An Archaeological Case Study: The Scottish Soldiers





What this case study tells us about the problems and potentials of interpreting mass graves:
- The haphazard body position and the presence of buildings over some of the graves made excavating individual bodies challenging.
- Unfortunately, due to the constraints of excavation and the truncation of the grave, there was mixing of body parts from different individuals. This compromised the evidence because it meant that a minimum number of individuals (MNI) had to be calculated and this represents an under-estimate.
- Because all of the individuals were male and many were a similar age, this also made it difficult to assign some bones to particular bodies. This is a common problem in bodies recovered from mass graves associated with warfare.
- Skeletal analysis revealed a lot about the early lives of these young men and even their habits (e.g. habitual smokers using clay pipes).
- Stable isotope analysis revealed that they were non-local, but had values consistent with Scotland and further afield. This helped confirm the individuals’ identities.
- DNA analysis, in this example, will not establish precisely who these individuals were because it is too far back in time and it is not possible to establish a close relative to match against the samples from the skeletons. However, genomic analysis can reveal features such as hair and eye colour.
- The contextual data (e.g. historical information) was essential for establishing the identity of these people. It’s the same in a modern forensic context, where local intelligence/witness testimony, as well as documentation, is important for interpretation.

Further Reading
Gerrard, C. J. et al. (2018) Lost Lives, New Voices: Unlocking the Stories of the Scottish Soldiers at the Battle of Dunbar 1650. Oxbow BooksOur purpose is to transform access to education.
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