroid size among males after calcination. Visualization of mean consensus of both female and male bony labyrinths evidenced a reduction in cochlear size and variations in the width and length of semicircular canals of burnt specimens. This exploratory study seems to confirm that designing sex estimation standards specifically for burnt bony labyrinth may be advisable. Understanding how the burning process could impact its morphology is highly recommended through further experiments on larger samples and in controlled environments., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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In forensic anthropology, sex estimation is a fundamental step in assessing individualbiological profiles when analyzing human skeletons. Yet, current methods are notreliable enough to allow an accurate sex identification of highly fragmented, burnt,or subadult remains. This paper aims to investigate sexual dimorphism of the bonylabyrinth on both identified subadult and adult individuals. The bony labyrinth is ofparticular interest for sex estimation since it is alleged to complete size and maturationpre-pubertally and is located inside the petrous part of the temporal bone whichprotects it from taphonomic processes. The study was performed on 93 CT scans ofidentified individuals from two Belgian osteological collections (19–20th century) andfrom current pediatric images (Erasme hospital, Brussels). Linear and angular measurementswere taken on 2D slices of right bony labyrinths. Intra- and interobservers errormeasurements were calculated. Statistical tests were used to unravel any morphologicalvariations between subadult and adult bony labyrinths and to highlight differencesbetween females and males, separately in subadults and adults. Linear discriminantfunctions were established by cross-validation and tested on an independent samplefrom Belgium. Some measurements were significantly different between subadultsand adults, and between females and males within both subadult and adult samples.Univariate functions achieved 72.7% in subadults and 68.4% in adults whereas multivariateequations increased accuracy respectively up to 84.9% and 78.4%. This studyentails promising results to design a sex estimation method suitable for fragmentedand/or subadult remains. Further metric approaches are needed to explore bony labyrinthsexual dimorphism., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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The Belgian disaster victim identification (DVI) team is involved in many investigations in our country. Indeed, this specialized team of the federal police oversees searching for and investigating criminally buried dead bodies, identification of unknown putrefied corpses, and more. The Belgian DVI team also assists with the identification of victims of mass disasters (natural, accidental, and mass murders). In this article, we consider the contributions of different teams (forensic pathology, anthropology, and odontology, federal police, and crime scene investigation) both on the scene of the attack at the Brussels National Airport (Zaventem) and in the laboratory work (autopsies, sample studies)., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Résumé. – Depuis la fin du XXe siècle, les autorités ecclésiastiques autorisent,voire encouragent, l’analyse scientifique des reliquaires et de leurs contenus.Ces analyses sont réalisées par des experts regroupant un ensemble de domainesde recherche: historiens, anthropologues, médecins légistes, archéologues, spécialistes des datations, des métaux, des textiles, etc. À travers de nombreuxexemples dans lesquels nous développerons principalement les résultats del’analyse des restes humains, nous verrons que ces études pluridisciplinaires ontlivré des données parfois surprenantes.Abstract. – Since the late 20th century, ecclesiastical authorities have authorised, and even encouraged, the scientific analysis of reliquaries and their contents. These analyses are performed by experts from a wide range of researchfields: historians, anthropologists, forensic scientists and archaeologists, as wellas specialists in chronological dating, metals, textiles, etc. We will demonstrate,by means of numerous examples focussing mainly on the analysis of human remains, that these multidisciplinary studies can yield some startling results., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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If post-cremation life histories of cremains and cremation-related deposits can be readily investigated as they refer to the last handling of the deceased, the treatment of the corpse during the burning act itself is little addressed by textual sources and often discussed in anthropological studies. Among the topics discussed are questions whether the individuals were buried clothed or not and criteria for evaluating indirectly the wealth of deceased or their social statue in the past. Here we aim to identify, through stable isotope evidences (δ13C, δ18O) on calcined bones, if the deceased was buried shoed or not, as the shoes are likely one of the most resistant clothing items to fire and might represent a proxy to discuss the presence of any garments items inside the burial. For this, we have carried out experimental cremations with shoed and unshoed pig feet (n=12) in outdoors pyres in Belgium. It is hypothesized that foot bones encased in shoes might experience heating conditions characteristic to confined-space cremation (low oxygen availability, poorly ventilated). These heating conditions could be related to the fact of presence or absence of shoes. Recent advances in biogeochemical techniques present a unique opportunity to finally be able to characterize the cremation and bring a new breakthrough in our current archaeo-anthropological knowledge of the burning act itself through time., info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

