A relative newcomer to the world of archaeology, forensic techniques have been responsible for startling revelations – such as that Napoleon Bonaparte suffered arsenic poisoning, with significant traces of the toxin found in his hair – and is increasingly being employed to solve modern criminal investigations.
• Osteoarchaeology is the detailed study of human bones, determining not only how, when and why a subject died, but also how they lived and what diseases or injuries they suffered – as with Oxford Archaeology’s project at Greenwich Naval Cemetery earlier this year (see CA 227).
• Zooarchaeology concentrates on animal remains found within an archaeological context.