If post-cremation life histories of cremains and cremation-related deposits can be readily investigated as they refer to the last handling of the deceased, the treatment of the corpse during the burning act itself is little addressed by textual sources thus is at present extremely difficult to define. Recent advances in biogeochemical techniques present a unique opportunity to finally be able to characterize the act of cremation itself and bring a new breakthrough in our current archaeo-anthropological knowledge of the burning act itself through time. In this paper, we will focus on the possibility to detect the presence of garments worn by the deceased through stable isotope evidences (δ13C, δ18O) on calcined bones. More specifically, we will investigate whether the deceased was shoed or not, as the latter is likely one of the clothing items most resistant to fire and might represent a proxy to discuss whether an individual was dressed or not. It is hypothesized that foot bones encased in shoes might experience heating conditions characteristic to confined-space cremation (low oxygen availability, poorly ventilated). These heating conditions could differ from those without shoes. To do this, experimental cremations with shoed and unshoed pig feet have been performed in Belgium. Results from these experiments will be presented., info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les rapports isotopiques du carbone et de l’azote mesurés sur le collagène osseux (δ13Ccol, δ15Ncol) sont couramment utilisés pour appréhender les comportements alimentaires des populations humaines passées et présentes. Ces reconstitutions alimentaires peuvent toutefois être remises en cause en raison de l’état de santé des individus étudiés, en particulier lorsque ces derniers ont souffert d’affections à manifestation osseuse ou ont connus des traumatismes osseux. Ces pathologies peuvent en effet engendrer des déséquilibres isotopiques mais aussi impacter les processus de fractionnement isotopique au sein d’un organisme. Relativement peu d’études se sont intéressées jusqu’à présent à caractériser ces effets isotopiques. De fait, nombre d’entre eux restent incompris ou non-examinés. Cette communication vise à combler en partie cette lacune en s’intéressant plus précisément aux effets sur les valeurs de δ13Ccol et δ15Ncol du rachitisme, de tumeurs malignes osseuses (i.e. ostéosarcome), d’infections non-spécifiques osseuses (i.e. ostéomyélite) et de lésions traumatiques osseuses (i.e. fracture). Un total de 32 individus issus de la collection anatomo-pathologique Jedlička datant du XIXe siècle et conservée au Muséum National de Prague ont été analysés pour cette étude. A l’exception des cas de rachitisme, chaque os prélevé a été échantillonnés deux fois, à savoir sur le site de la lésion (zone pathologique) et à distance de ce dernier (zone saine). Nos résultats préliminaires montrent une forte variabilité intra-squelettique des valeurs isotopiques dans chaque groupe nosologique, avec certains sujets présentant des différences de l’ordre de 0,4/0,5‰ en carbone et 1/1,5‰ en azote entre zones pathologiques et saines. Les sites de lésions présentent de façon générale des valeurs de δ15Ncol¬ plus élevées que les sites non-pathologiques dans le cas d’ostéosarcome, d’ostéomyélite et de fracture. Ceci pourrait être le reflet d’un déséquilibre en azote au sein de l’organisme, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Objective: This paper aims at investigating the possible existence of isotopic offsets in δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol valuesin relation to tertiary syphilis.Material: Based on materials from the 19th c. A.D. deriving from the pathological-anatomical reference collection(the Jedlička collection) of the National Museum in Prague (Czech Republic), a comparative approach often individuals with syphilis and nine without the disease was undertaken.Methods: Bone powder samples were defatted according to the protocol of Liden et al. (1995). Bone collagen wasextracted following the protocol of Bocherens et al. (1991).Results: Our results show that individuals with syphilis have lower δ13Ccol values than individuals without thedisease; the observed difference between the two groups is about 0.3-0.4‰, which is relatively small but stillmeaningful. However, no difference between δ15Ncol values of the two groups has been noticed.Conclusions: Either diets prescribed by physicians to syphilitic patients or nutritional stress caused by cyclicappetite disturbance due to the disease itself or the administered medical treatment appeared to be possibleexplanations of the observed isotopic pattern. Overall, the response of the two isotopic proxies could argue forrelatively limited nutritional restrictions.Significance: This is the first study examining bone collagen isotopic response to syphilis based on clinicallydocumented human skeletal materials.Limitations: The sample sizes are relatively small and cautiousness must be taken regarding the interpretations ofthe data.Suggestions for further research: Compound-specific stable isotope investigations and analysis of mercury contentcould be helpful to better understand the observed isotopic effects., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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The reliquary of Jacques de Vitry, a prominent clergyman and theologian in the early 13th century, has experienced several transfers over the last centuries, which seriously question the attribution of the remains to the late Cardinal. Uncertainty about the year of his birth poses an additional question regarding his age at death in 1240. The reliquary, located in the Saint Marie d’Oigines church, Belgium, was reopened in 2015 for an interdisciplinary study around his relics as well as the Treasure of Oignies, a remarkable cultural heritage notably built from Jacques de Vitry’s donation. Anthropological, isotopic and genetic analyses were performed independently on the remains found in the reliquary. Results of the analyses provided evidence that the likelihood that these remains are those of Jacques de Vitry is very high: the remains belong to the same human male individual and the historical tradition about his age is confirmed. In addition, a separate relic (left tibia) was analysed and found to match with the remains of the reliquary (right tibia). The unique Jacques de Vitry’s mitre, made of parchment, was sampled non-destructively and the extracted parchment collagen was analysed by a proteomic method in order to determine the animal species. The results showed that, surprisingly, not all parts of the mitre were made from the same species. All together, these findings are expected to fertilize knowledge carried by historical tradition around the relics of Jacques de Vitry and his related cultural heritage., 0, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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